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My double domes are wired a bit weird. One dome is all running off
120VAC as produced by the inverter, and the other dome has mostly
24VDC lights. This is mostly because they were originally all wired
120VAC, but I've been slowly rewiring them all to 24VDC. That way they
work even if the inverter is dead (which has happened to us recently)
24VDC is the best power for running the low-power, compact fluorescent. 12VDC just doesn't quite seem to power the ballast as well, and you can get flicker. I've also found that 4 pin bulbs work better than 2 pin bulbs. The 4 pin ones don't need a warm up time, so they come right on, with no flicker. I buy all my lights from Jade Mountain, as they not only have the best prices, they're also only 40 minutes drive away. Recently Jade Mountain got bought by Giam, who also owns Real Goods, so all of their alternate energy stuff has been moved to Real Goods. Some of these bulbs they don't seem to carry anymore. These energy efficient light bulbs are expensive up front, if you can find them. Lately, I've been able to find 120VAC CF bulbs in my local hardware store.
120V ACFor the few AC lights we have left, we only run 18 or more watt bulbs. This is because the new inverter, a Trace 4024, idles when not in use, with a threshold of 16 watts to come out of idle mode. With a 15 watt bulb, they just blink as the inverter cycles itself on and off...
24 Volt DCFor 24VDC lighting, you usually buy a ballast, that either gets wired into the socket, or a screw in adapter. The replaceable bulbs won't work without a ballast. The bulbs come in various styles, but I've standardized on the 4 pin ones, cause they seem to work much better than the 2 pin ones. You have to be real careful that you get a bulb that works with your ballast, even if they both use the same number of pins. As a note, the TFT Ballasts don't seem to work with any tubes I've ever ordered unless I grind off two little flanges of plastic that keep the bulb from plugging into the ballast.
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