I've got 4 kitchen lights which i would like to fit energy seving lightbulbs to. A 2D lightbulb would probably be best but do they need a seperate ballast?
Also does anyone know what size they are? I've gos a space 18cm square max.
And any ideas where I would get a fitting for it
Yes, it does need a ballast.
There are two types of 2D lamp -- 2-pin and 4-pin. The 2-pin ones have a built-in fluorescent lamp starter and can only run from a series ballast. The 4-pin ones have no starter and can run from either electronic control gear (most commonly) or you can run with same ballast as for 2-pin types with the addition of a separate starter.
There are also 21W ones which are same physical size as 16W, but a bit harder to find.
Do you mean a lampholder? I buy them from RS.
170-991 is the 4-pin one I use for 10W, 16W, and 21W 2D lamps. You have to mount it in a special shaped hole cut into a sheet of metal (or on one occasion, I cut the mounting hole in the casing of the electronic ballast). RS also do the 21W 2D lamps.Which solution would be more compact? i think I will struggle to fit the balast in.
Could one ballast be used for 4 lights? Or is the output voltage too high so would be dangerous? Maybe then I could hide the ballast somewhere not in the lights.
I am trying to fit the light in a box 18cm x 18 x 4 cm
I guess the 2 pin fluorescent compact lightbulbs require a ballast as well?
On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:53:36 -0800 (PST) someone who may be 405 TD Estate wrote this:-
The first result from
rapidly led me to which has the dimensions.
Retrofit kits used to be sold which had a bayonet fitting at one end of a ballast box and a 2D connector at the other. One then fitted the lamp to the ballast.
I am not clear what you are trying to fit the new lamp into and how much space there may be above the box. However you might want to consider something like
I haven't seen those for years, but the ones (sample of 3) I had proved to be unreliable, being outlasted by the lamps. I have a couple of 2Ds in the kitchen with conventional ballasts which have been reliable.
They were supposed to have a life of about 4 lamps. IME, it was nearer 2 lamps, but I didn't measure if it was the lamps lasting longer or the adaptors running shorter. The last one I had died about a year ago. AFAIK, they were only produced during the 1980's by Thorn Lighting (inventors of the 2D lamps) under the Mazda label which they owned at the time (except in the US). The combination of that adaptor and the 2D lamp was Thorn's compact fluorescent invention (much like Philips invented the SL18).
I've got one 2D in kitchen and 2 in bathroom, all in luminares which I've built or adapted to take 2D lamps. They're about 6 years old and all still on the first lamp, and electronic control gear (Philips matchbox ballasts, blue instant start versions). I subsequently discovered I mounted the bathroom 2D tubes in the one mounting orientation which isn't permitted (U loops downwards), but it hasn't caused a problem yet.
I picked the 2D lamps as they had a higher initial cold light output (as a proportion of the warmed up output) than other compact fluorescents I measured.
On Sat, 26 Jan 2008 10:58:46 GMT someone who may be wrote this:-
My sample of 1 has not suffered the same fate. A few lamps have failed, but the adapter continues to work.
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