Replacement fluorescent tube?

scurr

Please help! Recently moved house and electrics are dodgy - fuse box trips about once every week to 10 days and all bulbs lasting much shorter time than I've ever had before.

In the kitchen the fluorescent tubes under the cabinets also go quite frequently and there's one which I can't find a replacement for - it's 3 feet long but it's skinny and the only 3ft tubes I can find are fat! I found skinny ones which are 2ft and 4ft, fat ones at 3ft and 4ft but can't get skinny 3ft anywhere! Any ideas??? If I even knew what to call them instead of fat and skinny I could try the internet...

zax47

T5 or T8 are your "skinny" tubes.

Large choice here and here.

duncan303

Hope you are ready for this:

Lamps are typically identified by a code such as F##T##, where F is for fluorescent, the first number indicates the power in watts (or where lamps can be operated at different power levels, the length in inches), the T indicates that the shape of the bulb is tubular, and the last number is the diameter in eighths of an inch (sometimes in millimeters, rounded to the nearest millimeter). Typical diameters are T12 or T38 (11/2" Ø or 38.1 mm Ø) for residential bulbs with old magnetic ballasts, T8 or T26 (1" Ø or 25.4 mm Ø) for commercial energy-saving lamps with electronic ballasts, and T5 or T16 (5/8" Ø or 15.875 mm Ø) for very small lamps, which may even operate from a battery powered device.


So you have a tube in inches and the diameter can be T2 T4 T5 T8 T9 T12

Take a look and see if you can find them say here at an online shop

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Menu_Index/Lamps_and_Tubes_Index/index.html

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