DoItYourself.com Community Forums > Electrical, AC & DC. Electronic Equipment and Computers > Electrical - AC & DC

Fluorescent and timers

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

01-07-03, 07:07 PM

Jeff411

Visiting Guest

Posts: n/a

Flourescent and timers

I've heard that some flourescent lites will not work on timers. Is this true?
I want to use a timer to turn my aquarium lites on and off. They are 36 inch strip lites working on quick start ballasts. What do you think?

Upvote

01-07-03, 07:12 PM

John Nelson

Member

Join Date: Sep 2000

Location: United States

Posts: 17,733

Upvotes: 0

Received 1 Upvote on 1 Post

I can't see that there would be a problem. A timer makes a connection the same as a switch does.

Upvote

01-08-03, 04:28 AM

Pendragon

Member

Join Date: Jul 2002

Location: USA

Posts: 1,767

Upvotes: 0

Received 2 Upvotes on 2 Posts

They'll work just fine on a timer.
I had 2, 2 tube 36" lights on my aquarium, all ran by timer.

Upvote

01-08-03, 08:48 AM

brickeyee

Visiting Guest

Posts: n/a

Most of the timers are plain old mechanical switches. A problem can occur if an electronic switch is used to control a ballast. Not WiILL occur, but CAN occur. A timer witha nice 'click' is probably mechanical.

Upvote

01-08-03, 09:45 AM

sberry27

Member

Join Date: Jun 2002

Location: Brethren, Mi

Posts: 1,564

Upvotes: 0

Received 0 Upvotes on 0 Posts

I think maybe Jeff heard dimmers wouldnt wrk on flos.

Upvote

01-08-03, 11:15 AM

Pendragon

Member

Join Date: Jul 2002

Location: USA

Posts: 1,767

Upvotes: 0

Received 2 Upvotes on 2 Posts

Yeah.. dimmers won't work on regular flourescents, you need a dimmable ballast. Ice Caps are popular for aquariums for that reason, but are quite expensive.

Upvote

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

Show Printable Version

Email this Page

Electrical - AC & DC
Electric Fires....

P

Phonetek on Jan 06, 2003

Are more electrical fires caused by bad romex and bx rather than wire in conduit? Will conduit even allow the fire to get through the pipe? Just curious as in a few months I intend to start tearing out all my plaster to do an extensive rehab of my home. In the walls right now is the old cloth romex. Since I will have access in all the walls like new construction I was thinking of going with conduit. Once complete I am having the expanding foam insulation blown in my walls before I drywall. I'm still not sold on the fact that this insulation is not flammable at this time. I'm still doing extensive research on this subject. I would like to make my home as safe as possible. I was figuring that the only place fire could escape from a pipe is at the joints. I have access to a fire retardant putty that we use in the telco industry to put over the joints if needed. Let me know what you guys think.Read More
Electrical - AC & DC
Adding a sconce and two switches

O

oamaro on Jan 02, 2003

Without a long drawn out explanation, just visit the web page I created on this project: [URL=http://home.earthlink.net/~oamaro/projects/parlor.htm]My wiring project[/URL]Read More

Ask a Question