Tungsten ballasted fluorescent lamp circuit (100W filament lamp and 20W fluorescent tube)

Such things use to be available where a mixture of fluorescent and incandescent lighting was required back in the 50s and 60s. You could get special filament lamps to use in series with a fluorescent tube and special MCFB or MCFD tubes with one or two internal conductive stripes connected to the opposite cathodes suitable for use with a tungsten ballast circuit or resistor ballast.

I've tried this before and it does indeed work so this time I decided to video it. You can also see that it works without a starter provided the tube is near an earthed object so I had to use my hand, also look how the electronic starter performs terribly with this circuit!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• fluorescent
• incandescent
• ballast
• light
• 100W
• filament
• tube
• lamp
• bulb

[classpc]

would this work with a cfl instead of the incendescent?

[P42STUFF]

@classpc Probably not, most of the CFls have a starting voltage higher than the mains. I'll try this on a 13W PL-C in a minute and see what happens!

[DragonFlyback256]

Nice demo!

[fairyheli2]

that's a great idea!

[generator5500w]

i think they running at 230 volts in europe

[randacnam7321]

@classpc A compact fluorescent lamp will not work as a ballast as this application requires the resistance of the GLS lamp. However, EXTERNAL BALLAST compact fluorescent lamps will work on an incandescent lamp ballast, depending on the mains potential and GLS/CFL power ratings. Four pin base external ballast CFLs will require an external starter.

[MrStelmer]

Interesting. I feel an experiment is in order now.....

[byrne760]

what u doing to do this