# Problem with T12 Ballast?



## KBM (Feb 25, 2010)

Having a problem with lighting I was going to use for wheat grass.
I have 3 ballast ( 2 new) which are equipped for 4ft T12 Florescent bulbs. I have bought brand new 40watt tubes, 6500k and they are supposed to put out 3050 lumens per bulb. When I turned it on I noticed they did not seem to bright and my light meter was picking up really low readings, below 200 lumens when it was right against the tubes. I decided to plug them each into a energy meter, one ballast is only using 28 watts, the other 32, and the third  reads 57 watts. Whats going on here? Since its 2 40watt tubes per ballast shouldnt it be using 80 watts?


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