Hi guys I'm a new member just wanted to say hi.

Welcome aboard! Have you just recently begun collecting, or do you already have a good collection of lights? 

I haven't got a collection yet I'm hoping to start but at the moment I'm not able to. IM very interested in old lighting and the technology of them. Iwill not give house room to CFL lamps or HF ballasts you can't beat a nice filament lamp for a bit of extra warmth in winter

Welcome to LG.
There is a lot of information here about lighting.
I learn something new here every day from members that are always willing to provide information or are able to find out if they don't know.
I started out with a small collection of lights, now I am running out of places to put them all.
It can be habit forming but fun.

Welcome aboard.  
 

Thanks for the nice welcome guys. I have a question why is it that my newish twin 36 watt fluorescent in my workshop has a sort of flickery light when switched on when its cold I mean less than around 55F. The mains voltage is fine around 240 to 250 volts so its not that PS I'm in uk

Hey and welcome to LG. It's always great to have another new member!

Slight flickering and shimmering the full length of the tube when it's slightly cold is completely normal with the krypton T8s we use here in the UK. I'm afraid that's just the nature of them! The only way you'll be able to stop it is to either use a high frequency ballast or use T12 40W lamps in the fitting, which give much better performance in the cold.

Eliot

Hi again I think that when my 36 watt tubes reach EOL I will replace them with 40 watt ones. HF balasts are out the question because my other hobby is radio DXing and HF lamps radiate huge amounts of noise. And to be honest the MF and HF bands are noisy enuf without me adding to it

Hi sorry to ask a stupid question but if alight fitting or motor has low power factor am I correct in thinking that the equipment actuallyuts some power back into the mains then takes more power in to remagnitise the winding hope someone can help cheers hannah

Since you're in the UK, you won't be able to buy new 40 watt T12 lamps due to the phase-out. Your options are to buy used or NOS lamps or ship some lamps in from North America.

You're into radio DX'ing too? That's cool, so am I.  Are your AM and FM bands the same as in North America? (88-108Mhz and 530-1700Khz?)

Our AM band runs from 531 to 1611 kc/s remember we have 9 kc spacing we also have longwave from 153 to 279 kc/s. Our FM band is 88 to 107.9 Mc/s. It mite interest you to know the most powerful station in Europe is Europe No1 on 183 kc at2000 kW output

Hi sorry to ask a stupid question but if alight fitting or motor has low power factor am I correct in thinking that the equipment actuallyuts some power back into the mains then takes more power in to remagnitise the winding hope someone can help cheers hannah

If you zoom in into what happens during the mains sinewave period, the low power factor caused by a phase shift is exactly like that: Part of the mains period it draws power from the mains, other part it returns some energy back, the difference is then the net power consumption.
And the problem with this is, all the wiring and distribution network is loaded by the current, so exhibit all losses related to that current.
So with untreated too low power factor, you have a lot of losses in the network, your network is loaded, but you have transferred just small amount of the real net power. SO consequently you would end up with quite inefficient power transfer system.

Otherwise "Welcome on board"

Thanks I understand what is happening better now I read your reply and also a friend gave me a book about power factor improvement so finally I understand