I noticed that my eyes feel tired with certain fluorescent lights in my office. I read that low frequency fluorescent lights can make eyes tired. Is there a tool I can purchase to measure the frequency of a fluorescent light source?
Measuring frequency of a fluorescent light source
fluorescent
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That component is called the starter. its a really inexpensive component that regulary fails on florescent lights. to remove you turn 1/4 rotations left and pull out. to check that its in turn right until it stops whilst pressing.
Any good lighting store will have replacement starters for your light.
Otherwise the things to check would be.
- check that the florescent is clicked in correctly, you will see that if the pins of the tube arent touching the contacts in the fitting it will not turn on. i.e. you need to rotate the tube so that the gold pins at the end of the tube sit horizontal with the ceiling.
- check if there is corrosion on the pins of the tube
- remove the tube (turn off light switch), then remove the backing plate look inside for wires that have been detached. the chinese lights I know have really weak connectors and the connectors are always failing
You can go T12, T8 or LED, and 2, 3 or 4 lamps. That is decided by which ballast you buy.
Instant, or Rapid/Programmed Start.
This is decided by the wiring of your fixture. Each bulb end has 2 pins because there's a small filament in each end of the bulb. Rapid or Programmed Start ballasts use both pins to preheat those filaments for an easy start and longer lamp life - so they have 2 wires to each end of each bulb. Instant start ballasts do not, so they only have 1 wire. If you have instant-start, stay with it - otherwise you may need to replace the lamp sockets.
T12 vs T8 vs LED
You probably have inventory of T12 bulbs, but they are basically obsolete. T8 bulbs are inexpensive, more efficient, have much better color rendition (typically starting at 80% CRI) and come in several light colors (3500K, 5100K etc.) Edit: since I wrote this I have started fitting 90CRI T8 tubes, readily available for under $2 each, they are marvelous. You don't see it in the tubes, but rather, in the stuff being lit up.
LEDs come in 2 flavors: "direct wire" (rewire the fixture for 120V on the lamp ends) or "keep the ballast". (no rewiring, the smarter LED emulates a bulb). The trouble with the second kind is you must maintain the ballast, and it must be of a certain type (i.e. instant start). With direct wire, you remove the ballast entirely and wire 120V to the lamp end(s). Some "direct wire" LEDs take the 120V on one end of the lamp (the other end is a dummy) - that can be a problem in a fixture with 1-wire sockets.
2, 3 or 4 bulbs
T8 bulbs are generally brighter than T12 bulbs. Look at the bulb rating in lumens, but multiply by the ballast factor (a percentage) - they make ballasts designed to underdrive or even overdrive the bulb's rating. Often when lighting is carefully designed, they replace 4 bulbs with 3 or 2, because T8's are brighter and/or because they found the space was "over-lit".
LED lumens are lower, but they're worth a lot more, because they're all aimed in the right direction - unlike fluorescents which waste a lot of energy lighting the backside of a reflector.
Sourcing
Changing ballasts is rather straightforward and I pay between $12 and $30 on 1000bulbs.com or other sources. I aim for middle to top shelf quality - my first choice is GE, and I find good deals on boxes of new ballasts on eBay. Edit: 4-lamp ballasts are readily available. The tactic of getting 3-lamp ballasts and only fitting 3 tubes works well with T8, as they are somewhat brighter.
I have also been doing great on eBay buying new or lightly used ballasts that were pulled from newish fixtures for LED upgrades. As low as $4 each.
I regularly see direct-wire LED replacement 4 foot "tubes" for under $10, often from 1000bulbs.com or superbrightLEDs.com.
It's pretty easy work if you don't mess with the lamp sockets - just get a big bag of "blue" wire-nuts, a stripper, and go to town. If your fixture is hard-wired, you must install "disconnecting means" - I power down, install half the connector on the hot lines, then power up and do everything else.
When I replace lamp socket ends ("tombstones"), I pay about 60-70 cents each for those, and they are fairly standard. But the labor gets pretty high.
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Best Answer
I personally have done this with a Greenlee clamp meter, a volt-meter with a Hz setting. I connected the meter to the terminals at the non-shunted end. Only do this with a Cat II or higher rated meter and only after the light has lit. Otherwise the meter will be subjected to the ignition voltage of near 1kV.
I rather liked the high-frequency ballasts that I installed. Went from 60Hz to 48kHz. These were Philips high frequency electronic ballasts.
I got T12 because I didn't want to replace the bulbs. I really should have at the time got T8 ballasts and replaced the bulbs.
I would not have traded for LED tubes. Most the the LED tubes are poor replacements they tend to be far too blue and also lack diffusers so you end up with point light sources brighter than the sun. Which exceeds the recommended the luminous contrast ratio between light and dark areas in a office work space. The point light sources are so bright that they make the area effectively darker.