domsetic fluoro lights off inverter

Hi qubert,

Haven't tried it, but possibly the starting circuitry requires a proper sine wave, especially if it has some form of electronics in it - just a thought.

However, I did pick up a Redarc 12V fluoro starter which replaces all of the 240 V stuff and allows a normal household tube to run from a 12V supply. I fitted it to a standard 20 watt (2 ft) light fitting and it works beautifully - instant start and bright as! They will run both 20 and 40 watt tubes.

Not sure of the price (I got it from someone else) but see here for details on the Redarc site.

Cheers
Gerry

will have a look

My son runs a pair of standard 36W batten fluros from a 150W square wave inverter quite successfully. Only modification required was to disconnect the power factor correction capacitors. The inverter did not like them.

Hi qubert,
the other day I was given a 65 ah deep cycle battery, I charged it over night and thought would see if I could run a set of flouros I have off my 300 watt inverter.
So, equipment went as follows,

65 ah deep cycle battery, 2 years old,charged for 12 hours
a flouro light with 2 x 2 foot 18 watt globes, standard starters.
a tricky dicky 300 watt modified sine wave inverter.

to my surprise the lights fired up straight away and put out a very bright light for 4 hours before I turned off the light to go to bed.
by memory the voltage stayed over 12 volts the whole time.

I was very pleasantly surprised, both by the fact the battery I was given seemed to be a good one and the fact the inverter and lights worked so well.

Hope that helps,
William

Hi All, i have run twin batten 1200mm long fluro's off my tricky dicky 300watt inverter, my gmc 800watt genny with out a problem. the tricky dicky inverter has a 450-600 watt start up function from memory which will handle most loads.

If your inverter is a pure sine wave one then you will have no troubles. Pure sine wave is identical to the power from a normal power point.

Cheaper inverters are square wave or modified square wave. The power correction devices in the fluro are designed for a pure sine wave, with a suare wave inverter these power correctors will be taking a fair proportion of the supplied power meaning the fluro as a whole becomes less efficient. It also means that you will have to have an inverter that can supply more power than simply the summed ratings of the fluros.


You can get 12V fluros, perhaps that is an option?

Cheers

Have never been able to understand why so much light is needed when camping.

col