Figured I would share this with you guys..........

I have been fighting with lighting issues for some time now. Color shifting in brand new equipment to be specific.
I attributed it to crappy bulbs, and ballasts. Went on a little rant about how Coral Vue makes good ballasts but their bulbs suck and should be avoided.
Well this simply is not true in the least. The problems I am having ( and a hand full of others in the same boat that I found out about recently ) are not related to the quality of the bulb and or ballast in any way shape or form.
The problem stems from redistributed electric purchased by the village I live in.
Mogul bulbs operate fine where as DE bulbs run like doo doo. This is all due to sine wave degradation, and frequency changes. the sine wave enters the ballasted already degraded and out of frequency so the ballast has to work three - four times as hard to clean it back up and out put a good sine and proper frequency. ti doesn't do this all in one shot though. It does it constantly. Constantly adjusting the sine, and frequency with in during operation.
This translates to color shifts in double ended bulbs. BUT the same electronic ballast being used to run mogul socket bulb do not suffer nearly as bad. It is said because they are single ended and current does not have to literally go THOUGH one end of the bulb and out the other to complete a circuit that they are not a finicky and are not as effected by dirty electric.

I have been in contact with many major brand manufacturers lately.
They all had GREAT customer service and were more then willing to help me solve my problems. ( I did not even own any of the products of some of them that I had called and asked for advice. I had in the past but not at this time. Ushio is an example there. AWESOME people ! )
Two stand out in helping me solve this the most though.
Ushio and Coral Vue.
Coral Vue shines through the brightest though IMO.
Not that any one else did not go out of their way to help me
(because they sure did take the time to answer my questions the best way they could ! )
but Coral Vue actually tried to simulate identical conditions in their shop to re create what was going on, as well as went far and beyond any thing they were responsible for in helping me solve this problem.
Last year when this 1st happened I actually got upset and sent a new set of Coral Vue 250 watt 20K DE's back and got my money refunded thinking it was the bulbs. There was no questioning me about it, no hassles. Just returned, and refunded after they arrived.
the new dual 250 w ballast I received a couple weeks ago seemed to be running abnormally hot to me ( now let me stress it seemed to be to ME not that it actually was because I had no previous experience with dual ballasts. ). Well I contacted Dave at Coral Vue directly via email and asked him what the deal was. AGAIN... no hassles, no run around NO BS.
Last week I asked about it, today I am sitting here starring at two brand new 250 watt electronic ballasts. I am shipping him the dual ballasts back this Monday.

So obviously after receiving such amazing customer service and product warranty I seriously felt compelled to share it with you guys while at the same time retracting and or correcting anything negative I may have said in the past because it is apparent now it was not their product at all. It was my electric ! They are a stand up company and I would, and will give them my business again. As well as Ushio.

 

Your post is fascinating.

 

that's nice that they were able to work everything out!!

how is it fascinating?

 

I think it's interesting that "dirty" power supplies may affect some dual ended bulbs more than single ended, and that dirty power has so much impact at all on the spectrum of the bulbs, thanks for sharing. Also good to know there are companies out there that do good by their customers.

 

good finding, thanks for the info.

 

Hey Ermano, that is how it is fascinating.

 

lol please explain "dirty"

 

Brown-Outs, inconsistent voltage (spikes and drops), etc.

It's why people with dirty power used surge suppressors on their computers Vs. using just a power strip.

 

inwall75 hit the nail on the head. ( only they wouldn't just use surge suppressors alone. They would use line conditioners that clean the power up, and buffer the voltage to a computer grade 120 nominal with surge protection built in.)

It can also mean degraded sine wave, out of range frequency... what ever.
More and more people seem to be having problems now with DE bulbs while people running the same wattage bulbs, same brand bulbs on the same types of ballasts in the same areas are not having a single issue. This lead son to believe that since the power doesn't travel completely through the bulb to complete the circuit on a mogul set up that a DE may be more finicky because the power has to travel completely through one side and then out the other. To me it makes sense that any degradation in a number of things before or after the ballast would hinder results greatly when it depends on the arc stream alone to complete the circuit.
I am not an electrician ( as I am sure is plainly evident LOL ) but I hope you under stand what I mean a little better now ?

 

Propagator - I must say first, welcome to 3reef, second, that is the sweetest avatar I have ever seen, and third, I am still trying to understand what you just said ;D. You sure your not an electrician?