Electronic ballast for UV steriliser

newshound 4 years ago

I've just replaced the pressure-side glass tube of the UV steriliser in a mate's spring-fed brewery. But, a brand new Phillips 30W T8 tube (36 inch / 900mm) is not striking so I suspect the (very old) control system with magnetic ballast might have died during the disturbance.

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looks like it might be a T8 replacement, but only rated for 25W (which seems to be an 18 inch / 450mm tube)

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is rated 40 to 45W although the connector is for a tube with four pins at one end.

I'm sure I can jury-rig T8 connectors for it. I know that magnetic ballasts should be matched to the tube rating, but does anyone know if an electronic ballast will support a lower rated tube?

As an aside, I'm currently not seeing some of my postings although at least some of them get through, because I can see responses to them. Using Thunderbird and the (free) Plusnet news feed, any idea what might have gone wrong?

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Brian 4 years ago

Just a suggestion.

We still have T8 tubes as under cabinet lights in our kitchen. I?m sure they have magnetic ballasts and at least one is around a metre long.

When kitchen fitters strip out kitchens, they must dispose of lights like ours ( ours were fitted about 12 years ago ). Why not see if a local kitchen fitting company can save you a fitting or two?

When our tubes go, I plan to replace with LED fittings - assuming Senior Management doesn?t want them changed sooner.

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newshound 4 years ago

Fair point, but I have some new "surplus" floating T8 end fittings on order from ebay, I think that is the only part I will need. One thing that sterilisers have is a "bulb failure detection" circuit and I would not want to re-use old magnetic ballasts.

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