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Electronic ballasts from Grainger

Karen Randall wrote:
>
>That said, these days, I 
>replace _all_ ballasts with electronic ballasts and use T-8 SPX50 
>bulbs.  

I'm looking into future lighting considerations, prompting the following:

Not having any background in either EE or office building facilities, I looked
at the listing of electronic ballasts in the online Grainger catalog (
http://www.grainger.com/cgi-bin/ecat2b?13386663:125 ) and couldn't make heads
nor tails of exactly what was being offered.  

I know that I want a 4 tube ballast that will work with T8 tubes, but I also
want it to work for my current T12 tubes.  The prices are really nice, with
none of the 4 tube ballasts over $60, and most of them not over $45.  I'm
looking at the following parts:

BLST-(4)FO32T8, 120V     75% LIGHT OUTPUT  
4/17-32W BLST R/S 120V   4 LAMP 17-40W 120V RAPID START REDUCED HARMONIC
BALLAST
4/17-40W RH BLST 120V    I assume this is a reduced harmonic ballast too.
4/34-40W R/S BLST 120V   4 LAMP 34-40W 120V T-12 RAPID START BALLAST
(expensive)

What I'm not certain of is that any or all of these are electronic ballasts,
and what the reduced harmonic means or the 75% light output means.  I have this
feeling that I don't want to have anything to do with a ballast that advertises
75% light output as opposed to 100%.  Only one was marked as a T-8 and one was
marked as a T-12.  There were also a number marked as T-5 and I haven't heard
any talk of that type of tube on this list.  Also, some were marked IC and some
were marked CIC; what are these?  Some of the ballasts were marked as dimming
ballasts.  Do they just kill one light at a time or do they actually dim a fl
tube?

Anyone care to explain to me what I'm looking at here?

Thanks, 

David W. Webb
Enterprise Computing Provisioning
Texas Instruments Inc. Dallas, TX USA
(214) 575-3443 (voice)  MSGID:       DAWB
(214) 575-4853 (fax)    Internet:    dwebb at ti_com
(214) 581-2380 (pager)  Text Pager:  pgr at ti_com Subj:PAGE:David Webb