Fluorescent Shop Light

I have 2- 4 ft lights in my shed. Both have 2 lamps in each fixture. First one set went out and now the other. I bought 4 new bulbs and put them in. Now only 1 of the 4 lights comes on.

I thought if one bulb was burnt out neither would work.
I only paid $9 for the fixtures. Kind of figure if it is not something simple new fixtures may be in order.

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I took one of the lights apart and found they had a 1 bulb ballast in each end of the light. I decided I would try upgrade my light rather than buy another cheap light.

I went to Home Depot and found the ballast for my light to be $4.99 each. Figured this would last about as long as the original so I bought a better one. The one I got comes on at 0° rather than the normal 50 or 60° of the original. It is also a black box that mounts in the top of the light rather than the ends. This one ballast will handle both of my T8 40 watt bulbs. Even came with all new wires. Cost me $22.00
So now I only have the medal frame and the bulb connections from the original light. New ballast; wires; and bulbs. Hopefully this will last a while.

I only bought one ballast to make sure it would work in my frames. Now that I know it will I am going to upgrade all my shop lights with this new ballast.

Thanks again for the help.
John

This is a very simple fix, most likely the ballast has went bad for those two bulbs. Either the bad ballast will have a thick substance leaking from it or it will be extremely hot after it has been on a while. Just swap the ballast out with a new one. I do agree they don't like cold weather but they will work just take a bit to warm them up. Swapping the ballast is easy you have 8 wires 1 black, 1 white, 2 yellow, 2 blue, 2 red. Turn off the power, snit the all the wires off up close to the ballast, you cut then shorter as you install the new one. Using blue wire nuts connect the new ballast. Cutting the wire is much easier than trying to reconnect then to each bulb socket. I hope this helps.

Plus, they seem to eat tubes. My last house had a bunch of those el-cheapo ones, and I was constantly replacing tubes. I also had one of the old style heavy metal fixtures with a good heavy ballast, and tubes in it lasted for years & years. We've been in this house almost three years, and I have yet to replace a tube in the garage.

Solution: go buy good quality fixtures, and if you live in an area where the temperature in the shed can get below freezing, ones with low-temperature ballasts.

Keith

I read this on a troubleshooting tear off sheet next to the replacement ballast at Home Depot. Didn't believe it but did clean up the grounds and the light started working.

Charles