I "think" it's a rapid start from what I can tell by looking at the diagrams online differentiating between the rapid and instant starts.

Rather than blue wires, this one has black wires. Here's a shot of the ballast...

The powersource wires come in from the righthand side (two white lamp wires).

To each of the lamp pin receptacles closest to the ballast goes a red wire and a black wire which you can see paired up on either side of the powersource wires. I figure to simply tie red-to-red and black-to-black on one of the lamp receptacles.

Going to the other end of the lamp assembly are yellow, black, and red wires which you can see on the lefthand side of the picture. I'm figuring on tieing the black and red wires to one pin and the yellow wire to the other pin.

Here's a shot of the "ballast end" of the lamp fixture.
What I figure on doing is simply taking the ballast end out of the other fixture and have two "ballast ends" on the fixture. Bring the power cords up above the lamp fixture and join them at a 3-way plug adapter and then into the timer.

Here's a shot of the label on the ballast container.

Writing on the pcb itself is:
E199273
PRF-1
9rV-0

I also picked up a couple of GE EcoLux daylight 40, 3050 lumens, 6500k.

I'm primarily interested in germinating and growing to transplant size tomatoes, broccoli, etc.,..

So...what's the verdict, doc? Think it'll work for growing seedlings????

Thanks for the help!
Ed

Ed

The idea of using mltiple T8's sounds good, but is there a readymade (fairly inexpensive) multiple (more than two tube) fixture for T8's or do I need to get the dremel out and start assaulting a shoplight? The fixtures I've seen that are stated as being ok for T8's allow only two tubes and they're also for T12's so there's no spacing savings...I might as well use T12's. I did a short search and found a 3-tube T8 fixture on eBay that would run around $90...maybe that's why I was looking at the overdriven $20 T12 setup???? I'd really like a cooler running setup, but that extra $70 hurts. Got any suggestions for me...I'm definitely open for them! :)

Thanks,
Ed

Look for a high frequency electronic ballast that will drive the number of tubes you want. They are readily available for up to four tubes in the four-foot length, and a four-tube ballast costs little more than a single tube one. Here's an example for $25.

Get some end caps and a few dozen feet of wire and you have a lighting system.

Oh, you'll need some tubes too :) F32T8 tubes are a couple of dollars each or less for the 20,000 hours 3,000-ish lumen variety. Four foot 40W tubes would be nice but are near impossible to find. In the UK we have standadised on 36W T8s which are nice with 3,300+ lumens.

"The idea of using multiple T8's sounds good, but is there a readymade (fairly inexpensive) multiple (more than two tube) fixture for T8's or do I need to get the dremel out and start assaulting a shoplight?"

No need to assault the shoplights. Just hang them side-by-side. Home Depot's Commercial Electric 732-334 ShopLights take two T8 or T12 bulbs and are only 5 inches wide, so you can easily get three of them over an 18-inch-deep shelf or four of them over a 24-inch shelf. The 732-334 ShopLights cost only about $8 each. Philips cool white T8 bulbs cost $2 each. That lets you get a lot of light for a reasonable investment.

Since overdriving them gives 50% more light, that is the equivalent of 9 T8 bulbs over an 18-inch shelf or 12 T8 bulbs over a 24-inch shelf. That's plenty of light for growing healthy stocky seedlings to a reasonably large size for setting out. And that's much more light then you get from expensive commercial plant stands. Here in our short Maine growing season I have been setting out pepper plants with sizable peppers already set on them.

If you don't want to cannabilize the shoplights for extra ballasts, you can purchase the SL15T ballasts separately at the Sunpark Electronics online store for $6.50 each. That's cheaper than paying $8 for a shoplight to cannabilize for the ballast.

"The fixtures I've seen that are stated as being ok for T8's allow only two tubes and they're also for T12's so there's no spacing savings...I might as well use T12's."

The 40-watt T12's aren't as efficient as the 32-watt T8's, so the T8's put out less heat for the same amount of light. The overdriven T8s are warmer to the touch than the normally driven ones, but still not hot. As long as you maintain at least an inch or two clearance between the bulbs and your plants, heat from overdriven lighting hasn't been a problem for me.

MM

I'm thinking of setting up two fixtures. I've got an old home built stand that was designed for two fixtures hanging side-by-side. If I'm figuring it right, if I overdrive the fixtures I should be able to roughly attain a 6-tube illumination for each shelf (using to fixtures per shelf).

As for ordering the Sunpark ballasts, if the Wallyworld ones will work it's probably about as cheap to use them (figuring shipping vs. tax, etc.). I think I'll go ahead with the Wallyworld fixtures and see how they work. That would use both "proprietory" ballast end caps. Once I get that fixture going I'll have a metal fixture and two "non-ballasted" end caps that in conjunction with the Sunpark ballasts will build another OD fixture. Being as I've got a couple of older, magnetic ballasted fixtures out in the shed I might go ahead and order extra Sunpark's when I order.

Thanks for the info regarding the heat aspect of the T8's. That helps, especially coming from someone up north that seriously relies on the lights. I guess I when looking a the wattage rating of the bulbs I was stuck in the incandescent mentality of higher wattage being brighter. I guess the form-factor (T8 being skinnier than T12) somehow allows the T8 to be as bright but use fewer watts????

Ed

It's not just the form factor that makes T8's more efficient than T12s. It's a much more modern design, by many decades. And the T8s contain significantly less mercury.

MM

Sometimes progress in technology actually ends up being good, eh? :)

Ed

In case anybody's interested here is the information from the box the shop lights came in:

Brand: Lights of America
Model: 8045 E (same as on ballast covering)
Description on box: Shop Light - Electronic - White Finish

Soon as I get the time I'm going to go ahead and OD one fixture and see how/if the ballast/tube works. If all goes well I'll add the ballast from the other fixture for the second tube. :)

Ed

The T8 Phillips Deluxe Daylight tubes heat up a bit more than I expected but hopefully not so much to be a problem.

Now on to the chore of making room somewhere to set up the light and germination trays (will probably be more difficult than modifying the shoplight(grin)).

Ed

1. Remove ballast ends from two shoplights and the non-ballasted receptacle end from the shoplight fixture that will house the OD'd lighting.

2. Took a ballast and cut a red and black wire from one side of the ballast and spliced these into the other red and black...red to red and black to black. This was repeated on the other ballast.

(at this point I'm working with two "ballasted" end caps...the regular, non-ballasted end caps are not used.)

3. Took long wires from a ballast going to the other end of the light, splicing the yellow and red wires together. This spliced wire connected to one pin of the opposing receptacle. The single black wire connected to the other pin. This created one overdriven lamp. Repeating this procedure gives you a twin-tube, OD'd fixture with a ballasted end cap at each end.

4. I did not splice the power cords, but simply have both power cords still attached to the end caps.

FWIW,
Ed

$8 > 8045 E - White finish without pull chain switch
$10 > 8055 - White finish with pull chain switch
$15 > 8055 SS - Silver finish (called "stainless") with switch

They all have the same ballast. An 8055 ballast is just a black 8045 ballast with a switch wired to it. You can wire a switch to the 8045 as well, the same holes exist to solder into.

Here's the really weird thing, when I overdrove the lights I got 100% more power.

T8 (32w) bulb - 37 watts into ballast normally (1 bulb), 59 watts overdriven, 100% brighter

T12 (34w) bulb - 34 watts into ballast normally (1 bulb), 54 watts overdriven, 100% brighter

The brightness measurements were taken against an 18% grey card that was in a fixed position with 3 different digital cameras. Two of the cameras flickered back to 2/3rds of a stop brighter so the actual brightness difference may only be 85% or so, as the resolution of the cameras is only 1/6th of a stop.

Jason

I was working with the guy at Walmart to try to figure out what the difference between the $8 8045E lamp and the $10 8055 lamp were and on the unit we opened there was no switch like the photo of dirt tracker's above. However, I bought 3 of them the other day and they all had switches.

One other thing to note. I found a Walmart locally that sells the 8045E for $10 instead of $8. I asked them why it was more and they said they get that question a lot, and that each Walmart can charge what they want. I don't know, it seems like they may be phasing out the no switch option and are charging more. Not sure.

Jason

Mikeybob: Would the end results have been the same if you had just cut the fixture down to size for the 2' tubes and left the ballast/end-caps wired as they were?

Ed

I believe that someone said they cut a light in half and made a 2' fixture without rewiring, and someone else said that it would be brighter if it was rewired.

There is a slight wrinkle when it comes to running T8 or T12 tubes. T12 (normal output) tubes throughout the world run on 430mA, while most T8 tubes in North America run on 265mA. Therefore many ballasts will not correctly operate the two types of tube, or they may normally operate a T12 and overdrive a T8. In Europe, T8 tubes also run on 430mA and these tubes can also sometimes be found in the US. Any T8 marked as 36W will be a 430mA tube, whereas the standard 32W T8 runs at 265mA. Confused yet?

Just for completeness, there are T8 HO tubes, rarely seen that run at 380mA typically in a 44W power. T12 HO tubes run at 800mA and 60W in a 4' length. T12 VHO tubes run at 1500mA and 116W at 4' long but usually supplied as longer tubes. T5 tubes run at 460mA and are often called High Output (HO) but that is somewhat meaningless since there is only one kind.

Thanks for the good info.

MM