Change ballast fitting T12 to T8

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I intend to change my T12 2x 40watt fluorescent light fitting to take T8 2x 36watt and my question is whether the type/make of T8 ballast is important, any advice would be appreciated?
 
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Yes it is and I have in the past had huge problems where small changes have been made trying to work out what has been changed.

It took me quite a time just to work out the Universal starter we were using would not work with twin lamps off the same ballast it was only because we had a working fly catcher and I could swap components with the working one I could find out the problem. Other makes would work with Universal starters.

With twin lamps likely the easy way is swap for a HF unit which has the advantage of all components built in and also will increase tube life as well.

Some swaps will work but you can end up with over heating. The ballast does two jobs. It produces the strike voltage and it also limits the run current. The run current is very voltage dependent even 220 to 240 volt rise can cause the fitting as a whole to use 1/2 again over the rated current or when reversed stop it firing up.

Some HF ballast units do however have a range of tubes that they will work with. So if HF is already fitted it may work OK. It is really a case of reading the info printed on the ballast.
 
I intend to change my T12 2x 40watt fluorescent light fitting to take T8 2x 36watt and my question is whether the type/make of T8 ballast is important, any advice would be appreciated?

If it is a switch start type fitting you don't need to do anything. T12 40w tubes can be replaced with T8 36w tubes.
 
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Winston :rolleyes: is correct, if the fitting has starters fitted then it should happily run T8 tubes, though sometimes they dont look to nice as the T8 endcaps look odd in the T12 holders
 

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