Lights of B&Q Toadstool - gear area after conversion
This Lights of B&Q Toadstool bollard light, dating back to 2007, is very unique in the fact it takes a 22w circular lamp. The only thing that let down is the HF ballast that cold started the tubes. 9 years after first purchasing it, I decided it was time to switch start it, so gathered the correct things together, made a wiring loom, and ripped the old driver out, and fitted a proper Schwabe ballast, and changed the lamp holder out to one with a built in starter socket. It now strikes perfectly hopefully adding years of life to the lamp, and years of reliability to the fixture.

The ballast itself needed two small holes drilling into it, which allowed me to secure it to the internal spine without modifying that, so in effect, the bulkhead as a whole is unmodified and if needed, could be converted back.

Lights of B&Q Toadstool - gear area after conversion

This Lights of B&Q Toadstool bollard light, dating back to 2007, is very unique in the fact it takes a 22w circular lamp. The only thing that let down is the HF ballast that cold started the tubes. 9 years after first purchasing it, I decided it was time to switch start it, so gathered the correct things together, made a wiring loom, and ripped the old driver out, and fitted a proper Schwabe ballast, and changed the lamp holder out to one with a built in starter socket. It now strikes perfectly hopefully adding years of life to the lamp, and years of reliability to the fixture.

The ballast itself needed two small holes drilling into it, which allowed me to secure it to the internal spine without modifying that, so in effect, the bulkhead as a whole is unmodified and if needed, could be converted back.

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fluorescent   [29 Jan, 2019 at 09:53 PM]
Nice tidy conversion. only small issue I see is the ballasts is rated at 230v. This should be ok if your voltage doesn't go much above 240, but if like here it hovers around 250, the tube will be a little bit overrun
FrontSideBus   [29 Jan, 2019 at 09:58 PM]
Very nice! VS ballasts run hot at the best of times lol.
Andy   [30 Jan, 2019 at 01:03 PM]
Good work! I like this Toadstool Smile
Ash   [01 Feb, 2019 at 09:32 PM]
Neat conversion. Be aware though that if there is moisture accumulating in th base of the column, it will evaporate upwards and tend to rust the ballast. Also, a Schwabe made in Greece ? That's a first to me. And a Schwabe not marked as VS as late as 1998 ? That's yet another first
Slyspark   [01 Feb, 2019 at 10:28 PM]
Common for bollards in the UK (at least prior to the LED plague) to have a ballast suspended like this in the post below the actual lantern. As long as it's lit every day, it'll drive away most of the moisture. It's bollards that son't get used very much that tend to have rusted out gear.

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