Lighting – Why are the fluorescent lights not working sometimes

lighting

I have a fluorescent light fixture in my kitchen, which uses u-shaped tubes.

A few weeks ago they just stopped working. I could turn the switch on and there'd just be no light. Not flickering which I've read indicates a bad bulb. No buzzing sound, which I read means the ballast is bad either.

To make things weirder, a couple days ago I absent mindedly flicked the switch and the lights came right on! Today they worked fine when I got home from work, but after cooking I turned the lights off… when I tried to turn them on again an hour or so later they wouldn't come back on.

So what could be causing this?

EDIT: I should note that I installed new bulbs and they didn't work until the other day… and now they've stopped again.

Best Answer

  1. Confirm your wall switch is good. Bad switches can be intermittent.
  2. Turn off the switch and take the tubes back out and put them back in making sure they're fully snapped in. It's worth a try. Don't go buy more, but if you have other new tubes try them.
  3. If the lights work for a period of time and go out on their own, that usually indicates an over-heating ballast - replace the ballast.
  4. Otherwise, the best test for a ballast is just what you did, try new tubes. If no luck, replace the ballast.
  5. While replacing the ballast, make sure all of the wires in the sockets are well connected. Give them each a little tug. If you can't get a wire to stay in a socket replace the socket, maybe replace all 4.
  6. Fluorescent lights need to be grounded to work properly. Make sure a ground wire is attached to the fixture. I've seen fluorescent lights, especially in old homes, where the people say they're always replacing tubes, and it's because the fixture isn't grounded.
  7. If you're going to replace the ballast or the entire fixture consider going with an electronic ballast maybe even T8 size tubes. Amazon sells the smaller clips you'd need for a retrofit to T8 U-Bent tubes - ASIN B00A3WGR0W.
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