Fluorescent lights upat ends only [House]

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From: Stan Brown on 20 Mar 2010 14:26

I have under-cabinet lighting, traditional fluorescent tubes. One of
them lights up at the ends only. I've tried removing and reinserting
it, with no improvement. There's no audible buzz or hum. The
fixture takes only the one tube.

Is it likely to be the ballast, or something else? And is the
ballast that little silery-metal cylindrical thing, about an inch in
length and maybe 3/4 of an inch in diameter?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

From: Gary Heston on 20 Mar 2010 17:10

In article <MPG.260edd665ff8ad2898c073(a)news.individual.net>,
Stan Brown <the_stan_brown(a)fastmail.fm> wrote:
>I have under-cabinet lighting, traditional fluorescent tubes. One of
>them lights up at the ends only. I've tried removing and reinserting
>it, with no improvement. There's no audible buzz or hum. The
>fixture takes only the one tube.

Tried a lamp from one of the other fixtures? That's a quick way to
determine which is at fault.

>Is it likely to be the ballast, or something else? And is the
>ballast that little silery-metal cylindrical thing, about an inch in
>length and maybe 3/4 of an inch in diameter?

That's the starter; some older fixture had separate starters, virtually
all larger ones have the starter built into the ballast.

Try moving one from the another fixture, if it turns out to not be
the lamp.

Gary

--
Gary Heston gheston(a)hiwaay.net http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

"It's kind of hard to rally 'round a math class."
Paul "Bear" Bryant

From: Stan Brown on 21 Mar 2010 08:07

From: Stan Brown on 25 Mar 2010 22:04

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:10:00 -0500 from Gary Heston
<gheston(a)hiwaay.net>:
>
> In article <MPG.260edd665ff8ad2898c073(a)news.individual.net>,
> Stan Brown <the_stan_brown(a)fastmail.fm> wrote:
> >I have under-cabinet lighting, traditional fluorescent tubes. One of
> >them lights up at the ends only. I've tried removing and reinserting
> >it, with no improvement. There's no audible buzz or hum. The
> >fixture takes only the one tube.
>
> Tried a lamp from one of the other fixtures? That's a quick way to
> determine which is at fault.

I also saw on a Web site that a lamp that is dark at both ends (when
not under power) is likely bad or near the end of its life. This
tube was white for its entire length.

> That's the starter; some older fixture had separate starters,
> virtually all larger ones have the starter built into the ballast.

Thanks! Oddly enough the other fixture has a place for punching out
a hole for the starter, but no actual starter. So it must have a
newer-style ballast. (These fixtures were in the house when I bought
it four years ago, and until recently I just ignored them.)

I would not have known the name "starter" without you. I took the
one that I had to lowe's and found that they were sold in blister
packs, two starters for $1.98. that seemed little enough to risk, so
I bought a pack. Sure enough, the starter had been bad, and I now
have under-cabinet lighting.

Of course, all is not well. The ballasts are he old magnetic ones,
and one of them buzzes quite loudly. So I just don't use that
fixture, because I don't want to replace the ballast. (There's a
master switch for the three of them, but they have individual
switches as well.)

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

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