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	Subject - T-8 Bulbs David Hyatt I had a customer today who bought some T-8 lamps to replace some T-12's. I told him these bulbs were for electronic ballast only. He insisted to use them anyway, so I did. They did work and were very bright as well. I told him I would not be responsible if something goes wrong with the ballast or bulbs. What could happen? Ryan_J They'll make funky flickers and burn out. David Hyatt How long do you think this will take. He said he installed a few about three months ago and they still worked. I didn't see them though I took his word for it. Ryan_J Wow. You know, maybe I have it backwards. I have installed (mistakenly) T-8's on a T-12 ballast, or perhaps it was T-12's on a T-8 ballast, but they didn't last more than 2 days. I must have it backwards...my bad :( frenchelectrician david tell ya the truth when you run T-8 bulbs instead of T-12 you will over heat the ballast btw belive me i did see few ballast get damaged from that just like the 34 watts T-12 on cheap fixures and smoked the ballast out. if that person don't belive whynot take the light fixure cover off and show him the ballast and wattage it can take. after that he see that he can understand why . merci , marc SteveMc David, I used to do a lot of work for a lighting company, and we changed hundreds of ballasts usually in the mall type stores. The store employees were responsible for changing the lamps though. Believe me I've seen more than my share of T-8 lamps in T-12 fixtures and they will work, for a while, then they usually take out the lamp and ballast. So if your store owner won't heed your advice, be sure to leave a business card so you can go back in a couple more months and replace his ballasts that should have lasted several more years. iwire I agree they will light flickering at first then clear up and act OK. For a while, but they will take out the ballast. Steve do you do jobs for Osam Sylvania? We do and it gets pretty boring replacing 800 ballasts and the lamps that go with them one after another. Just a side note the T-8s are great lamps, we retro-fitted existing 2 lamp 8' T-12 HO fixtures with 4 - 4' T-8s and the building was much brighter. To do this we had to change the ballast, lamps, sockets, socket holders and shades, all that was original was the 'U' shaped metal trough that is the body of the fixture, what a pain in the rear. David Hyatt Thanks guys, I told him they would probably burn out the ballast. I need some work maybe I can retofit all the fixtures. Electricmanscott Bob I actually used to work for Sylvania. Two words. BORRR IIING! SteveMc Bob, the company I worked for at the time had a contract with Loeb Lighting out of Columbus Ohio. We did all the service work for stores like Gap, Bath and Body Works, American Eagle, and Victoria's Secret, not bad work, especially Victoria's Secret, most calls in and out in under an hour. I work for a technical college now and we've been changing out a lot of 4' 4 lamp T-12 fixtures and replacing them with three lamp T-8 fixtures. We did some tests with a light meter and found we were getting about 125% more light out put with the T-8 than we were with the T-12s and using about 2/3 the energy. The three lamp fixtures were actually too bright and we have switched to two lamp fixtures. renosteinke There are two approaches: the "velvet glove" and the "iron fist." Velvet glove: Show him a an electronic ballast. Point oit the amp rating. Make him understand that the savings are in the ballast, not the bulbs! Iron fist: Tell him you're not a listing-violating idiot, and he can be stupid on his own if he likes. Then bill him for "attempt to serve."