Days as a hanger rat

Bob Noel wrote:
A LOT of bench space and pegboard for hanging tools. One curious thing about
my hangar. I have an overhead light. When I raise the door, it vibrates the
hangar and the light goes OUT!!! It comes on by itself later on. It is not
an incadescent light, but it is not a long tube flourescent either. Looks
more like a streetlight. Why would it do this?

Bob,

I was an electrician in a former life. The symptom you note is usually
caused by a bad bulb, though it can be caused by a bad ballast /
capacitor as well.

A word of advice -- it would be wise to replace the bulb sooner rather
than later, or it may damage the ballast. If that happens on an
interior fixture less than 400W output and you need to pay someone to
replace it, it's generally cheaper to replace the entire fixture.

And while I'm on the subject, this applies to fluorescent strip fixtures
as well. If you have those and notice dark black rings at the ends of
the tubes, they are at end-of-life and should be replaced (that is to
say, before they go dim), or the ballasts will overheat and eventually fail.

-Doug

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Doug Vetter, CFIMEIA

http://www.dvcfi.com
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