Are they doing it to all the fixtures?

If so it could be a bad batch of tubes. Run them longer and see what happens once they warm up.

-j-

I put all 10 tubes in the fixtures and they all did the same thing. Lightmaster, on your suggestion I let them run for a while this time. After about 5 minutes they began working fine.

It was the strangest thing to see. The ends were white and the middle a dark pulsing purple, as time when it got lighter in color until the entire tube turned white.

Thanks for the advice.

My school uses the same tubes in their fixtures. When they replaced the tubes a few months ago in the clasrooms they started up glowing at the ends and a deep pink in the middle. The teachers where mystified when they saw that. It took a few days for them to break in. Now when they start up they don't do that. But you will notice that they may be pink in the middle when you start them cold after 48 hours of use. It's just a cold phosphor.

-j-

yep, just the new gases being "burned in" as we electricians call it. As a side note, using all cool white lamps will not be sufficient in the red spectrum. A combo of both cool white and warm white is ideal, as warm white is strong in the red spectrum, and cool white is strong in the blue spectrum.

This "problem" is due to the very low mercury content of the ALTO lamp - a good thing. Several hours of operation distributes the mercury evenly throughout for near "normal" performance.

Both of these Philips fluorescents are "universal" in nature; any T8 ballast will operate them (Instart Start, Rapid Start, or Programmed Rapid Start). However, the HomeLights will provide best performance on Rapid Start ballasts, and the TL741 lamps are usually operated by commercial grade Instant Start ballasts. Keep in mind,too, that the ballasts in your new fixtures are of marginal quality. (Check the label on the ballast, which will say "For Home Use Only"). These Home Use ballasts are inefficient and don't produce much light, compared to what is available in the commercial market. A High Light Output commercial ballast could provide up to 75% more light! Or, a commercial ballast would give you same light performance while consuming up to 20% less energy. The Feds actually regulate commercial ballast specifications to achieve minimum efficiency standards, but anything goes in the home market.

You will also get better red and blue content from 800 series lamps. In addition, most fluorescent manufacturers make "Super T8" lamps that will give you a rated 3,050+ lumens each - look for the 830 (warm = red) and 850/860 (daylight = blue) flavors. They'll also give you up to 50% longer life.

The $2 price of the Philips TL 741 bulbs and the $8 price of the Home Depot shoplights make them my choice.

MM

"Both of these Philips fluorescents are "universal" in nature; any T8 ballast will operate them (Instart Start, Rapid Start, or Programmed Rapid Start). However, the HomeLights will provide best performance on Rapid Start ballasts, and the TL741 lamps are usually operated by commercial grade Instant Start ballasts. Keep in mind,too, that the ballasts in your new fixtures are of marginal quality. (Check the label on the ballast, which will say "For Home Use Only"). These Home Use ballasts are inefficient and don't produce much light, compared to what is available in the commercial market. A High Light Output commercial ballast could provide up to 75% more light! Or, a commercial ballast would give you same light performance while consuming up to 20% less energy. The Feds actually regulate commercial ballast specifications to achieve minimum efficiency standards, but anything goes in the home market."

On the contrary, MR. Timmy, The sunpark SL.15's produce more light (especially when overdriven) than The common Advance or Sylvania Elecronic Ballast...even though it uses 64 watts instead of 58.

-j-

WHAT????

Why would TL741 lamps be operated mainly by commercial grade Instant Start ballasts? I would think they would be operated by whatever ballast they were installed on.

What ballast are these "Home Use Only" ballasts you refer to. I've never seen them, but I have also never purchased any of the silly 25w shoplights that were on the market. I'd bet those would be "Home Use Only" fixtures. The new EPACT regulations DO apply to "home use" fixtures, but are lax concerning any fluorescents under 28 watts. That is how/why the 25w shoplights were conceived.

Also, I have had EXCELLENT results using the ballasts (Sunpark SL-15 mentioned by lightmaster above) removed from the very inexpensive Home Depot 140-904 shoplight. Many adaptations with NO failures whatsoever.

By the way, in this forum we simply know those "SuperT8" lamps as "high lumen" lamps. No magic marketing lingo necessary. The better ballasts are "high ballast factor". NONE of the actual manufacturers of the lamps use "SuperT8" as a term... only the resellers.

Now. If you really want to get light out of a ballast then see the ones manufactured by Icecap and Fullham. These are the ballasts preferred by Reef and Aquarium enthusiasts. They are specially designed to allow BFs 2.0 and above. They have been the top choice, for many years, of the fish tank hobbyists.

No insult, joezcool, but you really should go back and read last years posts. We have already hashed this topic out in great detail.

Zink

My apologies to joezcool!!

I glanced up and typed in the WRONG NAME at the end of my post. I had meant to address the comments made by Jumpin_Timmy, not you!

However, joezcool, I must comment on your post anyhow. There is a very slight difference between the amount of useable red emitted by either the cool-white OR the warm-white. There is only a slight shift in the balance of the halophosphate blend between the CW and WW, which does let the eye perceive WW as redder. There really isn't much red there to begin with, however.

The DELUXE versions, on the other hand, have the addition of Strontium magnesium orthophosphate, a wideband phosphor with center frequency of 626nm. That delivers a MUCH better dose of RED light. Even the CW Deluxe has more red than a standard WW.

Nowadays however, due to the EPACT regulations on efficiency, even a lot of the the Cool White and Warm White lamps are getting a slight amount of triphosphor added to them to improve the color rendering. There the RED color comes from yttrium oxide(Y2O3), a very narrow band phosphor with a center at 611nm.

Zink