In article ,
"JR" writes:
Hi

I fitted a flourescent light fitting just over a year ago in the kitchen,
which worked fine, but has recently begun to start off fairly dim, before
brightening up over the course of a few minutes, although to nowhere near as
bright as it used to be.

It's got a circular 60w tube (360w equivalent apparently - it was very
bright when I fitted it) which costs about 12GBP to replace. Before I get a
new one, can anyone tell me whether these symptoms sound like it's the tube
or the electronic ballast that's dying?

That's a difficult call -- both can fail with the symptoms
you describe. I wouldn't expect the tube to fail in a year
unless it's been on all the time or switched on and off quite
frequently. It might have been a poor tube in the first
place though. If the tube is going pink together with going
dim, then that is failure of the tube (didn't have enough
mercury in it). If either tube end has gone black, then
that would sway things slightly more towards tube failure
too, but not 100%.

You might as well try a replacement tube. A replacement
electronic ballast for a T9 tube will be significantly
harder to find (probably cheaper to buy a new fitting).
How much did the fitting cost? If it's only a bit more
than a new tube, you might as well buy a whole new fitting.
You can then swap parts to see which part is dead, if
you are interested in reusing any parts.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]