Help with garage lighting

[jeostang]

I had two 8 foot florescent lights installed. The lights use T8 bulbs. When I turn on the light they are very dim. The middle of the tubes are dark, and flickering. What could the problem be?

Thanks

 

[z28toz06]

sounds like the bulbs are shot, are they new?

 

[jeostang]

yeah, there brand new.

 

[Vicegrip]

Check that the fixtures are grounded. Grounding is VERY important for balasted fixtures.

Check the ballast rating. You might have ballasts that are made for T12s. A T12 ballast will not drive a T8 well or for long before cutting out on the thermal.

Check the rating to see that the ballast is made to drive the tube size and number of tubes.

Check the tombstones and see if they are wired right and in the right places. Some older type ballasts drive each tube and if you switch the ends on one side they will do this.

Are the ballasts made for 120 volt? Some magnetic ballasts that are for 277V (pink label) will try and drive a bulb when wired to 120 (yellow label).

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Indeed, I had a friend with flo light problems and picked up a troubleshooting tear off sheet at Lowes and was surprised to see that grounding was a key item. I opened the fixture, it had a ground wire, I removed it, scraped a bare area and replaced the screw, and the light worked OK after that. I was very shocked.

Charles

 

[jeostang]

Cool, Thanks for the info. Going to check those now in a dark garage.