Mar 02, 2011 at 07:49 PM Author: Silverliner
The issue is likely that our FS4 starters are the wrong type to fire up a 36w lamp. Maybe some European starters will help?

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Mar 02, 2011 at 09:27 PM Author: arcblue
I'm glad you were able to get these! I would have been surprised if they would work on rapid-start gear, since they don't work on SRS gear. I'm also not surprised they had problems on a two-lamp preheat ballast. But, I thought they'd work better on a one-lamp preheat ballast. If you have a Pulsestarter electronic starter, you might try that, or take out the starter entirely and force a manual preheat using a momentary switch. Perhaps these particular lamps need some burning in to start & run smoothly (I've had that happen with new lamps before).

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Mar 03, 2011 at 09:02 AM Author: Silverliner
Come to think of it, I bought two new GE F15T12/CWs at Lowes last year and they had problems starting. I removed the starters and they stayed lit, but were mercury starved for at least 30 minutes. After the first 30 min of burn in, they no longer has problems starting on preheat.

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Mar 03, 2011 at 01:59 PM Author: SuperSix
I've noticed some of the newer Osram Lumilux lamps do indeed need burning for a few hours first. This never used to be a problem with older 4' 36W tubes but these new low mercury ones are a bit rubbish. Slight flickering before the lamp warms up is completely normal with these.

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Mar 03, 2011 at 05:12 PM Author: AngryHorse
What wattage are the US 4 foots then?, could have been the low voltage, as the 36watt, T8s in the UK do flicker until warm on 240volt supply. The 4 foot 40watt T12 never had this problem.

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Mar 03, 2011 at 05:23 PM Author: SuperSix
The original US 4' tubes are the same as ours, 40W. The ballasts have step up transformers in them because of the lower mains voltage. I can't really see this being a problem though since the tube voltage is just over 100V. The starting voltage is much higher than the 40W tubes though, about 330V with heated cathodes from what I remember.

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Mar 03, 2011 at 06:27 PM Author: AngryHorse
Ah, right, yes it does seem odd

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Mar 03, 2011 at 08:14 PM Author: DieselNut
Interesting test and discussion here! I think as has been mentioned, your lamps need to be run in. I would do it with the F40 ballast, in order to send it the designed power. These are a direct replacement lamp for a F40 on preheat/switchstart, so let er roll on a full power F40 ballast for a few hours and let us know what you find. I am highly intherested in what you find! I am surprised kevxsi16v has not chimed in here! LOL He and I are going to be doing some across the pond trading, so it will be interesting to see how our "crap" lamps do on European gear (34 watt F40s, F32T8, F40/ALTO, etc). A "965" lamp is a beauty, ain't it?!

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Mar 03, 2011 at 08:29 PM Author: Patrick
Are 4' 32W lamps ever used in Europe? It seems like they would get confused with 36W lamps if they were. Occasionally 40/34W T12s are replaced with 32W T8s or vice-versa here by mistake, even with the obvious diameter difference.

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May 28, 2011 at 06:39 PM Author: Powell
Speaking of the F15T8 DuroTest VitaLites.... I could not get any to work initially in preheat manual start. The ones I put in a fixture with starters started but blinked about 10 times. I put one in my trigger start fixture and it lit but swirled and flickered. Now it USUALLY starts in the manual start clock lamp. The ones I had in the radio station with the 2 lamp fixture with weird low preheat ballasts...I had to heat each end on the 40 watt preheat in my engineering cubbyhole. I have had every recent Sylvania lamp to swirl and cut out. Even the GE ... Sylvania made F15T12CW did this. GRRRR! I have a fixture I bought at Tractor Supply that said it can run all T8 and T12 48 inch lamps. Maybe I should order 2 and see what happens. When I put the EOL SP65 in the fixture I had already tortured the bulb, it swirled, flickered and lit up bright orange on the EOL and and the ballast overload cut in and turned off BOTH lamps. I turned the fixture off and a minute later I got a little flash of light. I put another good bulb in it, and it worked again. I may have to order 2 to see what happens. My 1950 heavy as lead dual lamp fixture usually will light even a tired 32 watt Alto without too much fuss. Powell Powell

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May 29, 2011 at 01:13 PM Author: DieselNut
If it will light F32T8s, then it is seriously underdriving the F40T12s. Can you take a photo of the ballast and post it?

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May 29, 2011 at 02:02 PM Author: Powell
This is a LARGE ballast. I will have to take the fixture apart. Powell

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May 29, 2011 at 03:12 PM Author: Medved
@F36T8 operation in US: F36T8 are designed for lag only preheat ballast (only the series inductor), they really need that inductance in the ballast impedance (the current phase shift towards the ~230V OCV should lag at least 60deg in order to provide quick restrike after current zero-cross), mainly because of the rather short ionisation decay time (it cause too high reignition voltage on lead and/or resistive impedance ballast). @F32T8 in Europe: The F36T8/F40T8 (both 0.43A) are the only 4' tubes used in Europe and as they are both compatible with the same preheat ballasts (the vast majority of ballasts till electronic come on the scene), there was no problem of mislamping: Both were correct. With instant start and PTC controlled programmed start electronic both lamp types work correctly as well, as these ballasts don't care about exact striking voltage, if it is not too high (and they are primarily designed for F36T8, what have the higher one). Problems may arise with frequency controlled programmed start ballasts, as these allow quite significant voltage to build up across the tube during preheat phase, with the assumption the F36T8 will not yet ignite, so it is of no problem for these. But as F40T8 have lower striking voltage, they may ignite during the preheat phase, when electrodes are not yet warmed up, what would lead to excessive wear (but not as severe as on instant start ballasts). On some ballasts the premature ignition cause the ballast does not detect the lamp get ignited, so shut down to error state and/or overdrive the lamp.

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Jun 22, 2021 at 03:25 PM Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
I did see that cp-lighting.co.uk does sell some F32T8 tubes in the UK that are electrically identical to North American F32T8 tubes.

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Jun 28, 2021 at 08:25 AM Author: DieselNut
Quote from nogden on Jun 23, 2021 at 06:57 AM By the way, if anyone (in the USA) wants to pay shipping on these, I'll gladly send them your way. I had fun playing with them but have no further use for them. Get me a quote on shipping to 30646. I can paypal you the $. Just make sure they are packaged well please!

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Jul 04, 2021 at 07:33 AM Author: Men of God
这些T8 36W灯管用于我的118V 60Hz ADVANCE RSHM-240 Lead-lag镇流器完全没问题，都可以成功启动！ https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=4589&pos=0&pid=199679

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Aug 20, 2021 at 10:56 PM Author: WorldwideHIDCollectorUSA
Quote from Patrick on 03 Mar 2011 at 20:29 Are 4' 32W lamps ever used in Europe? It seems like they would get confused with 36W lamps if they were. Occasionally 40/34W T12s are replaced with 32W T8s or vice-versa here by mistake, even with the obvious diameter difference. In Europe, in addition to the 4 foot 32w T8 tubes designed for electronic ballasts, there are also some 4 foot 32w T8 tubes that are actually designed to run on F40T12 preheat ballasts as an energy saving alternative to F36T8 tubes. The 4 foot 32w T8 tubes designed for F40T12 preheat ballasts are known as TL-D 32w ECO for Philips tubes, L32W/color temperature ES, and F36/T8/color temperature/32W/WM for the GE tubes.

Desire to collect various light bulbs (especially HID), control gear, and fixtures from around the world.

DISCLAIMER: THE EXPERIMENTS THAT I CONDUCT INVOLVING UNUSUAL LAMP/BALLAST COMBINATIONS SHOULD NOT BE ATTEMPTED UNLESS YOU HAVE THE PROPER KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES.