can you tell me how to change the ballast on a 2 bulb flourescent light fixture?

 

There are several different styles of flourescent fixtures. You will need to discribe what type and design you have, cirular, separated by a mirror, long tubes together, 4', 8', rapid start, high output, etc.

If you have a 2 bulb 4' flourescent fixture that seems to be the most common, you can cut power to the fixture then remove the bulbs. Then remove the cover found between where the bulbs were and the case of the fixture. You should find a ballast within that case. Buy a matching ballast and remove that older ballast cutting the wires close to the old ballast. Then mount the new ballast and connect the wires matching colors with wire nuts. Be sure to replace all your bulbs with new bulbs first both to ensure that you just don't have one bad bulb instead of a bad ballast and also after you install the new ballast be sure to use new bulbs to extend the life of the new ballast.

Before you do anything you might want to compare cost factors of a replacement flourescent fixture compared to the cost of a ballast and two new tubes. Might shock you to find the new fixture might cost equal or less than the replacement ballast.

Hope this helps


Wg

 

Thanks much for your reply and advice. Yes it is a 4 ft rapid start fixture and I will price new fixtures first.