| Choreboy 2005-07-15, 4:25 am |
| Phisherman wrote:
quote:
>
> I'm having garage fluorescent lighting trouble. There are two surface
> mount fluorescent tube pairs in my garage controlled by two three-way
> switches. When I turn one switch on, the ends of both fixtures glow
> for awhile, then sometimes eventually light. Sometimes only one (of
> the four tubes) light. Today I tried running my hand across the tubes
> and that made them light up. Fixtures, tubes and all are 13 years
> old. They have had problems when tempertures drop to 10 degrees in the
> winter, but this is first during the hot summers. The temperature in
> the garage is about 90 to 100 degrees, high humidity. Any
> ideas/comments? Or troubleshooting steps to take?
Washing and drying tubes has helped me. A new tube has a coating of
silicone or something to repel moisture, but humidity affects older
tubes. Washing seems to get rid of contaminants that hold moisture.
Sometimes a nonstarting tube will feel moist when everything else in the
room feels dry.
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