Fluorescent Follies

[Amelia M. Samples]

Get this...last spring, the apartment complex I live in replaced all their
"Old, Unsightly" round dual 13W PL fixtures with plain old inductive
ballasts. The new ones are dual tube 40W circular lamps with an integrated
electronic ballast. After about 3 months...they started going dim and
dropping like flies. The tubes all appear to be fine, the ones I've
dissected have blown caps and transistors with only one exception, the tube
had cracked on that one. They kept replacing and replacing for a while...and
now they're taking these out, ditching them, and replacing them with 60W
Incandescent fixtures. And while they're at it, they're tossing the old
lamps/fixtures in the trash. I grab every one I see for proper
disposal...but you'd think their electrical people would know better than to
throw Hg containing products in the regular trash...and the rent went up.
Why should the residents be forced to pay for their stupidity. I'm thinking
of dropping an anon tip to the local EPA office...

 

[JM]

quoting:

Get this...last spring, the apartment complex I live in replaced all their
"Old, Unsightly" round dual 13W PL fixtures with plain old inductive
ballasts. The new ones are dual tube 40W circular lamps with an integrated
electronic ballast. After about 3 months...they started going dim and
dropping like flies. The tubes all appear to be fine, the ones I've
dissected have blown caps and transistors with only one exception, the tube
had cracked on that one. They kept replacing and replacing for a while...and
now they're taking these out, ditching them, and replacing them with 60W
Incandescent fixtures. And while they're at it, they're tossing the old
lamps/fixtures in the trash. I grab every one I see for proper
disposal...but you'd think their electrical people would know better than to
throw Hg containing products in the regular trash...and the rent went up.
Why should the residents be forced to pay for their stupidity. I'm thinking
of dropping an anon tip to the local EPA office...

The old lights were probably not bright enough all along.

SO...

I bet they happen to see the new lights for cheap $$$ during a recent trip
to the local Home Depot. They jumped on it and used it as a reason to
replace the old ones at that moment.

OR

They just got a brainstorm, "Hey, let's replace those lights!" They went to
the local Home Depot, saw some lights for cheap $$$...