Hi All

Ws doing a few jobs in an office today and the customer asked me to change a
few fluorescent tubes. Seemed simple enough. The fixtures had three tubes
in each. In one office they told me two tubes had gone, they replaced them
and they blew again.

At their request I changed two tubes and all three starters (which they
supplied). They old starters seemed to be brittle as though they had been
exposed to excess heat.

The tubes appeared to be wired in series? Is that right? When I switched
on, the unchanged tube still worked fine, but the other two flicked on and
off alternatively. You could see that one end of the tubes was getting hot,
so I switched off & removed the two tubes I had changed.

In the office next door they had a three tube fitting with only two tubes
installed. They had apparently removed the third tube because it flickered.
One of the two remaining tubes had started to flicker. I changed two tubes
and one starter and it works a treat.

Any idea what could be wrong? I have little experience of fluorescent
lighting. I suggested they get a sparky to look at the first fitting.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257