2 of the 4 tubes in my garage have blown. not bad, as they've been there about 15 years at least.
went to electrical factors today, apparently you can't get the 8ft tubes any more 
whats my options? don't really feel for all new light fittings. 6ft they said will be obsolete soon, 5ft ones are £30 plus vat for the twin
fitting and tubes. and 5ft is nearly half the length of the ones i've got now
surely i can still get 8ft tubes somewhere?! think i need new starters too though
see here linky
Looking at the price it may be better to change your existing fittings!!
[Edited on 2/10/09 by big-vee-twin]
quote:
Ordinary Fluorescent Tubes Large Diameter
Price:
(Including VAT at 15%)
Sorry, that combination is not valid, please try changing the options until a price appears above.
Colour
White 35
Wattage, Length & Quantity
Single Lamp - 125 Watt 8Ft
Why aren't they available? They're lower power aren't they?!?! Eh?
the guy in the electric factors said something about europe. prbably banned for some stupid reason.
he also said britain was the only country using them, so i guess it wasn't in manufacturers interest to keep making them for a releatively small
market?
well annoyed anyway. really didn't want to spent a fortune on new lights in the garage... gives me a chance to improve the lighting i guess...
more lights, may be with some individual switches so they're not all on all the time...
i got my fittings from screwfix then just went the local CEF for the tubes as screwfix only do tubes in boxes of 10.
The large tubes T12 are not a very energy efficient fluoresent lamp.
The Latest lamps are called T5 and use high frequency control gear and are very efficient.
Its all to do with carbon emmissions and reducing them thats why the 'Bulb' is being outlawed.
^^ What he said.^^
The 8' tubes were old when i was an apprentice 15 years ago.
T5's are better, or compact flourescent bulkheads. a 6' 70w T8 will offer as much light as your old 100w T12. You wont notice the
difference. even better, get a 6' twin if youre in need of real light!
awesome, cheers guys. spent the time at work today thinking about what to do. definitely not worth finding 8ft tubes and starters as i'll only
have the same trouble next time round
now, the guy in CEF said he thought 6ft tubes were on the way out too? is that right? am i going to have the same problem if i put up some new 6ft
fittings?
i want some proper light in there for when i get round to spraying in the winter (hopefully) so real bright will be real nice
If the 5' tubes are the same end config. as your 8' units you could shorten them, I'd have thought?
Probably a hanging offence to even think of doing that though!
Just my 0.02c
John.
hmm, not sure about that one. i guess it could be done, but they'd need new starters too, and the starters aren't the usual type, these are
some expensive looking electronics that i've never seen before, probably best switching to something more standard
seen some 5ft to 8ft extention things, but they were £15 each (i'd need 4, so £60 in total), or 2 new twin fittings for the same price.
shame you are so far away....
i have spare 8ft tubes
Just change the fittings, they arnt that expensive. I just gave away a whole bunch to a fellow builder. Put a post in the gumtree and see whats there. The yellow scotmart has loads in as well. Pity the refits of local shops are rare at the mo as you would get stacks. Good luck
Don't get the cheap fittings from one of the DIY sheds though, they are horrible noisy things that don't start very well. Ideally get something with an electronic ballast, nice and quiet, virtually instant start even in cold weather and no starters to replace.