Florecent lights keep burning out?!

[clevere1]

I have older florescent lights in my kitchen. The one fixture keeps eating light bulbs, but only one bulb of the two (always on the same side) keeps going out.. Any idea what might be going on?

[clevere1]

Can I just replace the ballast transformer?

[RBM]

[RBM]

[jwalters]

[Joseph Meehan]

Yes, but you may want to replace the whole thing with a fixture designed for the newer higher efficiency T-8 lamps. They are really a lot nicer.

[clevere]

Obviously you have no clue as to what you are talking about. Obvious your simple minded and jump to conclusions. This fixture was installed into the home, by the manufacturer in the 80's. Don't like it? Tough shit, go back to your hole.

[clevere]

Hmm .. I've never smelled anything burning, and the lights don't go out after a short time. Just one side of the lamp tends to burn out bulbs in a quick fashion (like a week after the bulb is installed). Nope, I don't think it uses starters, the bulb simply goes up into the fixture, and I twist it into place. 48" bulbs.

[TKM]

It is very rare for a fluorescent lamp ballast to fail such that the lamps are "overpowered". The ballast is much more liable to show symptoms of failure by overheating (strong smell of something burning) or the lights going off after a short operating period as the built-in thermal protector operates.

Short lamp life could also be due to poor connections at the sockets, a faulty wiring connection or the wrong tube used for replacement.

You didn't say whether or not the fixture uses starters (little metal cans that fit into holes in the fixture). If so, there could be other reasons for tube failure. What length are the tubes?

TKM

[stretch]

John, This is the internet! You assume that there are union electricians where he lives. What makes you think he lives in Los Angeles, Much less California or even the United States? Getting an electrician to replace light bulbs is ludicrous. I can just imagine the response if I told my customers that they had to hire me to replace air filters! If you need that kind of scare tactics to keep your job safe, you are already in deep s--t! He MAY need an electrician to replace the fixture or the malast, but NOT to change light bulbs! Get a life!!

Stretch

[djay]

Agree,

Check the connections between the ballast and the sockets. Likely you'll find that one of the the pins that service the "grounded" side is faulty. Both pins on power side as well as the ground side need to be connected.

Djay

[MTLnews]

How do you know it wasn't installed by a licensed electrician? He made no mention of who installed it...

Every state and province is different on how they handle minor electrical work, and what will and won't affect your insurance. I did all my own rewiring in an old home, and then just had it inspected by my electrician when I had him replace my main breaker panel and line in [(upgraded to a

200A) which I didn't feel like playing with for obvious reasons ]. In many places, only the inspection is mandatory from either a licensed electrician or the city building inspector.

Ya sure, I will wait for a licensed electrician to pull up his pants, put his beer down, maybe make all the way to my house, to turn unscrew a fuse for me, when my hot water tank starts leaking, and the elements are burning red hot dry, just waiting to catch everything on fire. Many of the older houses were wired to meet the code requirements of the time they were built, which are obviously not comparable to today. Sometimes you have no choice. And like I'm going to call my electrician every heating season to turn the brakers on to my electric boiler and circulation pumps, and then turn off the breaker at the end of the season... And if everyone had to call an electrician to change a light bulb (lol), then electricians would be millionaires, and homeowners would barely be able to make the bills. Bottom line is to use common sense. If you feel comfortable, then take precautions and do whatever you can (assuming the law permits it in your area). For more complicated circuits, ask your licensed electrician for advice, or have him do it. You don't want to overload any wiring, and risk a fire. If you don't feel comfortable, them hire a licensed electrician for all wiring, and do yourself a favor and get yourself a city permit for the work. That way the work will get inspected, and crappy/lazy licensed electricians who like to take shortcuts, will usually stay away from the job, and you will get a reasonable job done.

Great story, but I am sure it was shortened to leave out the details on the type of bulb, and location where this happened. Not many of todays lights contain TOXIC gasses. Some may get you high, some can make you a little nautious, but not toxic (especially in the quantities contained in 1 bulb)..

I have nothing against electricians, but trying to scare people is not a way to get business. And electricians are not GODs, no matter what you may think. For every good licensed electrician who is honest, does everything by code, and doesn't cut corners, there are 3 of them that only care to get the money and run, regardless of the consequences after they are gone. Their work is marginal at best. Those are also the ones which will try to convince you that it is a small job, and you don't need a permit, no need to spend extra money.. Permit is there, to assure it gets inspected, and it protects BOTH parties.

[clevere1]

Hmm .. Yup, that is beyond me. I'll give my electrican a call and have him come out and look at it. (Me and live wires don't get along).

Thanks all for your advice.

professional

[Joseph Meehan]

[e-mail] wrote: ....

I hope that was posted by a troll, I would hate to think that any union would accept this "John" into their profession.

[Goedjn]

The trouble with sarcasm and irony on the internet is that it's impossible to say anything so off the wall but what, someone, somewhere, really means.

[TKM]

SNIP...

O.K. that helps. It sounds like you have a rapid start ballast (no starters) operating 2 F40T12 tubes. That's an old, but very common, arrangement.

I'll guess your problem is lack of preheat. There is about 3.5 volts between the pins at each end of your tubes. If that voltage is not there, the tube can do what's called "instant start" and that can force a tube to end-of-life in short order, but the process usually takes months, not weeks. But if the preheat is missing, it may also be that the tube just won't start with the available voltage after a short time. The tube hasn't failed completely and might even work in another socket. Have you tried putting "failed" tubes into other sockets that appear to work properly?

Lack of preheat can be due to a bad socket, faulty wiring or an internal fault in the ballast. You can check all those things easily, but don't try it unless you know what you're doing around electricity since the power has to be on. There are fairly high voltages involved. The other choice is to replace the ballast, wiring and lamp sockets. You can do that yourself since the power will be off, but it may be time to arrange for professional help. You can still find T12 lamps and ballasts, but it would be more energy efficient to use T8 lamps powered by an electronic ballast for the replacement. The T8 parts fit into your present fixture and they are readily available at HD and many hardware stores.

TKM

[Brett Miller]

Along that line of thought, one should call a plumber to flush the toilet and to turn on and set the water's tempature.

Along those stupid lines of thougth is this.... If a person has a Certified Nursing Assistant giving them care, the CNA, because it is outside of their scope of practice, cannot give the person medication. However, a family member, or a friend of the person can give them medication.

I hope your message was a satire, else I'd have to agree with the others.