Mega cheap lighting- under £10 for 24 and 55w

[Palm Tree]

Ok after looking for a replacement ballast for my t5 luminaire I found some cool stuff for DIY'ers.
Fluorescent Lamps Electronic Ballast with Lamp Socket 55W
Fluorescent Lamps Electronic Ballast with Lamp Socket 24W
All you need is some cable, a plug and a compact fluorescent bulb from lampspecs - here
Alternatively if you dont want to use compact fluorescent you can use a t5 bulb, just cut off the 4 pin lampholder and add some t5 lamp holders, like these:
10pcs T5 Head Splicer Lamp Cable AC 100-250V
Lampholder T5 IP64
or type 't5 lamp holders' into ebay and choose your favourite style.


I will be buying some more ballasts to play with very soon

 

[nayr88]

Oh man!! I'm gonna be spending some money this weekend haha!

I bet it would be pretty easy to have some sheets cut and made to look like the ADA lights. Not thing i would say is be careful as as they are these items are not the correct IP rating to be used over tanks. So take care when fixing and hanging them,

 

[Palm Tree]

Yeah, the ip64 or ip65 lamp holders should be used where the would be significant moisture levels, in a pendant however you should be ok. These are great to repair burnt out ballasts in luminaires or changing the luminaire from t8 to t5. I have thought about making a fixture, but for the price of a used on its not really worth it to me. I brought a 2ft 3 x 24w t5 luminaire for £15 off preloved, later the ballast that ran 2 of the tubes died so I dissasembled the fixture and changed it to a 2x 24w fixture with one of the 24w ballasts I linked. Works great so I'm on the lookout for broken luminaires now to salvage the casing . I'm planning to do a led build with an adurino contoller to simulate sunrise and sunset soon if I can get round to it.