FLUORESCENT LIGHTS COMPLEX, BUT PROBLEMS EASY TO FIX (2024)

FAQs

What is the simplest problem with fluorescent lamps? ›

defective starters, defective bulbs or a defective ballast. IMPORTANT: Flickering fluorescent tubes can cause the ballast to overheat and fail prematurely! They can even cause a starter to burn out! Don't wait too long to fix the problem or you may end up with a bigger repair!

Potential causes:

No electrical power due to a tripped breaker or blown fuse. A dead or dying ballast. A dead starter.

If your fluorescent lighting starts to act like HID when you turn it on, and it's slow to reach full brightness (what lighting experts call illuminance), your ballast is most likely the culprit.

The most common signs of trouble include changing colors, buzzing, and dimming lights. Also, look for a delayed start, low light output, or inconsistent lighting levels. If you notice that your ballast has a swollen casing or burn marks, then it may be damaged.

The average life expectancy of a fluorescent light ballast is 10-15 years. Any ballast beyond that age should be considered to be at a heightened risk of failure.

For energy savings, reliability, and longevity – replace ballasts – not bulbs. In addition to energy efficiency issues, older ballasts simply do not offer the reflection geometry newer options do.

Since plug and play LEDs are compatible with ballasts, you can simply remove a fluorescent bulb and replace it with an LED. Since no additional modification or wiring is required, it's as easy as replacing incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs in your home.

A starter is a small part that helps to ignite the fluorescent parts that bring light to your fluorescent tube. The starter is implanted together with a conventional ballast as part of a fixture in which your fluorescent tube is placed. You don't need a starter when the tube works with an electronic ballast.

If a fluorescent tube shows no signs of life, check first to see that the fixture is plugged in and that no fuse or circuit breaker has blown or tripped. Also try wiggling the tube gently to make sure its ends are seated firmly in the sockets.

Can I replace my fluorescent tubes with LED? ›

Yes, you can replace fluorescent tubes with LED tubes or LED-integrated fixtures. If you just want to replace the bulbs, you can use plug-and-play, direct-wire, or hybrid LED tubes. Plug-and-play tubes are the easiest to install as they do not require any rewiring to the fixture.

According to the Certified Ballast Manufacturers Association, the average magnetic ballast lasts about 75,000 hours, or 12 to 15 years with normal use. The optimum economic life of a fluorescent lighting system with magnetic ballasts is usually about 15 years.

Check the Ballast with a Multimeter

Insert one probe into the wire connector while holding the white wires together. Touch the other probe to the ends of yellow, red, and blue wires coming from the ballast. Some might exclude the yellow. If the ballast doesn't cause the needle to move, you know it needs to be replaced.

If you have no idea your skill level but if you're asking about a ballast then you you need an electrician. Ballasts are as basic as they come. Personally I would ditch the fluorescents and install regular fixtures.

In short, YES!

New linear LED tube bulbs are simple plug-and-play and ballast compatible. You will simply need to remove your fluorescent bulb and plug in your LED light replacement. Read on for more info to support your decision to replace your linear fluorescent light bulbs with tube LEDs.

Unscrew both screws on the ballast, typically located on either side of it. Once you've removed it, you can simply throw the ballast away. Install new ballast. Insert the new ballast.

Issues with the Ballast

Without a properly operating ballast to limit the light's current, a fluorescent lamp connected to the electrical source would quickly and uncontrollably increase its current flow—causing the lamp to burning out. This is why a degrading ballast will cause the fluorescent lights to flicker.

The good news is that a typical ballast will generally last about 20 years, so you won't have to worry about replacing them very often. However, cold environments and bad bulbs can factor into the mix, causing the lifespan of the ballast to decrease significantly.

Emergency Ballasts contain a rechargeable battery and electronics that will allow for back-up power to a fixture during power outages, lighting an area for 90 minutes. Emergency ballasts are required by code in most areas to help light a person's way during an escape in low or no lighting emergency situations.

Overheated fluorescent lights can cause fires! Overheating of the ballast could result in the following: Ignition of nearby combustible materials. Explosion of the ballast due to the generation of gases inside.

What is the most efficient fluorescent ballast? ›

Instant Start Ballast

This is the most efficient type of ballast. With instant start ballasts you must know the burn time of your lamps. Instant-start is a good choice for applications where the lamps burn for 6 hours or more.

Fluorescent lights use either an electronic or a magnetic ballast. Nowadays, magnetic ballasts are a rather outdated technology that manufacturers are phasing out, and so they're usually only found on older types of lights.

Socket compatibility When bypassing the ballast, you may need to change your sockets from the most common shunted sockets to non-shunted sockets. Non-shunted sockets are required if you're using single-ended tubes. This will require a small amount of additional material cost and more labor to replace them all.

Electrical ballasts lose energy due to heat loss. Ballasts limit electrical current in electrical devices such as fluorescent lights. However, they lose energy when they operate because of the way that they are constructed.

Waveform Lighting's T8 LED tube lights feature compatibility with all ballast configurations (ballast, ballast bypass single ended, ballast bypass double ended), so they can safely be used in T12 fixtures as long as the T12 ballast is bypassed or removed.

Fluorescent lights need a ballast to produce light. The ballast regulates the amount of electricity flowing to the bulb. Replacing this component will return your fluorescent lights back to optimal operation, and the task can take as little as 10 minutes. If you don't know how to replace a light ballast, don't worry!

LED tube lights are increasingly used to replace fluorescent lights. Compared to fluorescents, LED lighting lasts longer, is more energy efficient and uses no mercury.

The plug and play LED lights looks and are used like any ordinary fluorescent tube. Replacing a fluorescent tube with plug and play LED Tube lights is easy as they can be used without a ballast. It does not need any additional modification and is simple to install, like any incandescent or LED tube lights.

Can you use a fluorescent bulb without a ballast? ›

All fluorescent bulbs require a ballast. All compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs require a ballast, which is often integrated. All HID bulbs require a ballast, which is sometimes integrated. No LED bulbs require a ballast, although some are engineered to work with an existing ballast.

When should I replace my fluorescent starter? If your tubes aren't efficient enough at igniting and have inconsistent lighting, that's a sign you need to replace your starter. Another sign of a bad starter is that your tube takes longer than usual to start or flicker more often, signaling a malfunction.

Fluorescent starters can be identified by a designated wattage written on the side. The wattage is directly related to the length of the fluorescent tube it is designed to work with.

A dead fluorescent can be caused by lack of electrical power (tripped breaker or blown fuse), a dead or dying ballast, a dead starter or a dead bulb(s). Check for power first... then the starter (if applicable) and then the bulbs. When all else fails, the ballast should be replaced.

Lamp flickers or swirls around: If the tube is new, wait until it has been in use for some hours. If the swirling and flickering continue, try installing a new starter - the small, round canlike object that fits under one end of the tube.

The main difference between T8 and T12 tubes is the tube's diameter. T12 tubes are 1.5" in diameter while T8s are just one inch. All other things—socket sizes, lengths, distance between pins—are the same. T8 LED tubes won't fall out if you try to install them in a T12 fixture—they'll fit just fine.

If your fluorescent lighting starts to act like HID when you turn it on, and it's slow to reach full brightness (what lighting experts call illuminance), your ballast is most likely the culprit.

Ballast failure is often caused by the surrounding environment—mainly heat and moisture. When it's too hot or too cold, a ballast can burn or fail to start your lamps. Heat, along with continuous condensation inside an electronic ballast, can cause corrosion over time.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of fluorescent lighting? ›

In fact, fluorescent bulbs don't lose any “life” when left on for up to three hours. To understand why this is the case, you need to understand "burn time." Fluorescent lights have a coating of electrodes that allow them to work. The light burns off a small amount of those electrodes every time you turn it on.

While a regular (incandescent) light bulb uses heat to produce light, a fluorescent bulb creates light using an entirely different method that is far more energy- efficient, in fact, 4-6 times more efficient.

LEDs have an extremely long lifespan relative to every other lighting technology (including fluorescent lights). New LEDs can last 50,000 to 100,000 hours or more. The typical lifespan for a fluorescent bulb, by comparison, is 10-25% as long at best (roughly 10,000 hours).

Compared to fluorescent bulbs, LED lights are up to 80% more efficient. Unlike fluorescent lights, LED lights convert 95% of their energy into light and only 5% is wasted as heat; this is all while still using far less power to provide a strong and consistent output at a lower wattage.

Light from a fluorescent bulb looks slightly different from sunlight because it is made of a different combination of colors. The Sun emits a nearly continuous spectrum (a complete rainbow), while fluorescent bulbs emit some colors of the rainbow and not others.

Its job is to protect the fluorescent bulbs by controlling the flow of electrical current into the fixture. Since fluorescent bulbs cannot regulate current on their own, without a ballast, the bulbs can draw too much power and burn out.

All fluorescent bulbs require a ballast. All compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs require a ballast, which is often integrated. All HID bulbs require a ballast, which is sometimes integrated. No LED bulbs require a ballast, although some are engineered to work with an existing ballast.

In 2022, Vermont and California became the first states to phase out the sale of most fluorescent bulbs. Now a number of other states are considering action to phase out sales of the most common fluorescent bulbs by 2025.

CFL Bulb. CFL bulbs are 75% more energy-efficient than incandescent lights. You only add approximately $1.65 to your electric bills if you keep this bulb type on for 1000 hours. However, the on-off operation of a compact fluorescent light can impact its life span.

What are the longest lasting fluorescent tubes? ›

T8 fluorescent tubes are commonly rated for 20,000 life hours, but range from 7,500 hours to 46,000 hours for standard T8 tubes. More energy efficient fluorescent T8 lamps can have a rated lifespan of up to 84,000 hours.

Overheated fluorescent lights can cause fires! Overheating of the ballast could result in the following: Ignition of nearby combustible materials. Explosion of the ballast due to the generation of gases inside.

Conclusion. Incandescent light bulbs burn much hotter than compact fluorescent light bulbs do. They possess very different properties—incandescent bulbs rely upon metals, gas and heat, while CFL's rely more upon a reaction between the internal and outside materials.