I'm thinking of buying a
Osram Electronic Ballast which takes 2x36W T8 fluorescent tubes, but for now I only want to use a single 36W T8 tube*. It seems feasible to me that I should be able to safely just install one of the tubes; because presumably in a normal 2x 36W setup, when one of the tubes fails in service the ballast will keep the other one running. An absent tube is just a special kind of failed tube, right?
However, I'd like anyone with experience in these matters to confirm whether this is likely to work, or whether it might somehow damage the ballast. I've checked the datasheet for the ballast, and it doesn't specify anything about how it behaves under these circumstances. Any advice appreciated.
* Why not just buy the 1x36W ballast then, you ask? Well, I may want to double the output power of this thing in the future, and don't want to buy a whole new ballast when that day comes.