Easy fix for T12 ballast hum?

[riskyvt]

I have installed 6 rows of flourescent lights into my shop, and everything is working just fine. The light fixtures (Lithonia) were purchased from Grainger, as were the bulbs. My only complaint is that the ballasts seem to hum louder than I'd like. They're T12 magnetic and are firing off 95 watt bulbs. There is plenty of light.

Would I be able to remove the humming by using a different ballast? I'm reading some things about the benefits of T8 ballasts, but would that require changing out the fixture and/or bulbs too?

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Short answer, no, nothing you do will have any real effect on the hum, its there and isn't going away. I'm surprised Grainger even sells the T12's any longer, they are fast going the way of the dinosaur and are mostly found as replacements for existing fixtures. All of the T12's at work (thousands of them) are being converted to T8's at the bulbs need replacing.

Charles

 

[rsanter]

I am not sure that the T12s are going away, but the magnetic ballasts are going away.
a switch to electronic ballast is a good thing and a switch to T8s is even better.

bob

 

[OldCarGuy]

From past experience, I found that the newer solid state ballasts are no better than magnetic ballasts. A number of years ago I paid and extra $65.00 per eight foot T-12 fixtures with solid state ballasts in a garage addition. They hummed as bad if not worse than the magnetic ones I installed in the past. Lithonia gave me the run-around. Saying it was the bulbs.

Therefore in my retirement garages I installed 60 eight foot T-12 Lithonia double bulb fixtures with magnetic ballasts. They are 12 to 13 feet off the floor, and the noise is habitable for me. An advantage of getting older… Anyhow I usually always have some sort of welder or machine running. Plus at the time, I saved $1500.00 over using the new style T-8’s.

 

[dps]

You can research, or ask an electrician about remote mounting of the ballasts. This is not uncommon in high-end installations to remove the noise and the heat to a convenient area.

 

[riskyvt]

Thanks fellas....guess I'll need to turn up the surround sound a tad!