NO Hot Rod: Verilux and IceCap

[Chuck H <grendel at usit_net>]

I was reading the April 2002 issue of FAMA earlier today and came across an 
article written by Sandy Cohen which some of you interested in overdriving 
NO lamps may find worth a look...or not :).  In the article, Cohen details 
his experience overdriving Verilux Natural Daylight lamps (32W T8 NO) with 
an IceCap ballast.  Cohen asserts that the overdriven Verilux lamps 
actually produce *more* light than VHO.  I'll leave most of the details to 
Cohen's article, but here's some numbers to chew on:

INITIAL
power (drawn by lamp): 88W
lumens: 313

AFTER 100 HRS BURN IN
power: 88W
lumens: 303 (baseline)

6 MOS
power: 89W
lumens: 276 (8.9% decrease)

10 MOS
power: 86W
lumens: 249 (17.8% decrease)

The article actually states that lumens after 6 mos was 303, but I believe 
it's a misprint.  The lux per watt value mentioned is 3.10 and the lamp was 
drawing 89W, so lumens should be 276 not 303.

Cohen speculates that the drop-off in lumens after 10 mos would/could have 
been considerably less had a fan been installed in the hood.  I imagine a 
32W fluorescent drawing up to 3x that amount does get a little toasty.  He 
is also careful to mention that the IceCap can overdrive the Verilux lamp 
AND maintain its UL rating, while other electronic ballasts may not be as 
safe or give as favorable of a result.

FWIW.
--
Chuck Huffine
Knoxville, Tennessee, where a mother of a storm dropped a gazillion hail 
stones and spawned a tornado or two this afternoon.