Wanted to add some general lighting to my shop and saw that Menards had some 4′ fluorescents on sale.
The previous owner wired my garage with mostly plug-in lights, so the install was quick. However, installing the bulbs was a real b*#&$ and they seem VERY sensitive to how they’re positioned on the terminals.
The worst part, though, is that they have a hum. It’s not major, but it is noticeable in a quiet shop.
Is this related to how the bulbs are sitting between the terminals? (Any moving/twisting I’ve done does nothing for the humming.)
Or is this a problem with the cheap ballasts? Should I elect not to fight this battle and buy some higher quality fixtures?
Thanks!
Patrick
Replies
loosely wound cheap ballast...
new quality ballast is the only fix..
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The last time I put shop lights in I put in the better ones. I get tired of the hum and other stuff cheap fixtures have problems with.
They still mess with the reception of my radio. I plan on moving the radio out of the room and just running speaker wire in. I'm not sure how I'm going to switch stations and volume. I'm sure there is some way of doing it.
Ballasts have a sound rating which is usually printed on them. If they are inexpensive and no rating is listed, they are probably not the quiet ones.
They're cheap ballasts and don't know the words. It's axiomatic that cheap fluorescent fixtures hum.
They're cheap ballasts and don't know the words
They hum but at least they don't whine.
Anyway, you're going to try electronics and T8 bulbs, right? Quieter than magnetics.
Ed
"Anyway, you're going to try electronics and T8 bulbs, right? Quieter than magnetics."Maybe not. My shop has 32 of those fixtures - each with two T8 bulbs and an electronic ballast. In my experience about half of the fixtures hum. The main reason for the noise is there's a lot of sheet metal in the fixtures and only a few screws holding it all together. Some hum is going to happen unless you're willing to glue everything together.The ballasts burn out after 2-3 years and it's usually cheaper to buy a new fixture than to replace the ballast. Chinese economics at their best I suppose. Two fixtures side-by-side went out last week so I pulled a dead one apart to see what happened to the ballast. The ballast is made in China by "Sunpark", model SL-15, class P, sound rating A. Cause of the failure is pretty obvious - the insulation inside is blackened from a blown transistor or SCR that's clipped to the metal case as a heat sink.