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Old 03-05-2004, 03:11 PM   #2 (permalink)
GulfCoastAquarian
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Just taking a quick look at their description, I believe what they are calling a "Starter Unit" is an Electronic Ballast. It is quite possible that you could use the 40watt electronic ballast to overdrive your 20w bulbs but the ballast could also be load-sensing and you might not get a single extra watt of light. Or it might not have a current limiting device and burn out when presented with the low-resistance 20w bulb instead of the longer 40w tube it was expecting to see.

If it hasn't been tried before, and you're not competent with electricity, I wouldn't recommend utilizing those ballast any other way than the manufacturer recommends.
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