# Is this viable?



## mikaila31 (Feb 24, 2006)

I got thinking the other day about the pros and cons of various budget DIY lighting. Basically how would you get the most efficient light cheap? Then I thought why not take the best of different types of lighting and combine them. I tested it with some T8's and PC bulbs yesterday then went out and bought some NO T5 bulbs from menards today. I simply took a 26 watt spiral compact bulb and took the little ballast out of it. I then wired it directly to an AC plug and then to the 28 watt NO T5 bulb. Bulb lights just fine with no issues. I know it being underdriven as it is now, but with a little tweaking and better assembly is this a viable way to drive T5's? I get that the tiny CFL ballast will probably need replacing every couple years but at a cost of a few dollars.... I'm itching to go get a HO T5 and try 2 CFL ballasts.


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## old 97 (Jul 25, 2011)

Slick


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Why not just use the spiral compact fluorescent with no modifications? In tests with a PAR meter, I found that two T5 tubes would give me about 30 PAR at 20" from the substrate. A SCF gave 60 PAR at the same distance.


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## mikaila31 (Feb 24, 2006)

Michael said:


> Why not just use the spiral compact fluorescent with no modifications? In tests with a PAR meter, I found that two T5 tubes would give me about 30 PAR at 20" from the substrate. A SCF gave 60 PAR at the same distance.


Mainly due to the bulkiness of the spiral CFLs as you get towards the larger ones. I normally retrofit things into existing hoods and it always seems to come down to space limitations. Spiral CFLs get fat as you get into the higher wattages. Likewise hardware store ballasts are overly bulky when using tubes.

That info is interesting though. Was the SCF vertical or horizontal? Where the wattages the same too? I know SCFs work just fine as I run them on some of my tanks. But thought the T5 would be better since you get better spread and less restrike.

I already fried that little ballast in the picture. Though it was totally my fault. Had a multimeter on it and let it run without the bulb. Either I accidentally shorted something or it overloaded due to the lack of the bulb. In hindsight it probably wasn't meant to run without a load lol. Oh well theres more bulbs to mess with.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

You're absolutely right, the higher wattage SCF won't fit in a normal hood.

In my example, the SCF are mounted vertically. Tests reported on The Planted Tank showed that the vertical mounting increased the light almost 100%! I haven't tested this myself.

The SCF in my set-up are 23w. The two T-5 NO tubes are 24" long, so they are 14w. In some ways the wattage of the T5s is irrelevant because you can't change the T5 wattage, but you can use different wattage of SCF for more or less light, another plus.

To be complete, the color temperature for T5s is 6700K and for the SCF it's 6500K.

Thanks for an interesting thread!


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## old 97 (Jul 25, 2011)

I like the retrofitting capability. 
This ( if they endure) is a source of free ballasts. With four children at home I have more broken bulbs than burnt out. How many have I thrown away?

That would be a electronic rather than a starter/inductor (magnetic) ballast; capable of resurrecting all those f15t8 hoods that come with 'complete starter kit aquariums'
I would be curious to see the PAR result of overdriving a f15t8 with that ballast.


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## mikaila31 (Feb 24, 2006)

old 97 said:


> I like the retrofitting capability.
> This ( if they endure) is a source of free ballasts. With four children at home I have more broken bulbs than burnt out. How many have I thrown away?
> 
> That would be a electronic rather than a starter/inductor (magnetic) ballast; capable of resurrecting all those f15t8 hoods that come with 'complete starter kit aquariums'
> I would be curious to see the PAR result of overdriving a f15t8 with that ballast.


I haven't had any problems lighting any bulbs I have tried yet. I was using a 13 watt SCF ballast yesterday and it could light a 13 watt PC bulb and actually had no problem with a F15T8. The T8 was obviously under driven and even after hours the bulb was barely warm. It still instantly light with no flickering unlike the hoods. I'll probably rewire one of those T8 starter hoods with and 18 watt ballast. Then just see how long that ballast lasts.


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## mikaila31 (Feb 24, 2006)

Well I got one of those 15 watt T8 fixtures rewired. I used a 23 watt SCF ballast since that was all I had on hand. Its the first day of snow too and I realize my snow brush is 20 minuets away in my parents garage >.<. So in theory its over-driven, but I can't tell if it actually is or not. I left extra wires incase I wanted to rearrange things and fit a 2' T8 in there, then realized the older hoods are only 23" long... Its not in this picture, but I cut up a plastic yogurt container and used it to house the little SCF ballast.










Compared to another strip light there isn't much of a difference that I can tell with light output. The rewired one has instant start up with no flickering. Also none of that buzzing sound from the magnetic ballast. The bulbs are exactly the same. The fixture I rewired is over 10 years old and the plastic has actually oxidized or something to where it is yellow and is slowing turning to dust lol. After running both for an hour the rewired bulb isn't any hotter then normal to the touch. The standard one might still have a few degrees on it.










Not sure if it means anything but my camera picks up some weirdness from the standard hood. Even in manual setting there is fluctuation from that bulb. Even with white balance, F-stop, ISO, and shutter speed all set to specific values it still picks up fluxes just from the one bulb. I can't see anything changing visually, but the camera sees the standard hood going all the way down to a dim orange then goes back to its normal appearance. Even side by side with the rewired T8 only the standard one does this. I've got no idea what it means or what my camera is picking up lol.  It shows up on video too.










For anyone who want to mess around with this too, but isn't really sure how your suppose to get the ballast out of a SCF. Its fairly strait forward. Be careful not to break the bulb as it does contain mercury. You pop the base open using a small screwdriver, sometimes this is really easy sometimes you tear up the casing pretty good before it gives. The leads on the ballast are really small, two on each side. Shown in the picture below. Unwrap the wires around them and that frees the ballast from the bulb. Done properly the SCF isn't damaged in anyway. The hardest part is connecting wires to those short leads, especially the sold core 600V wire. I managed without soldering anything, but if you have a soldering iron it would make things much easier. Ideally I would just desolder those leads then solder wires straight to the board.


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