Ground floor ring main, 120 square meters.

[winston1]

I noted when the voltage reduced for harmonisation for many years in real terms it stayed the same, however where I live there has been a row of houses with solar panels fitted, not long after they were fitted the voltage dropped from around 248 volt to 232 volt at my house, and the old kitchen fluorescent lamp failed to start, it was always on the slow side, but that 16 volt was enough to tip the balance. I replaced the 65 watt tube with a 28 watt LED as I could not find any replacements, and the 58 watt tubes work but not for long.

That was almost certainly a starter problem.

 

[ericmark]

I have many times replaced starters on failed tubes, however in the main a couple of weeks latter it has failed again. The reason they fail is the tube has come to end of life, so needs repeated re-starts, so in real terms when a fluorescent fails it is better to replace tube and starter together on average although one may replace some good units, it saves that much labour well worth simply replacing the pair.

However the old fat 65W tube is no longer made, the 58W tube will fire up, but within 6 months it's failed again, and a fluorescent tube should last at least two years, swap the ballast to a 58W and then of course it will work OK, however to swap the ballast you need to remove the whole fitting to gain access to fixing screws, so may as well replace whole unit.

Today we use all HF ballasts, but back in the day of the 65W tube they were all wire wound, with the wire wound ballast 220, 230 and 240 volt rating was important. During the building of Sizewell 'B' power station we were using 110 volt fluorescent fittings, in fact these were 230 volt fittings with an auto transformer these auto transformers had three connections marked as 127 - 0 - 110 volt and as standard they had lamp connected to 237 volt and input to 110 volt. When I used a clamp on ammeter I found around 0.8 amp was used, swap to 127 volt and the amps dropped to 0.6 amp, this is a huge difference for just 17 volt, had it not been 110 volt there would have been no option to adjust voltage however at one time you could get devices which monitored the voltage and auto changed tapping on an auto transformer, today with HF ballasts they are no longer required.

 

[winston1]

I have many times replaced starters on failed tubes, however in the main a couple of weeks latter it has failed again. The reason they fail is the tube has come to end of life, so needs repeated re-starts, so in real terms when a fluorescent fails it is better to replace tube and starter together on average although one may replace some good units, it saves that much labour well worth simply replacing the pair.

Never had that problem, and I never replace both when one has failed. Better to use an electronic starter anyway. The tubes last longer and when they do fail there are no repeated re-starts. Electronic starters cost a fraction more but well worth it.

However the old fat 65W tube is no longer made, the 58W tube will fire up, but within 6 months it's failed again, and a fluorescent tube should last at least two years, swap the ballast to a 58W and then of course it will work OK, however to swap the ballast you need to remove the whole fitting to gain access to fixing screws, so may as well replace whole unit.

The 58 watt tube is supposed to be a direct replacement and can be used on a 65w ballast. Again never had one fail prematurely on a 65w ballast. The only exception is HF 65w ballasts (yes they do exist) which won't 'drive' 58 watt tubes properly.