Re: Fluorescent Bench Lights ?

In article <g78oea124gn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Boden wrote:
Don Klipstein wrote:

In article <4897a131$0$20940$607ed4bc@xxxxxx>, RBM wrote:

"Davej" <galt_57@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:2d5ac70b-2a37-404a-8994-d71ba5dd142f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Every few years I've bought a few cheap fluorescent bench lights
(usually 40watt bulbs). It now seems that the recent ones are dying.
How much do you have to spend to get a lamp that isn't garbage?

It's probably the whole fixture that's garbage. Two lamp 32 watt T-8 strip

from an electrical supply should run around $40

The main garbage part of those $10 or whatever dual-40-watt and
dual-25-watt "shop lights" is the ballast. Some call that item in many
of those cheap "shop lights" a "residential grade" ballast. I like to
call that grade of ballast a "stool specimen".
The grade of ballast I am thinking of has reduced efficiency and feeds
the bulbs a subpar waveform of current that reduces their efficiency
and often shortens their lives. The ballasts themselves may overheat
easily, especially if the fixture is not suspended in mid-air with those
little chains.
Of course, the whole fixture is cheap.

Get the good stuff from an electrical supply shop. You will get better
efficiency, more light, and better reliability.

Ad please go along with the advice to get 32 watt 4-footers with
electronic ballasts.

- Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)

With the price of heating oil north of $4.50/gallon it is less expensive
for me to heat with light bulbs than oil. The "Buy efficient Lighting
Myth" is just that.

What is your electricity rate? If your oil heater is 100% efficient,
then electricity has to cost less than 10.8 cents per KWH for resistive
electric heat to be more cost-effective than $4.50/gallon #2 fuel oil.
If you know your oil heater's efficiency, divide that into 10.8 cents per
KWH (assuming that $4.50 per gallon is correct).
$4.50/gallon sounds high to me - it usually costs less than road fuel,
since it has no need for octane/cetane ratings, additives for engines,
road fuel taxes, etc.

And how much oil do you save when it is not heating season?

And how does extra heat from your lights affect your climate control
bill when it is air conditioning season?

- Don Klipstein (don@xxxxxxxxx)
.

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