T-8 lamp issues

glennster · Aug 14, 2015

power copany a while back did a lamp upgrade to my shop lights thru a contractor. replaced our t-12 lighting to t-8. gutted the fixtures and installed new ballasts, sockets reflectors and bulbs. have 3 4 foot double bulb fixtures in the office that do the strobe light blinking. (60 cycle blinking) they came out and said here replace the sockets on the 3 fixtures and wire in a "jumper" ???? . i kinda think the ballasts are bad. they have phillips power kut rk2s32-tp ballasts. any thoughts. here are some pictures

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here are the replacement sockets, they are the same as the ones that are in there

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Steve@Advance · Aug 14, 2015

It's not the sockets. It's the ballasts.

They are the last of the old magnetic ballasts. IMHO, the magnetic ballasts were being phased out, they contain a lot of expensive copper, the mfg's were looking to save money, so the took every shortcut they could. End result was a bunch of outdated, shortlived, inefficient ballasts went out the door. You were the lucky recipient!

Go back with electronic ballasts. The wiring will have to be changed again, but not too difficult. The installers know about this problem, don't let them tell you it's your .... whatever... They unloaded them on you, they "should" make it right.

Bob · Aug 14, 2015

Can't tell for sure if the parallel wiring coming of off the two yellow wires is correct, cause I can't follow the individual red wires.

Beyond that, are the fixtures properly grounded? (Unlikely they aren't, but the lack of a ground to the metal chassis can cause issues.)

Beyond that, too bad they went to the in-between update, should just have gone to LED's.

dr sportster · Aug 14, 2015

Yes , I don't know why they would think giving you a bag of sockets is going to fix anything.Bad sockets will look burned up and corroded.The way it should work is the contractor that got paid by the power co should be back fixing this.Flourescent lighting has become more annoying than ever.

Gary from Muleshoe · Aug 14, 2015

Get rid of the Phillips ballast and replace with GE your problem will be solved. Phillips are junk in my opinion, I am always having problems with them at the retirement center where I work. I use nothing but GE now days.

buickanddeere · Aug 14, 2015

We just replace all the failed, failing and about to fail T8 ballasts in the shop. The old ballasts were rapid start that ran current through the filiment at each end of the lamp. The new ballasts are instant start. The sockets are jumpered together so the two pins at the end of the lamp are at the same potential. One wire out to each socket instead of two.

Sidekick · Aug 14, 2015

I've started replacing my tubes with the led tubes. Get rid of the ballast and they run off of straight AC. There is a little bit of rewiring involved because all they really are is a plastic tube full of led lights but they work just fine in the cold and seem to last. No more fluorescent tubes or bulbs in this house. I'm switching everything over to LED as they burn out.

circus · Aug 15, 2015

Bought eight 4' fixtures that matched existing 8' fixtures. They were the dreaded energy saver type which produced about a third of the light possible from the bulb not to mention the flicker. Compared to the older 8'ers they almost look like they were off. Had to scronge for a month to find old replacement ballasts. Don't tattle. Energy saver fixtures just mean you need more of them for the same light.

Steve@Advance · Aug 15, 2015

I agree! Had a bad batch of Sola ballasts go bad too.
I bought a ballast for an old single lamp fixture over my moms sink a couple years ago. Don't remember what brand it was, came from Home Depot. It was no good.

Ended up getting a GE electronic, just used one circuit. Worked great.

Was back at the same store a few weeks later, there was the bad ballast, back on the shelf... Got to looking, several of them were there with it, out of the packaging, obviously had been returned because they didn't work!

Bryan inIowa · Aug 16, 2015

For what you spend on a ballast you can convert to LED and never have to worry about ballasts or bulbs again. Switched all mine over in my shop .

T-8 lamp issues

glennster

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Steve@Advance

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Bob

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dr sportster

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Gary from Muleshoe

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buickanddeere

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Sidekick

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circus

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Steve@Advance

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Bryan inIowa

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