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John Grabowski wrote:
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Saml wrote:
There are 6 shop lights in the garage, each with 4 florescent
tubes. They have all stopped working. No spectacular flashes, no
burning
smell, the lights just don't come on when I flip the switch.



There is a single switch, which is a lighted one and it happily
glows orange in the dark.



All outlets work, a couple of other incandescent ligts work, and
the door openers work. Garage has its own panel but no breakers
are tripped.


Any ideas about where to start looking?



Thanks.

1. Bad switch
2. Wire broken between switch and first light
3. Lost ground. Usually they'll flash though if a ground is
working. 4. Switch might have an extra wire to control the light on
it and
to the fixtures - that could be broken.

5. Sudden drop in outside temperature making it too cold in the
garage for the fluorescent lights to come on.

Well, INSIDE, where the ballasts/lights are located anywayg. Usually
they will show at least some signs of life though,
especially with that many bulbs. Mine put on a neat show for me on
really cold mornings. Still, it's possibly temperature and deserved
mentioning; good catch.

Saml wrote:
We've just ended a heat wave in Virginia--dropped recently to about
50f at night, so it's not the cold...

Turned out to be the switch. I bypassed it and all the lights came
on.
Thanks--appreciated the suggestions. I don't think of switches going
bad.

Might not be the switch itself. Heating and cooling cycles, atmosphere?
Could have been just duff connections at the terminals.

Might be a bad connection. It's the stab in kind so I can't really tighten
it up. I'm just going to replace the switch.

Sam