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Commercial ballasts tend to use a real transformer with lots of copper, and power factor correction capacitors. El cheapo shop lights use a wimpy little ballast, or some little solid-state starter do-dad. The el-cheapo fixtures are tougher on any bulb than they should be. Some years ago, I built a large shop, and bought a bunch of the el-cheapo's to hang temporarily until the ceiling was finished off, and the permanent wiring installed. With being on all day, they ate bulbs like crazy. A friend of mine built a shop a few years later, mentioned he was going to use the cheap 4' flourescents. I cautioned him against it due to the short bulb life. He had already bought the fixtures, and hung them. A year or two later he pulled them all out and replaced them with commercial units, as he was tired of replacing bulbs up at to 18 foot ceiling. I suspect you will have no problems with the free bulbs you have when using them in your older fixtures with "real" ballasts. As I'm sure you realize, at 34 watts for a 48" tube, your new bulbs are "energy savers", as the standard wattage for the 48" tubes would be 40 watts.
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