I have a fluorescent fixture in a bathroom with a 24" bulb. It's
worked fine in the 3 years I've owned the house until recent weeks
when it started going dim. Sometimes I could touch the bulb or move
it a bit and it would get brighter. The ends were black and I figured
it just needed to be replaced. After all, it had lasted for at least
3 years.
The replacement bulb worked great. It was brighter than I ever
remembered. Now, less than two weeks later, it lights up very dimly
and the ends are already black.
Was the new bulb bad? Or should I start looking at other problems?

In article ,
(Lenny Fackler) wrote:

I have a fluorescent fixture in a bathroom with a 24" bulb. It's
worked fine in the 3 years I've owned the house until recent weeks
when it started going dim. Sometimes I could touch the bulb or move
it a bit and it would get brighter. The ends were black and I figured
it just needed to be replaced. After all, it had lasted for at least
3 years.
The replacement bulb worked great. It was brighter than I ever
remembered. Now, less than two weeks later, it lights up very dimly
and the ends are already black.
Was the new bulb bad? Or should I start looking at other problems?

Fluorescents aren't generally recommended for damp environments.

Robert Morien wrote:

In article ,
(Lenny Fackler) wrote:

I have a fluorescent fixture in a bathroom with a 24" bulb. It's
worked fine in the 3 years I've owned the house until recent weeks
when it started going dim. Sometimes I could touch the bulb or move
it a bit and it would get brighter. The ends were black and I figured
it just needed to be replaced. After all, it had lasted for at least
3 years.
The replacement bulb worked great. It was brighter than I ever
remembered. Now, less than two weeks later, it lights up very dimly
and the ends are already black.
Was the new bulb bad? Or should I start looking at other problems?

Fluorescents aren't generally recommended for damp environments.

I have a two-bulb fluorescent fixture just outside our shower/bath
which lasts forever (30 years now). Our bathroom is as damp as any,
and the fixture, not an expensive one, does quite well. Bulbs last
a normally long time for the 34W 48" bulbs.

I wonder if the person's problem above might be with an old fixture
which has a neon starter which is stuck on. Or it may be a bad
ballast, although the symptoms of burning out bulbs does not seem right
to me. Does the 24" bulb fixture have a "starter" or is it the more
common (these days) ballast which handles starting? --Phil

--
Phil Munro Dept of Electrical & Computer Engin
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, Ohio 44555

(Lenny Fackler) wrote in message . com...
I have a fluorescent fixture in a bathroom with a 24" bulb. It's
worked fine in the 3 years I've owned the house until recent weeks
when it started going dim. Sometimes I could touch the bulb or move
it a bit and it would get brighter. The ends were black and I figured
it just needed to be replaced. After all, it had lasted for at least
3 years.
The replacement bulb worked great. It was brighter than I ever
remembered. Now, less than two weeks later, it lights up very dimly
and the ends are already black.
Was the new bulb bad? Or should I start looking at other problems?

Premature end blackening in a frequently-switched fluorescent (such as
a bathroom light) has a few common causes: excessive glow current (the
preheat current that is applied in a rapid-start sequence), the use of
an instant-start ballast (especially with tubes not designed for
instant start), or a failed starter (in a preheat-type ballast).

If it fails again with a different brand of tube, it's time to
consider replacing the ballast. If the fixture itself is not an
expensive one, you can consider replacing the fixture, ballast and
all.

[Note that some building codes *require* the primary light in certain
rooms, including bathrooms, be fluorescent (or of an efficiency that
can best be met by fluorescent); sometimes codes go so far as to
require that the fixture be incapable of accommodating incandescent
lamps. This kind of code shuts out using CFs in such an application.]

--
Chris Green

Robert Morien wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Lenny Fackler) wrote:

I have a fluorescent fixture in a bathroom with a 24" bulb. It's
worked fine in the 3 years I've owned the house until recent weeks
when it started going dim. Sometimes I could touch the bulb or move
it a bit and it would get brighter. The ends were black and I figured
it just needed to be replaced. After all, it had lasted for at least
3 years.
The replacement bulb worked great. It was brighter than I ever
remembered. Now, less than two weeks later, it lights up very dimly
and the ends are already black.
Was the new bulb bad? Or should I start looking at other problems?

Fluorescents aren't generally recommended for damp environments.

It's a half bath or wc or whatever you call it... no shower. It's not damp at all.