Brightest T8 bulb

**strochek** · 03-12-2011, 12:06 AM

I have not seen any ballast that will fire t8 or t12.The fixtures are wired diffrently for each.Some t12 ballasts seem to fire t8 bulbs but most overdrive the bulbs so bad it is like staring into the sun,and the bulbs do not last long.The 6500k is what they used to call "daylight".The wattages are all the same per legnth of the bulb it`s just a cleaner light from a 6500.We are doing a changeover in the facility i work in.I have found universal ballasts(110v-277v)that will fire 1-4 bulbs the most cost efficiant.If you have 2 bulb fixtures,one ballast will fire two of them.I,for my shop,bought the sockets and ballasts and mounted them directly to the roof beams.No fixture at all.

**WAS** · 03-12-2011, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by strochek

I have not seen any ballast that will fire t8 or t12.The fixtures are wired diffrently for each.Some t12 ballasts seem to fire t8 bulbs but most overdrive the bulbs so bad it is like staring into the sun,and the bulbs do not last long.The 6500k is what they used to call "daylight".The wattages are all the same per legnth of the bulb it`s just a cleaner light from a 6500.We are doing a changeover in the facility i work in.I have found universal ballasts(110v-277v)that will fire 1-4 bulbs the most cost efficiant.If you have 2 bulb fixtures,one ballast will fire two of them.I,for my shop,bought the sockets and ballasts and mounted them directly to the roof beams.No fixture at all.

We have ballasts that allow use of T8 or T12 bulbs. They`re 2 bulb fixtures, and we`ve got about 10 of them. Switched to T8s last year from 5 years of T12s, never had any issue, and no "overdrive" problems. The output looks exactly the same as the T8-only ballasts we have.

**Street5927** · 03-12-2011, 03:52 PM

I hung two of these 2 bulb fixtures in my garage, and am going to hang at least two more. I am very impressed with the amount of light that these bulbs put out.

Amazon.com: G E Lighting 87783 Daylight Fluorescent Light Bulb 32w: Home Improvement

**VitoB** · 03-13-2011, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by D Tailor

I`m with Pat300z. I`m running 16- 6500K bulbs and they rock. They light up my 276 sq ft bay like a UFO! They are also very daylight like and keep my spirits up late at night during a job. I have found though that I have to turn them on and turn on my incandecents for correction time.

This is why I was thinking of installing only incandescents in my garage for detailing. I don`t think there is a point to installing tons of fluorescent lights, they still won`t show defects very well. I find they don`t even show dirt on the car too well when I`m washing.

**Greg Nichols** · 03-13-2011, 06:29 PM

these bulbs above only have a CRI of 78, you can get bulbs with 92 CRI. Many Halogens are 100, the highests. Its not about wattage so much as the CRI. The higher the number the easier it is to see defects. NO SINGLE light source, other than the sun will allow you to see defects. Even the sun sometimes, with the angle, are hard to see fine defects.

Cheers,

GREG

**VitoB** · 03-13-2011, 09:56 PM

Incandescent bulbs have a CRI rating of 100 and I think we can all agree you need several light sources to really see all possible defects. With that being said, I find fluorescent lights are far from being the best option for lighting when it comes to detailing.

**DaGonz** · 04-03-2011, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by Pats300zx

Trust me..I just installed 9 banks of 4 each T8 bulbs (6500k) in my 3 car garage. I also just added two sets of T12 6500k bulbs on the wall sides. With the new white paint on the walls you can do surgery in there

Well, Pat.. you are...

"Detailing is like cosmetic plastic surgery for cars"!

:buffing: :waxing: :car:

**Accumulator** · 04-04-2011, 11:17 AM

While I`m always ranting about how lousy I think fluorescents are for seeing marring, I do like them for general illumination (gotta have enough of `em though, and the right ones) and also for evaluating texture and, in some cases, gloss.

Much as I like incandescents, it takes a *LOT* of `em to really light up a full shop, and they don`t last nearly as long as fluorescents. They get pretty warm too, especially in the higher wattages.