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Nikki Casali
January 20th 05, 02:56 PM
Richard Sexton wrote:
> In article >,
> Nikki Casali > wrote:
>
>>Would there be any harm in using a 36 watt compact fluorescent T5 tube
>>with a 55 watt electronic ballast? I presume the tube just pulls as much
>>current as needed. The reason for the higher wattage ballast is to allow
>>for the potential to "upgrade".
>
>
> You'll never know until you try. 65 and 55 are interchangeable. 36 and 40
> are interchangable. 36 to 55 is a bit of a stretch, but it might be ok. I've
> got a T12 ballast here that works wi 2 40W tubes or 1 40W tube or 1 25W tube.
>
> The only thing you can't do is mix tubes of different wattages. That doesn't work.
>

It's a shame there aren't any dimmable CFL ballasts in existence
anywhere in the known universe. Maybe someone can hack one together from
a linear T5 dimmable ballast? I presume there is no electrical
difference between the two?

Nikki

Ian Stirling
June 20th 05, 02:51 AM
In rec.aquaria.tech Nikki Casali > wrote:
<snip>
> It's a shame there aren't any dimmable CFL ballasts in existence
> anywhere in the known universe. Maybe someone can hack one together from
> a linear T5 dimmable ballast? I presume there is no electrical
> difference between the two?

There are, actually.
Apparently noone makes a "in one" controller chip for 240V, only 110V.
I suppose you could buy dimmable 110V CFLs and use a transformer.