Adventures in kitchen light fixture updating

James Snover

The Ill-Advised Physics Amplification Co
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So our old fluorescent lights in the kitchen went out. Again. Ancient stuff, circa 1997, F40T12, three groups of two. One magnetic ballast per pair. Guess what? There are, these days, actual LED-based lamps that fit right in to the T12 sockets, and use the existing ballasts, magnetic or electronic. Woo-hoo, instant upgrade!

Only ... our ancient magnetic ballasts were on their last legs. And the LED lights worked GREAT ... for an hour and a half. And then the ancient magnetic ballast's internal thermal protection shut them down. Turn 'em off for fifteen minutes, they're good to go for another hour and half. Then: thermal overload shut down.

OK, then. In another life, yours truly, had to repair x-ray film view boxes. Many of those used F40T12 lamps. I have changed thousands of ballasts, nothing to it. I'll run by the hardware store, snag some ballasts, and we'll be good to go, no trouble at all! Hardly take five minutes!

Ha. Ha. Between medical-grade fluorescent-lamp view boxes and residential construction standards in home building, there is gap wide enough even for my fat ass to fall into. And it did.

It took hours. Half the freaking day. I am stiff, sore, and wore the Hell out from climbing and descending the same three damn steps on the ladder for I don't know how many times because I lost count after a 100. When they built our house, when they installed this fixture, they didn't use captive nuts of any sort. And there seems to be some sort of wiring code difference between residential and medical-grade wiring. Because the residential wiring snaps in a heartbeat at the least little provocation. And all of a sudden, what was ample slack, is suddenly just-barely-long-enough for one last try before you have to break out the soldering iron and shrink wrap insulation, so good luck on that last try, Mr. Electrical Hot Shot!

Thank God, and I really mean this, for Vice-Grip pliers. Thank God, and I really, really, mean this, for Fluke multi-meters, that can tell you if black is live, or if it is neutral that is cut off at the switch. Because otherwise your truly would have had a nasty shock, if he had survived the subsequent fall from the ladder, from the very much live black wire, and the open neutral. For those of you who don't know electricity: it's as wrong as it can possibly get. And might have gotten a less suspicious guy killed.

But. It is all fixed now. The wiring is all correct, now. And the fluorescent lamps have stayed lit continuously for the last 5.5 hours with no sign of any thermal overload cut-offs! There are three new Philips high frequency electronic ballasts now driving six Philips T12-equivalent LED lamps, and apart from a little muscle soreness, all is well!
 

blk02edge

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So our old fluorescent lights in the kitchen went out. Again. Ancient stuff, circa 1997, F40T12, three groups of two. One magnetic ballast per pair. Guess what? There are, these days, actual LED-based lamps that fit right in to the T12 sockets, and use the existing ballasts, magnetic or electronic. Woo-hoo, instant upgrade!

Only ... our ancient magnetic ballasts were on their last legs. And the LED lights worked GREAT ... for an hour and a half. And then the ancient magnetic ballast's internal thermal protection shut them down. Turn 'em off for fifteen minutes, they're good to go for another hour and half. Then: thermal overload shut down.

OK, then. In another life, yours truly, had to repair x-ray film view boxes. Many of those used F40T12 lamps. I have changed thousands of ballasts, nothing to it. I'll run by the hardware store, snag some ballasts, and we'll be good to go, no trouble at all! Hardly take five minutes!

Ha. Ha. Between medical-grade fluorescent-lamp view boxes and residential construction standards in home building, there is gap wide enough even for my fat ass to fall into. And it did.

It took hours. Half the freaking day. I am stiff, sore, and wore the Hell out from climbing and descending the same three damn steps on the ladder for I don't know how many times because I lost count after a 100. When they built our house, when they installed this fixture, they didn't use captive nuts of any sort. And there seems to be some sort of wiring code difference between residential and medical-grade wiring. Because the residential wiring snaps in a heartbeat at the least little provocation. And all of a sudden, what was ample slack, is suddenly just-barely-long-enough for one last try before you have to break out the soldering iron and shrink wrap insulation, so good luck on that last try, Mr. Electrical Hot Shot!

Thank God, and I really mean this, for Vice-Grip pliers. Thank God, and I really, really, mean this, for Fluke multi-meters, that can tell you if black is live, or if it is neutral that is cut off at the switch. Because otherwise your truly would have had a nasty shock, if he had survived the subsequent fall from the ladder, from the very much live black wire, and the open neutral. For those of you who don't know electricity: it's as wrong as it can possibly get. And might have gotten a less suspicious guy killed.

But. It is all fixed now. The wiring is all correct, now. And the fluorescent lamps have stayed lit continuously for the last 5.5 hours with no sign of any thermal overload cut-offs! There are three new Philips high frequency electronic ballasts now driving six Philips T12-equivalent LED lamps, and apart from a little muscle soreness, all is well!
Black is supposed to be hot! Lol
 

_Snake_

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So our old fluorescent lights in the kitchen went out. Again. Ancient stuff, circa 1997, F40T12, three groups of two. One magnetic ballast per pair. Guess what? There are, these days, actual LED-based lamps that fit right in to the T12 sockets, and use the existing ballasts, magnetic or electronic. Woo-hoo, instant upgrade!

Only ... our ancient magnetic ballasts were on their last legs. And the LED lights worked GREAT ... for an hour and a half. And then the ancient magnetic ballast's internal thermal protection shut them down. Turn 'em off for fifteen minutes, they're good to go for another hour and half. Then: thermal overload shut down.

OK, then. In another life, yours truly, had to repair x-ray film view boxes. Many of those used F40T12 lamps. I have changed thousands of ballasts, nothing to it. I'll run by the hardware store, snag some ballasts, and we'll be good to go, no trouble at all! Hardly take five minutes!

Ha. Ha. Between medical-grade fluorescent-lamp view boxes and residential construction standards in home building, there is gap wide enough even for my fat ass to fall into. And it did.

It took hours. Half the freaking day. I am stiff, sore, and wore the Hell out from climbing and descending the same three damn steps on the ladder for I don't know how many times because I lost count after a 100. When they built our house, when they installed this fixture, they didn't use captive nuts of any sort. And there seems to be some sort of wiring code difference between residential and medical-grade wiring. Because the residential wiring snaps in a heartbeat at the least little provocation. And all of a sudden, what was ample slack, is suddenly just-barely-long-enough for one last try before you have to break out the soldering iron and shrink wrap insulation, so good luck on that last try, Mr. Electrical Hot Shot!

Thank God, and I really mean this, for Vice-Grip pliers. Thank God, and I really, really, mean this, for Fluke multi-meters, that can tell you if black is live, or if it is neutral that is cut off at the switch. Because otherwise your truly would have had a nasty shock, if he had survived the subsequent fall from the ladder, from the very much live black wire, and the open neutral. For those of you who don't know electricity: it's as wrong as it can possibly get. And might have gotten a less suspicious guy killed.

But. It is all fixed now. The wiring is all correct, now. And the fluorescent lamps have stayed lit continuously for the last 5.5 hours with no sign of any thermal overload cut-offs! There are three new Philips high frequency electronic ballasts now driving six Philips T12-equivalent LED lamps, and apart from a little muscle soreness, all is well!

Will you be in Florida anytime soon? I need to replace my fluorescent lamps also
 

capnkirk52

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Were they so old you couldn't just do the ballast bypass? In my grow room in my greenhouse I switched out like 175 T8's and just did the ballast bypass.
 

CobraBob

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Well done James. What a day you had. I don't attempt to do anything electrical that I'm not confident I can do myself. So I would probably have taken the easy way out and had my friendly electrician replace the old fluorescent fixtures with LED fixtures. I did just that in our office. I love LEDs fixtures and bulbs!
 

72MachOne99GT

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Nothing more frustrating than going to repair a job only to find out whoever did it originally had no clue what was supposed to be happening, or obviously didn’t care.
 

PhoenixM3

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F5F0F575-E19B-4BDC-BFB6-AD38D1B27EE2.jpeg
Here’s mine.
 

coposrv

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There are many fixtures that bypass the palest completely. 120v led tube that can be retrofitted into any t8 or t12 tombstones.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
 

DaleM

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House updating and maintenance is bullshit. I hate it all.

Glad you are doing well Mr. Snover
I am replacing all the smoke/carbon detectors..Our house has 7. The home was built in 2014. The detectors.were built in 2011. The detectors are supposed to last about 5-7 years.
 

nofire

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Black is supposed to be hot! Lol

Yeah, house wiring is completely different from Aircraft wiring and, from what you're saying, xray wiring. lol. I rewire aircraft all the time, but I have to reread all the codes and standards anytime I do ANY house hold wiring job. Lest I kill myself changing out a fixture or something.
 

IronSnake

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Sounds hectic.

I changed to the regular panel LED lamps in our kitchen the day we moved in. Lighting is everything, and cutting the power bill down is a lovely feeling.
 

08mojo

...
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Reminds me of the week we moved into our 'new to us' home. We were having friends over that weekend to celebrate the new home. We wanted to repaint the main bathroom and replace the vanity top/sink--easy enough right?

46821794984_64c4ec96e7_b.jpg


Well, upon closer inspection, the previous owners had painted over wallpaper. No problem, I'll buy the chemical stripper and remove the wallpaper. That's when it went to shit. The wallpaper was adhered well and was taking the outer layer of drywall with it:

46629775945_c1554d9bd7_b.jpg


My wife went to get groceries and came back to this:

40579335383_a09077ea81_b.jpg


She had never been through any sort of renovation/more in-depth home repair so she was fully freaking out. But it all worked out. I'm pretty certain the paint was still wet during the housewarming party that weekend.
 

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