I Need Electrical Help!

[bky]

As stated earlyer it sounds as if you have a bad conn possably a nuteral check all the cooections on all the fixtures switch box and panel.

 

[wushaw]

Bird, Your dealing with some female ballast...good some days... bad other days

Ok you put in new bulbs in how old fixtures??? that are now giving you problems.
Bad ballast....replace ballast or complete lamp assembly with electronic units.

When you touch the lamp is an indication of bad ballast or it is a cold day and you have mechanical ballast...the ones that hum. I know it's not due to the cold, it's 85deg outside.

 

[Bird]

Al, the house was built in '91, but I don't know whether those light fixtures were installed at that time or later. Temperature in the shop has been 70-75 degrees. I guess the ballasts could be going bad, but I've no experience with any going bad without visible, audible, or auditory indications.

 

[Marine1]

That's true. Why would they all work great for over 2 months, then start erratic operation. And when they do come on, they're good and bright.

The Prongs in the lamp holders are like very thin blades and are designed to run high voltages through them as the xfmr steps up the voltage to ignite the cathode in the lamp end. If the lamps are of the wrong type then the lamps will burn at a hotter temp increasing the vibration of the lamp. This will cause more heat to the prongs in the lampholder which will also cause more expansion and contraction and if the prongs are not making a good enough connection then there will undoubtedly be some arcing. This arcing will further degrade the integrity of the lampholder as you can imagine and over time you will have failures. When you touch the lamps they make the contact needed to ignite and they will burn for you. Sometimes making that connection will cause a sizzle sound at the lampholder if the damage is severe. Listen for it.

Pull the lamps out and look at the pins on the ends of the lamp. They may show signs of burning and even small pock marks where arcing may have occurred. The more likely spot to find damage is in the lampholder. Another sign of a bad lampholder is a deformed or bent prong inside the lampholder. I think I forgot to mention that one.

I am thinking that you have a combination of lampholder failure and wrong type lamps. That's where I would start anyway. I hope I am making sense.

Good luck.

 

[Harvster]

If you have to replace the ballasts go with GE Ultramax T8 electronic ballasts. They light instantly when you throw the switch and are dead silent, not a softer buzz......SILENT. I have a fixture in my kitchen that has eight tubes. When I bought the house three were working. I bought two GE Ultramax ballasts to replace the magnetic ones. They are about one third the weight and were pretty simple to wire. The sound went from a tablesaw on the roof sounding buzz to moth F@#T quiet. I paid about $20 apiece and it was absolutely worth it. You do need to get T8 tubes though.

 

[Marine1]

Bird,
Do not discount the ballast just because there are no signs of wear. I have seen ballasts that look new that were bad. I was merely stating obvious failure clues.I do not think all your ballasts have gone out at the same time.

I bring this up because if you decide to change the ballasts out definitely go with the electronics. They burn cooler and use about a third of the energy. They have no humming sound and the lamps will not have that subtle flicker that can be seen out the corner of your eye. If you are going to retrofit them then checking and changing the lampholders if needed is a good time to do it. You will need to get the T-8 lamps as someone stated before.

Again, I do not believe that all your ballasts are out but changing them out is something to consider. There will be some up front cost though. I do not think that it is necessary at this point but as you go along change any bad ballasts out with electronic ones. You won't be sorry.

 

[wushaw]

Bird, I know all three fixtures going out at the same time is weird but I have seen all four headlights on a Boeing 727 out at the same time and all were burned out....commercial airplane lights get checked by mechanics every few days if not everyday. Also had both radio altimeters go out on same type plane in one day also....it can happen

 

[Bird]

I have seen all four headlights on a Boeing 727 out at the same time

Yeah, but I'll bet they didn't work intermittently. That's the thing that I don't understand with these fluorescent lights; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

 

[WayneB]

Yeah, but I'll bet they didn't work intermittently. That's the thing that I don't understand with these fluorescent lights; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

Bird when you get it all figured out let us know. I have the same problem with the lamps in my shop I replaced them all, deal from HD for the lamps, cheap. Well now I have to hand start half of them everytime I go in. I recently bought new fixtures and will be installing them in the near future.

Wayne

 

[duber34]

I had similar problems when I changed out the tubes on four 48" fixtures in my basement. I swapped out old G.E. tubes (1 was burned out and the others were black on the ends.) with Phillips tubes. First thing I noticed was that the lights intermittently needed to be jiggled in order to start. Then I had 2 of them just burn out after about 3 months. I went out and purchased Sylvania bulbs and RE-replaced all of the bulbs. Me and my lights have been much happier ever since.

I agree with Jinman. Try changing the brand of bulb. Maybe try it on a couple of lights first just to see if it works....... Good luck Bird.


Regards,
Duber