There are a bunch of cheapo emergency ballasts up on ebay. Apparently they are required by code in some places and the surplus ends up there. From what I've been able to gleen they have 6 volt to 14.4 volt batteries and built in inverters to feed standard ac ballasts. Seems like with a little tweaking they could be a very cheap alternative to buying 12v fixtures.
Here is one example but a search of emergency ballast turns up a dozen or so other sellers:
http://cgi.ebay.com/FLOURESCENT-EMERGENCY-BALLAST_W0QQitemZ290171423599QQihZ019QQcategoryZ66915QQssP
ageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Don't see the point unless he is or is pimping for the seller.
