Question about T8 tubes and Electronic ballast

[Jay]

Hi I'm thinking about putting new lights in the hall of my house and I like the energy savings of the new T8 48" tubes with electronic ballast, however I have a sort of nonstandard installation in mind. The hall is 14' long and I'd like to install two 4ft tubes so I get good distribution of light and that means that the tubes will be at least 8ft appart so I will have to splice wire onto the existing wires of the electronic ballast, does the added liength present a problem? also it would be a plus in this case to have "3way" switches at each end of the hall, but the "3way" switch arrangement involves swaping the hot/neutral wire arrangment to the ballast, I don't know if thats such a good idea.

I've done just a bit of research on the color of the lights and the sellers all recomend a "5500K" type tube, kinda 'spensive. However there is a 3500K tube that some people say is just fine, any opinions from this group?

anyhow thanks all Jay

[Jay]

Hi I'm thinking about putting new lights in the hall of my house and I like the energy savings of the new T8 48" tubes with electronic ballast, however I have a sort of nonstandard installation in mind. The hall is 14' long and I'd like to install two 4ft tubes so I get good distribution of light and that means that the tubes will be at least 8ft appart so I will have to splice wire onto the existing wires of the electronic ballast, does the added liength present a problem? also it would be a plus in this case to have "3way" switches at each end of the hall, but the "3way" switch arrangement involves swaping the hot/neutral wire arrangment to the ballast, I don't know if thats such a good idea.

I've done just a bit of research on the color of the lights and the sellers all recomend a "5500K" type tube, kinda 'spensive. However there is a 3500K tube that some people say is just fine, any opinions from this group?

anyhow thanks all Jay

[Bob]

Hi Jay,

Check the ballast specs. I just put Lutron Hi-lume dimming ballasts in my kitch. Lutron says you can "remote ballast" the Hi-Lumes up to 7 feet. That means that if you mount the ballast in one fixture then the near end of the other one can only be 3 feet away or you exceed the 7 foot spec.your ballast may be OK, though.

no it doesn't. you should never connect the hot wire to the neutral pin on a device. A 3-way has hot going to the moving contact of switch A; two switched hot wires go across the room to switch B fixed contacts; moving contact of switch B supplies the device.

I also installed the 93 series 48" T8 from phillips. The color is sort of "late in the day golden" (I don't remember the stated color temp but it's a

5 phosphour tube that has a CRI of 93). It goes very well in our kitchen but the price really adds up (at $10 a tube x 11 tubes). Oh well, they're supposed to last for 20k hours I think... I would buy one of each and see which one you can live with. (that's what I did).

Bob