A Couple Of Lighting Questions

[RipSlider]

Hi - couple of specific questions on ligting if you will.....


- Can I used an over-sized ballast to drive a t5 lamp? I have a few sets of 55w ballasts lying around, and I need to drive some 22w tubes. Are they going to be OK? My thinking is that Watts = volts x amps, and a smaller tub will pull less amps, so it should be ok. Maybe. Possibly.....

Any thoughts?

- I was wondering what type of light I could use to act as a morning/evening sort of lamp? I want something that I can turn on in the mornings before the main lamps come on. I was thinking something like grow-lamps perhaps?

Thanks

Steve

 

[OldMan47]

I find nothing at all wrong with your assumptions except that ti simply does not work that way. E=IR works fine but a ballast is not a simple resistive circuit arrangement. The electronic controls involved try to maintain particular power levels. With a gross mismatch, it does not work out very well. People do overdrive fluorescent tubes to a smaller degree but not by over 100% as you have described.