Fluorescent Lamps in Parallel?
Like most gas discharge tubes, fluorescent lamps are negative resistance devices. Therefore, it isn’t possible to put more than one lamp in parallel and get them both to light – additional components are needed. The following applies mostly to magnetic ballasted fixtures. Where electronic ballasts are used, all sorts of games can be played to implement wierd configurations! Multiple lamp fixtures in countries with 110 VAC power usually have special ballasts with separate windings for this purpose. Where 220 to 240 VAC is available, it may be possible to put multiple lamps in series with individual starters. See the section: Fluorescent Lamps in Series?. However, there is at least one application where putting two lamps is parallel makes sense: light fixtures in hard-to-reach or safety-critical areas where redundancy is desirable. With only minor modifications at most, a conventional single lamp ballast can be connected to a pair of lamps in such a way that only one will light at any gi
