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Question for electricians here?

B

beer

Lifer
I'm having an issue where on my 4-bulb bank in my kitchen, occasionally I'll turn the switch and they won't turn on for a few minutes. It's like they want to start, but won't. So I started playing around with them and I was wondering how they are wired.

It seems like the outer two bulbs are in series, in parallel with the inner two bulbs. Is it supposed to be like this? If I pull out any of the outer ones, the other one goes out; same with the inner bulbs. Why are the bulbs voltage-divided like this? Is this typical?

Is this a bulb issue or an issue with the voltage feeding into it? I could run my voltmeter across the contacts, what should I be reading? If they're voltaged divided and they're 120v bulbs, does that mean I have a 240v lead up there?
 
not an electrician but my father is and I have known some through osmosis.

Sounds like either a bad bulb or a bad ballast. If one bulb goes bad, sometimes none will light up.

Try new bulbs first.

 
Doing some research, the bulb is a T12 type, which means magnetic (and not electronic) ballast. What is the failure rate on ballasts like this?
 
I hate to bump old threads, but I've been through your problem before.
The four-light fluorescent fixture in my kitchen was acting up as well. I replaced the magnetic ballasts with new magnetic ballasts and then it started to act up again in cold weather.

I replaced the two two-bulb fixtures using a quad light electronic ballast for T8 bulbs. Works super now. (i could have went with teo twin bulb ballasts, but a single quad bulb ballast was cheaper than that).

Magnetic ballasts suck imo.

You can either replace the ballasts, or the fixture, whichever is easier for you.

American Fluorescent markets a technology called Resi-Tronic, it is electronic ballast technology that can power either T8 or T12 bulbs. The resitronic can be found at Lowes; it comes in 48" striplights, wraparounds, quad bulb wraparounds etc. I have not seen Resi-Tronic products at Home Depot, but home depot does sell T8-only ballasts and fixtures.

For the twin bulb 48" strip, you'd be looking for #ST232RC, they are about $24 ea if I recall correctly at Lowes. Basically if the product number ends with "RC" or "R8" then is has Resi-Tronic ballasts.

What kind of setup do you have right now, is it a single quad fixture or two twin fixtures?
 
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