Am I crazy or are single 48" fluorescent fixtures hard to come by? I don't want the typical shop light, but rather something that is thin and kind of mounts it sideways (if that makes sense) Like this:
| --- BULB --- | | |
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I've looked at Lowes, etc but can't seem to find it. The only ones I have found on the internet are for blacklights and therefore priced insanely high. Any suggestions?
Try a search on Froogle for
If you want a thinner, better fixture look for a side mounted 1/32 fixture. It uses a much more reliable and efficient ballast and a TO-8 lamp which is thinner than the standard T12
If it helps, what I'm looking for can be found here:
Not sure if I got it at Home Depot or Menards, but I got a bare fixture with no shade called Homelux 48" striplight. It has rapid start ballast and can use 40w, 34w or 25w 4' bulb.
I have not installed it yet because the old fixture boxed in over the kitchen sink on an outside wall only occasionally gives me starting trouble in extremely cold weather (maybe colder than room temperature).
If it's having trouble starting you may just have a bad ground to the fixture.
Those strips are easy to find, though they have those horrid low power factor ballasts that run even the 4' 40W tubes at no more than about 25W. You can get *far* better performance by fitting one with an electronic ballast and F32T8 tube.
If this strip light has a 40-watt ballast it should not be used with
25-watt lamps, as they will have a very short life. If it has a 25-watt ballast, especially an L-C ballast that produces very poor lamp current crest factor, I recommend you get one with a decent 40-watt ballast.
Seems like a fair price to me since this is a specialized low volume product with line cord and built-in switch. I can't tell if the lamp is replaceable, but if not it is similar to the GE BriteStix - which is available only in 2-foot, 20-watt version.
You could, of course, buy a standard 4-foot, one-lamp strip light fixture, paint the fixture black, add a switch and line cord and then a black light fluorescent lamp. When you get all done you will have spent more than $40.
Unfortunately, the big box retailers with their low-price focus limit your choices. There are plenty of 48" fixtures made that are easily obtained, but you do have to get them through an electrical distributor. I found it useful to find a local distributor who would sell to me, but there are on-line distributors with good pricing on such products too. Look on the Lithonia web site for a wide variety of 48" fixtures, for example.
TKM
Every single tube strip light I've seen has a ballast rated for 36-48" tubes which runs either one at about 25W. They're ok for 36" tubes but worthless for 48".
You need to look for commercial grade fixtures, such as the Lithonia S 1 40 120 ES strip light. This is designed for a 4-foot,
34-watt T12 lamp. Grainger lists this fixture for $25.30.The Lithonia part number would be S 1 32 120 GEB. I don't see this listed on the Grainger Web site.
I guess thats probably the brightest and best for what I'm trying to do. Home Depot's got them for like $16 which sounds pretty cheap. I'm betting they dont have a standard wall plug though, so thats another project in itself :( Any suggestions on that? The bulb I've got is a
40 watt T12.
I always just use the cheap fixtures and put a decent electronic ballast in them, those 34W energy saver tubes are a joke, a 32W T8 on a HF electronic ballast is substantially brighter.
Buy a 3-wire round extension cord that is the length you require. Make sure the fixture has a standard 1/2" knockout on it, then buy a 1/2" gland nut fitting suitable for the outer diameter of the cord. The gland nut has metal threads and a locknut on one side to go into the fixture, and a domed metal nut and rubber bushing on the other side to grip the cord. Also buy some yellow wire nuts.
Remove the knockout and install the gland nut fitting. Cut off the female end of the extension cord and insert the extension cord through the fitting. Strip the outer jacket of the cord for 6", then strip the individual wires 1/2". Join the cord and ballast wires with wire nuts: black-black, white-white. The green wire from the cord must go to the green wire or grounding screw in the fixture.
Plug it in and try it. When you're happy, unplug it and tighten the locknut and domed nut on the gland nut to secure the cord.
Matt Roberds
You can also buy replacement power cords at most hardware stores, though sometimes an extension cord is actually cheaper. A couple years ago I got a big box of surplus computer power cords and cut the end off them occasionally to use them as replacement cords.
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