Electrical – Why do the fluorescent lights turn on slowly or not at all in the summer

electricalkitchenslightingtroubleshooting

We live in Florida, and the fluorescent lights in the kitchen turn on very slowly (if at all) in the summer. Other clues are:

  • They work fine in the early morning
  • Later in the day (hot day) they will not turn on immediately
  • These are ceiling light fixtures, above the ceiling is the (hot) attic
  • If you flick the switch back and forth rapidly, you may get lucky and the light comes on
  • This house was built in 1992, therefore probably an electronic ballast
  • Our Air Conditioning went out for all of last week, it stayed 85 degrees F in the house as a minimum and they never came on.

Is it the ballast?

Best Answer

Almost certainly the ballast, unless old enough to actually have a separate starter, at which point it becomes a tossup between ballast and starter - probably not from 1992. But a 1992 ballast is certainly ripe for replacement 22 years later. They don't live forever.

I have a few older ones I have not gotten around to replacing that are very humidity-sensitive (a little bit heat, a lot humidity...at least in my case.)

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