well the bulbs are designed to consume a certian amount of power at a spicific current.. the 32 watt and the 28 watt are based on the same curent. not knowing what the current requirment is exactly i can only use a false # to explain.. say the current is .25 amps that thease bulbs are designed at.. the 32 watt one will will consume 32 watts with a supply curent of .25 amps.. which for the same amprage the other one will consume 28 watts.. so all the ballast does is act as a regulated current supply, and as long as you don't excede the total wattage rating for the ballast it will run any PC that requires a curent supply of 0.25 amp. so now you can look at the 4' floressent tubes in your kitchen.. the standard is a 40 watt NO tube, that will consume 40 watts on supplied current of 400mA, a few years ago when this power smart stuff started there was a version of the 4' NO released that only consumes 32 watts on a supplied current of 400mA so you save 8 watts of power by switching to the energy saver bulb.. and all you have to switch is the bulb its self.
SamW, you will probably consume a little more than the wattage of the bulbs as some power is lost to heat.. depends on the eficiency of the ballast..
Steve
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