ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area T8 lamps swirling.....why?

I spoke with the Phillips lighting rep today. He is as baffled as myself and the supply house manager. Rep suggested that I remove lamps, power off fixtures, and reinstall the lamps. He thought that since I installed them in "hot" fixtures that could casue an issue. The supply house has ordered a new box of lamps and 4 new ballasts at request of rep, to try and correct the issue. I will see tomorrow what happens.

Well, the problem is resolved. I simply replaced the lamps with some new ones from a different case. We actually changed the color of lamps as well. The problem lamps were 841's and I now have 735's in there. Magically....no problems now.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/waves/standw.html


You've made your first real-world acquaintance with standing wave resonance.

That's what causes swirls in air columns/ mercury vapor tubes/ fluorescent lights.

Cheers.

May sound funny but I have had this same thing happen and turned the lamp around and the swirl stopped.