Thorn 6ft twin ballast wiring

Can you still buy oval shaped lamp holders?
The pictures not very clear, but there likely moulded onto the endcap, i used to keep ones off faulty fittings back in the day to repair others as it was quite common for them to burn up, sometimes you can pop them open and if your lucky clean the metal springy bit up.
Failing that any of that ranges endcaps will fit from 2ft up to 8ft if you can find them
 
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If you really feel you want to salvage your fittings, I think your pic is showing this version of a pop pack, theres been a few versions I have a 4 ft version, to save on postage I can just cannibalise it and send the Two end caps, one end has a hole knocked out for the cable but i can put a 20mm bung in that,
Let me know by Private message
 
I pay around £40 inc vat for an led fitting which will out perform and outlast your current fluorescent fittings.

I’ve installed loads which are in use every day for prolonged periods, and have never had one fail yet.
Ansell Tornado?
 
I bet you’re still fitting GLS bulkheads everywhere cos there’s nowt bloody wrong with em
:)
Although Coughtrie fittings are bloody good and one I saw recently was in excellent condition despite being older than me!
 
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If you really feel you want to salvage your fittings, I think your pic is showing this version of a pop pack, theres been a few versions I have a 4 ft version, to save on postage I can just cannibalise it and send the Two end caps, one end has a hole knocked out for the cable but i can put a 20mm bung in that,
Let me know by Private message

Thanks, sent you a message.
 
Either tornado or the topline battens
The Tornado has an estimated life of 30k hours and the Topline 36k, how is this acceptable, bearing in mind when it fails the whole fitting goes in the bin? A long life T8 tube lasts longer than that and a switch start ballast lasts 500k+ hours. A good HF ballast should easily last 50-100k hours
 
I had two 8 foot twins in my garage but the lamps are now silly money so I swapped them for 2 x 6 foot twin Tornados, which have been brilliant (literally!).

I'm also a fan of the older generation of Thorn HF fittings (they used to come straight on, the newer ones have a split-second delay). I have two in my kitchen that date back to the nineties and they are still going strong, tubes too.

The older Thorn stuff was indestructible and went forever. Bit like a Merc Diesel engine!
 
Hi,

Just resurrecting my thread from last March before lockdown. I was finally able to go into the church today and fix those faulty thorn 6ft lead lag fittings with new 5uf capacitors from amazon.

Thanks again for the help.

Rich
 

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Fantastic!

Thanks very much for the update, it's always good to hear how things turned out.
 
Visited the church again today and all three of those capacitors I fitted have failed. Cheap Amazon rubbish. I'll just leave them with the lag tube working rather than bypass the cap.
 
I had problems with the 5 foot tubes, first time was on the building of Sizewell 'B' my boss had decided to light the tunnels with 110 volt fluorescent, quick calculation 2 x 58 = 116 so should be around ½ amp each, 16 amp MCB so likely can power 30 units, but to be on safe side will use 25 units per string.

Wrong

After they tripped put a clamp on ammeter on them and nearly 24 amp, so at this got a lamp on the bench and did some tests.

They were 230 volt fittings with an auto transformer marked 127 - 0 - 110 and the 110 volt was on the 0 - 110, moving this to the 0 - 127 tapping instead and the current dropped to what I had expected, so 20 fittings were wired 0 - 127 and last 5 0 - 110 volt. And they worked great used around 15 amp so no more trips.

However what this pointed out was how critical the voltage is, a very small volt drop and they will not start, and small over voltage and they use well over the rated current.

So my kitchen had an old 65 watt 5 foot fitting, and the 65 watt tubes dried up, it would work with a 58 watt tube, but they did not last as long, as with many homes when the voltage officially dropped from 240 volt to 230 volt nothing actually happened, my meter would show 245 volt most of the time, until a whole load of bungalows had solar panels fitted, then the volts dropped to 230 volt, and at that point the fluorescent stopped working.

I am sure I could have got a new electronic ballast and got it to work again, but it was brighter than I needed so fitted a 24 watt LED and removed the ballast from the circuit, it did not last that long, around 18 months, so then a 22 watt LED fitted, at which point I moved out.

There were some power saving consumer units made with auto transformers to try and save electric by dropping the voltage, I am sure the auto transformer could be used to boost the voltage to keep the lights working, but the point is if worth the effort?

I am not sure of the history of voltage, but I know we had loads of warning signs saying 440 volt, with 240 volt three phase was 415, and with 230 volt three phase was 400, and 220 three phase was 380 volt, so it seems likely at one point we used 250 volt.

I think 1919 was official date when 240 started, the law was passed in 1925 for the national grid, and 2003 when it dropped to 230. But in around 1960 when I went on holiday they still used 110 volt DC. 2nd June 2004 the last Welsh village went on the National grid, so likely we had 250 volt well past 1919 it was 1937 before the national grid really started. It was 1947 before it was nationalised.

This is what makes me laugh when they talk about electric cars and heat pumps, history shows how long it takes to upgrade, there is no way it can be done in 5 years.

Although I agree there is little gain going from fluorescent to LED, the work involved to keep the old stuff running is simply not worth the effort.
 

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