We have an overhead fluorescent lighting system in our office building. Can we remove some of the fluorescent lamps and save energy?
A – The answer is complicated because there are different types of ballasts. A fluorescent lamp requires a ballast, which is a type of electrical device, to operate. For standard 4-foot lamps, you are most likely to have one of the following: * The most common ballast is a two-lamp magnetic ballast. You probably have this type of ballast if you are using F40T12 lamps. It is a series ballast, which means that if you remove one lamp, the remaining lamp will glow dimly and sputter. You should not remove a lamp from this type of ballast to save energy. (There are also three-lamp magnetic ballasts and four-lamp magnetic ballasts, and they are parallel-series types that will behave much like a two-lamp ballast, above. These are very rare, however.) * There are single lamp magnetic ballasts. Removing a lamp won’t have any effect on any other lamps, but the ballast will continue to draw some energy. Removing a lamp does save energy, but not nearly as much as when you also disconnect the ballas
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