Home made 3 lamp F13T5 preheat mini industrial/shoplight starting up

This is a fixture I made for myself using what remained of the fixture used to make sale item #5. I even used a similar design to the first one. However, this fixture is a little bit longer and uses 3 F13T5 lamps. These lamps are preheat although they require a voltage step up which means the ballasts have an autotransformer instead of just being a choke and they use FS4 starters. This also means the ballasts are larger than standard preheat chokes. Because of this, only 2 ballasts fit inside the channel so I mounted the 3rd ballast on the outside right in the center and used the fixture hooks to hold that ballast on. I stacked a few nuts on top of the hooks so that they stuck out over the ballast. The wires entered holes with rubber washers to keep them from coming into contact with sharp metal. All in all the fixture turned out pretty well. What is also cool is that the fixture is pretty bright. Even one F13T5 lamp by itself on preheat is pretty bright which leads me to suspect that these lamps just might give F32T8 lamps on electronic ballasts a run for their money. Don't be surprised if you see more F13T5 fixtures coming soon, preheat ones at that. This fixture is surprisingly bright and very efficient at just 39 watts. Just imagine how many incandescent bulbs it would take to equal the same luminosity. The lamps used in this fixture during this video are NOS GTE Sylvania F13T5 lamps made in the UK/England. These lamps seem to be more blink happy than any other F13T5 lamp I've tried so far. With that said, enjoy this cool video!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• super
• bright
• preheat
• F13T5
• mini
• shop
• light
• industrial
• fluorescent
• fixture
• blink
• flicker
• awesome
• cool
• efficient.

[TheDieselNut]

I did not see this one previously...Those are the lamps I want to use, but I was thinking of using 4 individual 13 watt ballasts from 13 watt BX fixtures. Your one single ballast is a 3 lamp type? If so, where did you get that?

Nice looking fixture. I plan on doing a "half piper" version of it.

[DavidFromAE]

This fixture uses 3 individual 1 lamp ballasts, as I haven't found a preheat F13T5 ballast for more than 1 lamp yet. I had to mount one outside the fixture housing because they are bigger than standard chokes. The other two ballasts are inside the fixture channel. Can't wait to see your version.

[bamaslamma1003]

Where did you get the ballasts?

[DavidFromAE]

Thanks for the compliments. The ballasts used in this fixture were gutted from used T5 undercabinet fixtures that I found at salvage stores. My suggestion is to check out flea markets and thrift stores since preheat F13T5 ballasts are pretty expensive when purchased new. Because of the voltage step up, they also use FS4 starters instead of FS2.

[brianfromLI]

Very nice...probably the best of all your creations thus far!

[DavidFromAE]

Thanks! This one is definitely one of my favorites that's for sure. I want to find a place to mount it.

[dieselducy]

WHY are these not chokes as they are just 13 watt bulbs??

[kevxsi16v]

I am a electrical maintaince engineer in england most lights that were installed after say 2003 were HF (instant start). On installations where they are used a lot IE schools and shops they really struggle to last over 5 years without burning out or blowing up! I have old thoulux 8' 125w fittings in the sports hall at redruth school 1967 all origonal ballasts and fitting , change the tubes or starters and all work no crap electronic ballasts there!

[TheDieselNut]

That is sweet! Nice job! I have a bunch of old fixtures lying around. I will have to figure out how I can form a "half piper" or may just use a reflector shield like you did, but use 4 lamps maybe. Yours looks awesome. Looks like the old "Miller" brand lights I have throughout my shop, sheds and barn. Love it! I have a few of the "neostart" & "hemco" starters that are neon also. Gotta see if any of them are good for 13 watt lamps. Keep the interesting lights coming! I'll post more soon!

[rickyatHK]

Not quite blink happy .

[bamaslamma1003]

That is awesome! I like the staggered wing nuts on the ballast cover/reflector. The diagonal mounted starter sockets are cool too. If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a factory made fixture.