One customer from Coquitlam city called Redox Electric office and he wanted one electrician check the 4 lamp florescent which is flickering and installed on the ceiling in the kitchen. As the owner said they changed the bulbs in the fixture still the problem is there.  After checking I found the problem is belong to the old ballast what is not strong enough. I did change the 4 lamp florescent ballast with a new one. The fixture starts working properly. Customer was very happy because he didn’t need to change the whole fixture.

Repairing and Troubleshooting Fluorescent Fixtures

Repairing a fluorescent fixture needs a professional electrician:

Curved bulbs work the same way but have different installation methods. Fluorescent bulbs designed to replace incandescent bulbs in standard fixtures, such as in recessed lights or table lamps, they all have the same features as fluorescent fixture. They must be replaced if they are defective. Parts of some small fluorescent fixtures may cost more than a new fixture

Troubleshooting

A dead fluorescent usually caused by lack of electrical power, dead or dying ballast, or a dead bulb.  First check for power, second check the bulbs.  If all fails, the ballast should be replaced.  Troubleshooting applied for flickering because problems that can cause a lamp to not work can also cause flickering , defective bulbs or defective ballast.

Vibrating fluorescent lamps can cause overheating and premature failure! Don’t wait too long to fix the problem or you may end up with a bigger repair.

Testing fluorescent tubes

There is an electrode at each end of a fluorescent tube. Each has two visible pins, which are located at each end of the fixtures in the sockets installed. By testing through these pins, you can detect intact electrodes. Electrically, if there is continuity across the pins, the electrode must work. However, even if the electrodes are intact, the lamp may not be lit. This may happen if some or all of the gas has leaked out of the lamp … there are no conditions for which to spend a test! Also, there may be short electrodes that give you positive reading but the electrode is actually destroyed.

Replacing the ballast and advantages of electronic ballast compared to the magnetic ballast:

Replacing the ballast is usually the least expensive repair overall when all other factors are considered. Electronic ballasts have some specific advantages over magnetic ballasts. Magnetic ballasts are  inexpensive to serve  20 years in old-time workhorses, but electronic ballasts have some specific advantages over magnetic ballasts for instance they start more quickly , they do not hum, instead magnetic ballasts hum right out of the box.  The sound comes from the internal vibrations caused by the magnetic core which supplies power to the bulbs. Electronic ballasts are silent out of the box and remain so.