Hello, I'm new! First of all sorry for my bad english  . I have some question about my 35W SOX lamp  ; last week I bought from ebay the whole kit for 40€, this included: a Philips 35W SOX-Plus lamp  , a Philips 35W/55W ballast, a Philips SX72 ignitor and the capacitor. My intention was (because i love LPS lamps) to put the lamp inside my bedroom or living room; I known that the lamp emits 4200lm, too much for inside house application and I known that I had to buy a 18W SOX lamp, but the price for this with Ignitor and ballast was too high, also I should have to buy the ballast, the capacitor, the ignitor and the lamp individually.

So my questions are:

1) Is it possible to do something that reduces the emission of my lamp? For example (I'm daydreaming) if I put a 18W ballast on my 35W lamp, what happens? If the lamp starts to work, I would have 4200lm still or less?

2) (This will be the last hope) If I buy a 18W SOX lamp, maybe the SX72 ignitor (that is good for 26W/35W/55W SOX-e/SOX) works without problem, but I have to buy the ballast, because I have a 18W ballast  for fluorescent tube  ... however I thing that isn't also good for SOX lamp...

Please help me, because I'm a bit sad and also I had to replace the SOX lamp with a classic bulb    .

I suppose that the only possible solution is to buy a 18W SOX lamp with it SOX ballast... I don't want to spend other money  ... I trust you very much, so maybe there could be some solution that I don't know to reduce the emission of my 35W SOX lamp.

Thank you so much.

With regard, Zar.

Hi Zar, and welcome to LG 

First and foremost, never run a lamp on the wrong ballast, it will not do either of them any good and you run the risk of destroying them, especially with a low wattage lamp on a higher wattage ballast

A 35W lamp is ok for indoor use, well we think so, anyway  We have two lanterns in daily use here, a Thorn Gamma 6 which is on a post in the corner of the living room, and a Beta 5 which we made into a table lamp 

Dedicated 18W SOX ballasts are rather hard to come by, at least they are here, you don't say where you're located. The closest match is a 16W 2D ballast, which is ok but does run a little hot, so take care and don't leave it unattended.

Another point is SOX lamps do not like frequent switching on and off. Ideally, especially with a new lamp, run it for a minimum of 5 hours, preferably longer. Also only switch it on and off once per day, that way you will prolong its life 

Take care and once again welcome to LG, why not post a message in the new users forum telling us a bit about yourself..? I'm in Aberdeen on the north-east coast of Scotland and as you can tell from my username I love SOX lamps 

Also: Never run the lamp with the base-down, as this will cause the liquid sodium to accumulate at the ends of the tube, and to attack the end seals.

Absolutely, why did I forget that 

Hello! I live in Rome, Italy; my problem is that when I set the lamp in my little room, the light emission was very strong; so my eyes became a bit tired ... .
Also here in Italy these things, like SOX lamps, are very difficult to find!

Maybe in the future I will buy a 18W SOX, because the 35W is to much for my eyes  

Hi ok, 35W is ok to run base up vertically, but anything larger than 55W must be run horizontally. 18W lamps are good, but as I said the correct ballasts for them are rare, so a 16W 2D ballast is the closest match I can find 

Try to buy 18W SOX lamp and ballast from the UK Amazon or from the UK eBay. I think your ignitor is also suitable for 18W SOX lamps.

The SX72 ignitor is ok, the SX26 is the correct one for 18W but is hard to find.

Thank you very much! I'm very happy to find a serious lamps forum!

with regard, Zar.

Look how many lumens...

Yes they are quite bright high up without a lantern..! Good to see your face, you probably won't see mine, I'm the shy, retiring type as anyone here will tell you 

aahahahaha no problem!

but last question please: does the Sox lamps in the initial warming phase emits UV rays? I don't believe this but It's my doubt...

No. Nothing in them to do so.

Thank you!