Fluorescent fixture problem

Re: Fluorescent fixture problem

Jack Guzman from Maine

Check the contacts in the ends. If they make good contact and aren't broken you probably need a regulator. You can get them anywhere they sell electric supplies. Regulators are sometimes more expensive than the whole fixture was new. The regulators they use are cheap so you are actually upgrading your light.

Re: Fluorescent fixture problem

Bill Howatt

If it is the regulator which I assume is a name for the ballast, consider putting the money toward LED replacement tubes. Bit of re-wiring is required but it is simple.

Bill

+1 on LED replacements

Yonak

No re-wiring required on tubes I bought on sale at Lowe's that work perfectly well.

Ballast is correct

Jack Guzman from Maine

I couldn't remember what it was called

Re: Fluorescent fixture problem

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

For years my advice would have been replace the ballast. Common problem you have.

No longer. LED 4' fixtures have become so good in terms of light output at the working surface and color quality that I don't think it makes any sense to replace a T12 ballast. As my fluorescent fixtures die I am replacing with LED. Picked up some at Rural King for less then $30. 6000 lumen

LED replacement is the way to go

JL

I have a suspended ceiling - so I use drop in troffers.

When it came time to replace bulbs in one case and ballast and bulbs in another, I chose to replace everything w/ drop in LED troffers. What a difference - I can see everything (mixed blessing ).

Go for LED, if you are a Costco member - they often have LED fixtures at a reasonable price. I have also seen them at HD and other places.

Re: +1 on LED replacements

Bill White

Yonak, are the Lowe's bulbs just a plug-and-play or do you have the remove the ballast and rewire?

Re: +1 on LED replacements

Yonak

The ones I bought are plug & play. They work fine, produce good light and don't flicker

About just lamp replacement

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

A quality LED fixture is a combination of LED lamps that generate light with the proper combination of wavelengths and brightness and a reflector system that captures and directs this light efficiently to the target surface. If you put LED lamps in a "cheap(low quality) fixture you are going to have a low quality source of light because the fixture is not optimized for the light source.

Re: +1 on LED replacements

Bill White

Thanks for the reply. Do ya remember the stock number? I'm lookin' to replace my tubes with LEDs.

But...

Bill Howatt

Aren't you using extra energy powering a ballast that is not really needed. Also, aren't those tubes more expensive than the "remove the ballast from the circuit" tubes?

Bill

Also....

David Bassett

Do those tubes work once the ballast goes out? (As seems to be the case for OP.)

Re: About just lamp replacement

kneale brownson

I've been buying Commercial Electric four-foot "LED prismatic wrap" lights. Part number 1003866689. I purchased in the past at both Lowes and Home Depot. Last batch I ordered from HD because they weren't in the local stores.

They need either a pigtail wired in or, as I have done in several instances, direct wiring in place of a ceiling fixture. They have a metal housing/reflector and a plastic diverter lens that seems to work well.

If you have hanging flourescents, you could tear out the electric plumbing and screw the CE fixture to the reflector of your lamp.

I started installing these in my wife's knitting/sewing/quilting spaces after she had a macular hemorrhage in her "good" eye that made it very difficult for her to see in anything but bright light. Fortunately, injections seem to be helping the eye improve.