Light Output ... NO -vs- VHO ... 4 Foot Fluorescent

[suzukir122]

not at all. lol... not many people know it, but fluorescent fixtures can also be used for style as well.

[suzukir122]

My plan is to use NO, HO and VHO four footers in my office... since I'm lazy, I'll probably just set them down on my floor. lol

[XmasLightsGuy]

Should make for an awesome bright office...even with just the VHO's.

And LOL nothing wrong with just sitting lights on the floor against a wall.

[bamaslamma1003]

Are those regular F40's in the center fixture?

[XmasLightsGuy]

@bamaslamma1003 The 4-lamp fixture that i crossed out? Yep It has 2 standard F40T12's & 2 F32T8's...(that one's really only there to keep my camera's auto-brightness "feature" from messing up the picture in the second half of the video when i show the startup)

[XmasLightsGuy]

I should also add that that light was wired to overdrive the lamps (...its close in brightness to a HO light)

[suzukir122]

also, you've got the same type of feit electric that I do, and I use that bulb with an old 34watt GE watt miser... both with a watt reducer HPF rapid start ballast.

[XmasLightsGuy]

I'm not even sure where I got that Feit electric bulb from, might have been at a garage sale, or maybe in some fixtures i saved a number of years ago before they went in the dumpster. I have a few older GE watt misers as well.

[suzukir122]

Great video! I'm gonna be looking around for the HO and VHO ballasts.... definitely the best ballast size comparison too... but I thought the vho bulbs were the ones that you use for the freezers in stores until I noticed they were the kind for aquariums. Definitely brighter than the regular ones...

[XmasLightsGuy]

@suzukir122 Keep a watch on eBay for VHO/HO ballasts...now and then a good deal will show up (esp on non-electronic ones).

Most store coolers/freezers i've seen use HO ballasts/bulbs (although i'm seeing LEDs in the newest units). VHO seems to be mostly used for Plants and/or Aquariums (thats the reason i got mine...then never ended up using it)

[suzukir122]

I have actually seen 8 foot vho's used in some of the freezers in some of the stores that I shop in... so those same vho fixtures that use aquarium bulbs can also use freezer vho bulbs? Those are the ones I'm trying to obtain.

[XmasLightsGuy]

@suzukir122 8 footers are uncommon for aquariums just because most tanks are 6 feet long or less. (4 foot bulbs being the most commonly used) I can say that 4-foot 'aquarium' or 'plant-light' VHO bulbs are the same as any other standard 4-foot VHO (actually they're exactly the same size as a NO 4-foot as well).

For safety reasons, freezer bulbs will sometimes have a thin plastic-type coating so they won't shatter if dropped or hit with something, but you could use them as normal bulbs.