I have two flourescent light fixtures in my garage with each fixture holding two flourescent bulbs. A few weeks ago I has a couple of the bulbs burnout, so I decided to replace them. Once I put the new bulbs neither fixture works. I replaced all of the bulbs with the new ones with no change. So I put the old bulbs back in and they don't work either.

I'm not sure what caused this, but now I'm without any type of lighting in my garage and that is a real pain.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Eric

 

Is the power getting to the fixtures? Check and make sure you don't have a tripped breaker or that they are not downstream from a GFI receptical that has tripped. It is not uncommon in garages for lights to be on the load side of a GFI and that receptical could be anywhere even outside. If you do have power at the recepticals then check the ballist if it is leaking or very hot it might need replacing. If the ballist is good then check for a loose connection somewhere along the path. I hope this helps a little.
Another note is if the recepticals are in an unheated garage and have regular ballists in them (not outdoor ones) and the area is very cold then that can cause problems of lamps not responding correctly.

 

Most likely you replaced the bulbs with an incompatable replacement. Depending on their age your lights may have either a magnetic or electronic ballast. Both use different bulbs and they are not interchangable. A good indicator, if you can remember, is the diameter of the bulb itself. As an example if you replaced "fat" bulbs (1" diameter) with slimline bulbs (`3/4" diameter) then you have used the wrong bulbs.

Are these 4 foot or 8 foot fixtures? Given that information I could probably sort this out fairly easily.

 

the other thing about the flourescent lumaire itself if it was cheap shop fixures like big box store sell like 8 to 12 bucks. typically requried T-12 F40 40 watts and mean 40 not enery saving bulbs type ( the 34 watts T-12 will genrally not start with cheap lumaires .

also the other part in factor is the tempture in the garage it self if pretty cool it might not light off at all unless it called "cold weather " system in it


give us more details if you can myself and CS electric can pinpoint if fast


merci, marc

 

One of the points mentioned, is be sure the replacement lamp (bulb) matches either the old lamp, or the type approved for that ballast.
A side note, magnetic or electronic ballasts, are and were made for both the fat lamps (T12) and the slimline (T8) types over the years. Look at the lable on the ballast.

 

Thanks to everyone for posting a reply. Okay, here are the details for my setup.

Lights:
GE 40W SP65 (that's all it said)

Ballast:
Benchlight Ballast
120V 60Hz .85Amp
Type 1 Outdoor
240T12

So if I read that correctly the ballast will support two 40W T12 bulbs, which I believe is correct. However, one thing that I did notice is that it looked like the ballast had been "leaking". When I took the cover off the light it had some black residue on the inside and the ballast itself has some sort of black stuff that looked like it was coming out of the sides. So if I were to guess that is more than likely the problem.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Eric

 

Yes more then likely the ballist is toasted. You may find replacing the entire fixture is less expensive then replacing the ballist.

 

That's pretty much what I figured.

Thanks to everyone for their input!

Eric