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Re: NO bulbs on VHO ballast
Robert H. writes:
> I was surfing the WEB this morning and was looking thru Icecaps WEB site,
> and came across a reprinted FAMA article that suggests NO bulbs running on
> an Icecap ballast give off the same amount of brightness as a VHO bulb! Is
> there any truth to this? It doesnt seem to make much sense to me, and I was
> wondering if any of the light gurus here could pick this apart? See
> http://www.icecapinc.com/famaarticle.htm
I was working in a little tiny machine shop when I was a younger person.
They installed some new flourescent fixtures in the office and asked if I
could wire them up. Having had some experience, I said sure. I stopped in
the middle of the job and said I needed to run out to the car to get the
multimeter that I just happened to have there. One of the "suits" got
furious that I wanted to waste company time on a three minute trip to the
parking lot and back, and insisted that I just hook it up between the white
wire and the black one. I said that I feared that would give 220 volts to
it, but he insisted there was only 110 going through the lines in the office
area. The big boss listened to this clown with the degree in marketing,
because I was just a college dropout, after all. Boy, it sure was bright in
there when we threw the switch. It hummed really loud, though, so I managed
to convince the boss that it probably wasn't right. Sure enough, after I got
my meter and checked, there was 220V going through the lights.
The ballasts and bulbs survived, but it was only a few minutes. A 110V bulb
running on 220V DOES give off more light. For how long I can't say.
Logically, it would be caused by the extra current more so than because there
was more voltage.
How long an NO bulb will take the extra current is hard to say. Whether it
will destroy the ballast over the long run is also a guess. Go for it if you
want.
Bob Dixon