Our kitchen lighting is three individual 4 foot fluorescent fixtures hidden above a drop ceiling with frosted panels. Typical shop lamp housings. Recently started an odd behavior - when you flip the switch none come on. After a while one will, and then the others. Or one comes on intially and then the other two join when they good and feel like it. I've replaced at least a couple of ballasts in the past when the bulbs dimmed and flickered. I don't know how the wiring runs in the attic. Is it possible that one bad ballast could cause this? I guess I'll start monitoring which ones turn on and when to see if it's the same pattern to the startup?
imgon
HalfDork
7/11/21 4:13 p.m.
Sounds like the lamps and/or ballasts are on the way out. If the lamps are getting dark on the ends it's time to swap everything. Switch to an LED fixture in place of current light. Depending what you want for light out put get a " single lamp" for just decent lighting or "2 lamp" for really bright. If you get a real LED fixture they doesn't have lamps anymore.
You can also get "direct wire" LED T8 replacements.
Sounds like a ballast. I am not a fan of LED lighting, but many people are. Between my two garage spaces, I've got 12 8-foot fluorescent tubes, so I'm stockpiling a few replacements. Maybe I need to lay in a few ballasts as well.
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
I've been trying to give away an entire box of 8' fluorescent bulbs on FB for months.
In reply to hobiercr :
Contact your local Pro Wrestling promotion. I'm sure they can put them to good use.
hobiercr said:
In reply to 1988RedT2 :
I've been trying to give away an entire box of 8' fluorescent bulbs on FB for months.
That reminds me I have a few partial boxes of 4' bulbs as well as a few T8 fixtures still NIB. I've gone LED in the garage, basement and attic, so I have no use for these... So I need to put them on FB too. I'm sure some anti-LED curmudgeon around here will want them. Granted, hard to know if such person would be on FB. Hmm...
RevRico
UltimaDork
7/12/21 10:00 a.m.
1988RedT2 said:
I am not a fan of LED lighting, but many people are.
Alright, I'm curious. Why?
Is it the lack of noise? Lack of flickering? Length of bulb life? Lack of heat(this I can understand in some circumstances)? Larger color temperature availability? Lower electrical usage? Just because it's "new and different"? The consistency to start and run at any ambient temperature? Lack of explosions when dropped, rained on, sprayed with fluid, or smacked with something taller than you thought? Ease of finding replacements?
RevRico said:
1988RedT2 said:
I am not a fan of LED lighting, but many people are.
Alright, I'm curious. Why?
Is it the lack of noise? Lack of flickering? Length of bulb life? Lack of heat(this I can understand in some circumstances)? Larger color temperature availability? Lower electrical usage? Just because it's "new and different"? The consistency to start and run at any ambient temperature? Lack of explosions when dropped, rained on, sprayed with fluid, or smacked with something taller than you thought? Ease of finding replacements?
So much this. Once LED got cheap enough, I couldn't wait to get rid of every single fluorescent light in my possession. Good riddance.
RevRico said:
1988RedT2 said:
I am not a fan of LED lighting, but many people are.
Alright, I'm curious. Why?
Is it the lack of noise? Lack of flickering? Length of bulb life? Lack of heat(this I can understand in some circumstances)? Larger color temperature availability? Lower electrical usage? Just because it's "new and different"? The consistency to start and run at any ambient temperature? Lack of explosions when dropped, rained on, sprayed with fluid, or smacked with something taller than you thought? Ease of finding replacements?
Never noticed the noise. They're about nine feet above the floor. In a garage. Never had an issue with flicker. Bulb life is better than the few LED's I've tried. I've been here 20 years. I've replaced every bulb once, some twice.
LED's just look messed up to me. The light isn't right. Too much blue.
I've never had an issue with the other stuff you mention.
Politics and mob-think will ensure that any reports alleging harmful effects of LED will be squelched. Kind of like cell phones and brain cancer. But there is some dissent:
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/are-led-lights-damaging-your-retina/
https://www.consumerreports.org/cell-phones/what-the-cell-phone-brain-cancer-study-means-for-you/
https://ehtrust.org/swiss-re-classifies-5g-as-high-risk-in-white-paper/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27012122/
https://www.darksky.org/ama-report-affirms-human-health-impacts-from-leds/
https://ece.northeastern.edu/groups/power/lehman/Publications/Pub2010/2010_9_Wilkins.pdf
