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JW:
Im still driving the bulbs with the IOTA 12v ballast. Today I got my special order FO40T8 bulbs. There 60inch T8's with daylight color(6500k).
 


 Actually I had a bit of a hard time with it at first. The FO30T8's are only 30inch long. They light up quick an bright.
 Now today at lunch, I hooked up the IOTA ballast to the new bulb.
 


At first I was blown away by the brightness of the bulb, then this arrent arc swirled around in the tube and made a black spot right in front of my eyes. This did not happen with the 3 other bulbs I got. Just one of those things I guess.



After that the bulb light-up normally and pulsed abit, it seemed fine.
 


I have noticed the flicker goes completly away if the 'longwire' on the ballast output connects to the side of the bulb with the writing. That's just my wiring recomendation, may not even matter. With the 30inch bulbs this was a non-issue, may just have to do with the bulb warming up.
JW

JW:
Like I said on Norm's Post.
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/11/8/235534/841
 I installed like 32 FO40T8's, I used AC ballasts for this, they are the Intellivolt type.
When I connected these ballasts, they had 2 blue wires, 2 red wires, and 2 yellow wires, one for each red and blue pair, and yellow for the commons.
Now as im istalling these bulbs(lamps) Im thinking it doesnt matter which way the ends of the bulbs have to face when inserted.
 I just realized that the lable on the bulb should face the red or blue wires not the yellow.
 Im looking at the bulb life of 20,000hours for these bulbs and I bet somewhere in the fine print, WITH THE AC BALLASTS, the bulbs must be alighned for polarity for the longest possible working life....
Just a wandering thought.
JW

Ungrounded Lightning Rod:
The only difference between the ends of a fluorescent light is that one has a label printed on it.
You'll only get unequal wear on the lamp if the ballast is providing different amounts of heater current to the two ends or has a DC bias in the current down the lamp (or a goofy waveform that does something similar).  If that's the case, swap the ends of the lamp once a year or so.
Fluorescent lights start out a little flakey - dim and flickering - when first put into use.  But that clears up after a few hours.  (I think it's because some of the mercury is absorbed into the phosphor during manufacturing and shipping and has to be "baked out" by a couple hours operation to get the vapor pressure up to the design level, after which the tube operates normally.)  During the burn-in the arc acts more like a narrow, dancing, spark between the ends than a wide plasma column.  So the lamp will be dim and you'll sometimes see flickering, "crawling snakes", and other pathologies.

DanG:
Many fluorescent tubes require a ground plane to be within a short air gap of the tube, the 1/4 turn standoff sockets are engineered to hold the glass envelope a certain distance from a metal reflector is a hidden purpose. Architectural constraints have them putting a painted conductive stripe down the side of the 'U' shaped tubes to ensure the arc has a 'guide' to follow in non-traiditional installations. However you end up hanging your lights having them bare as you are showing in the photos isn't the best, note the burned spot - having a spring steel hanger rod or bar might serve double purpose keeping the arc stable and help dealing with short and stray circuits with the HV ballast around salt water..

wooferhound:
Yes, A ground should run in very close proximity to a Fluorescent light bulb for proper starting and operation.

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