Overdriving Flourescent Lights

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ubluntu

Active Member
I'm playing around with some T9 Circuline Lights - they work really great for vegging/Mother plants in a small box. Their design makes cooling simple and offers 360 light coverage (basically a T8 bent in a complete circle. 12" 32W and 9" 22W Sizes).

My plan is to drive the 32Ww ith a 40 Watt T12 Ballest(ProStandard Gi-22540-TP. Already hooked up and working) My question though is: does the draw of the bulb determine the power? Am i actually getting 40W out of it? I ask this becasue the ballest sais "for 40W, 34W, or 25W R.S Lamps" It's like and old magnetic ballest so no brains to detect different bulbs?

For the 22W I plant to use the 32W receptical off the ballest designed for these lights (one of the T9 Ballests allows running a single bulb) - Same question for this (EnergyPro TLE 54) Will i be getting 32W out of the 22W bulb?.. if it survives.

Hopefuly theirs some Tesla's in the house that can give me some insight, Thanks!
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
The lamp is definitely overdriven. It will work but shorten the lifespan of the lamp/s. They do it a lot on aquarium setups.
 
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ubluntu

Active Member
I wasn't very imressed with the amount of light from just the 40W Brighter than the cheap circline Ballest of got off amazon but comparable to the EnergyPro one. So I decide to see how it would run double mazimum overdrived with all the power!
I'm way more impressed with the light output now. So far no issues, the bulb is holding up. temps are hottor (havnt measured yet). I'm going to add a switch for when Im out, just in case.

I'm only jumping one extra wire. The others seem to be just to get the bulb going (RS/Ignighter thingy) I'm not sure if thas safe or if im stressing the Starter thing by not having it connected(doubt it)
I figure if its probably less stress of the bulb if its applying extra power for startup.

I'm not an electrologist though i just connect shit together and see what happends
 
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