Mod light fixture to low watt PL

In this instructable (my first one yay) we will mod a 2x36 w fluorescent light to 9 w

The lamp we will use is 9 w PL. It is incomplete CFL and it is smaller in size and better in reliability and lifetime than normal CFL

Almost any light can be converted to PL lamps. All we need is to accept low levels of lighting

Step 1 36 Watt

The story takes place in a dorm room. My room (3 x 3 meter) was lit with 72 watts fluorescent

Its not only my room - lighting all over the building is HUGE overkill. So before we start lets get out and remove some starters in the common area between the rooms too. After we mod our light lets call in some mates from the dorm and help them change lights too

Now Im leaving the room and am required by the admins to leave full 72 watts fluorescent after me. The instructable was actually made when converting the thing back to 72 watt

Comments

[richms]

The problem with the PL fluorescents which doesn't happen in the CFLs is the bad flicker they have from operating on line frequency directly. This is proven to cause fatigue in many people. The 2 pin PL's are only able to be driven reliably from a magnetic ballast since they have a starter built into the lamp.

[11010010110]

Electronic solutions Use 4 pin PL or open the base and connect 2 wires instead of the starter Some electronic ballasts play nice with 2 pin PLs without any hacking Use a CFL Use a CFL ballast with the PL .You need to open the PL and change the starter to the capacitor from the CFL. Ballast from bad CFL (if the ballast is ok) can be used. I have not tried it Magnetic solutions Some PLs flicker more and some less - depends on quality / age / type of phosphor (daylight / cw / etc) To me the cool white lamps seem to have better phosphor than other colors and flicker less Fluorescent lamps flicker less when they are little overpowered. Try to change the ballast up or the lamp down to make 1 - 2 watt mismatch (not enough to make trouble). Sometimes just changing to another ballast of the same watt helps (ballasts are not exactly the same) When operating more than one PL on the same circuit : - Running them in series off one ballast seems to make way more flicker - When running on separate ballast you may add capacitor in series with one of them to change the phase of flickering. This reduces the sum flickering in the room. The value of capacitor is sometimes written on the ballast. Use only capacitor of the exact value - approximations are not tolerated as in PFC capacitors DC solution You can run the PL on DC. I dont recommend this - fluorescents dont like DC

[12V]

if the cfl dies suddenly it is usually a bad ballast. if the cfl is dim the cap on the ballast is bad(but can be repaired) if the cfl strobes and flashes it is a bad tube and the ballast is ok. if the cfl dosen't turn on one day the gas has got out of the tube. if the tube lights dimly the tube is usually dead and the ballast will work (the ballast may burnout if left on for more than 3mintes)

[vikyngo]

Don't want to sound rude, but I think your mods are bit silly. The original lamps have very high efficiency. In you want to improve them, just change the ballast (not add another one), change the tubes for better ones or also choose them with lower power output. The little 9w lamp is just the same technology as the old ones.

[11010010110]

i dont want to sound like you but if you would read this instructable BEFORE you comment on it you'd see that its exactly about changing the ballast and the tubes

[joinaqd]

you are a nolifer dude...like seriously get a life...

[Karel Jansens]

Actually, you're quite right in step three to advize to work as if the power is still on. Unless you're 1,000% certain the light switch is of the bipolar type (and no, I don't mean it gets depressive occasionally!), simply turning the power off (as you suggest) might very well leave part of the circuit under -- lethal -- power. "Take out circuit breaker" seems like a much more sound first step.