Overdrive T8 fluorescent bulbs - ballast selection ?

purduephotog · Jan 9, 2012

I'm trying to find an efficient ballast for overdriving- the one that appears to be the best selection, lowest power consumption, is the GE UltraMax H 71723 - has a ballast factor of 1.18.

There is also a 6 tube version; unfortunately tis 80$, almost the cost of the fixture I was putting them in.

When you overdrive a bulb you 'double up' two of the output leads to each tube. This increases the brightness at the cost of lifetime.

Some of the lower ballasts have BFs of .77- they're advertised as energy saving.

Suggestions?

JohnR66 · Jan 9, 2012

Any reason you can't go to high output ballasts and tubes?

purduephotog · Jan 10, 2012

JohnR66 said:
Any reason you can't go to high output ballasts and tubes?

Such as?

JohnR66 · Jan 10, 2012

Depending on tube length needed: F48T8HO, F60T8HO, F72T8HO, F96T8HO

ryguy24000 · Jan 12, 2012

How about a Fulham workhorse brand ballast http://www.prolighting.com/woba.html
these are awesome ballasts and they will accommodate any need you'll have.

purduephotog · Jan 12, 2012

JohnR66 said:
Depending on tube length needed: F48T8HO, F60T8HO, F72T8HO, F96T8HO

As the poster above mentioned, The Fulham ballasts were the only ones that popped up on the F48T8HO searches that I saw. I am having a heck of a time trying to understand what those stats were though.

Anyways, if I am pricing tubes right (and I haven't figured all the details out yet) it looks like they're about $8 a piece.

I'm trying to get more light out of the standard, cheap T8 tubes- but that ballast looks interesting.

JohnR66 · Jan 12, 2012

I'm unclear as to the ballast factor spec. I guess as you add on more tubes, the BF drops. Looks like you'd have to operate them 1 ballast per tube to get BF of around 1. Not sure where to find 1 BF ballast on multi tubes. You might end up having to go the HO route. One thing is for sure, you will get much more light per fixture.

purduephotog · Jan 17, 2012

I purchased a few Fullham 8's to test out. I have some 6 bulb fixtures with Sylvania ballasts in them- I'll swap one in and see how that compares.

purduephotog · Jun 10, 2015

purduephotog said:
I purchased a few Fullham 8's to test out. I have some 6 bulb fixtures with Sylvania ballasts in them- I'll swap one in and see how that compares.

So it's been a few years since this. I operated one of the Fullhan 6 tube and when it was doubled up- blazing light. Unfortunately I seem to have lost one bank of 2 for some reason- haven't torn it apart yet. But when it was running it worked fine and I believe the fixture was pulling around 400 watts or so.

Definitely the way to go when you need more light. I might be doubling up all the fixtures in the garage and key them on/off for more power when needed. When painting or doing fine detail work I love the 5000K high CRI bulbs.

Overdrive T8 fluorescent bulbs - ballast selection ?

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