Let There Be Light! :)

Instead of calling in an electrician - why not do it yourself?

We've been having problems with the lights in our living room for quite some time now. It sometimes turns on but oftentimes nothing happens when we flip the switch. When checking broken flourescents (light fixtures),you always start with the starter (since it is the cheapest part - you can buy a one for under 10 pesos) and the bulb, if both are working, you move on to the socket (since they get brittle over time) , the wiring, switch and lastly the ballast. In this case, I have covered all of the basics and the light is still dead - time to replace the ballast.

As with all electrical work, it is advisable to turn off the main power supply to be safe. Above is the basic diagram of the lights at home (this applies to lamps as well). As you can see, the switch controls only 1 side of the wire (powerline) - this leaves the other one as always ON and can electrecute you!

Look for the main circuit breaker at home that often looks like this (there are also other models, use google to get an idea of what they look like)

In our case, turning off the left most breaker(main switch) kills  all of the power at home. Switching off the other breakers only kills the power from either the sockets, lights, rooms etc. To be sure, I always turn off the main switch. You have to figure out which of the breakers in your house is the main switch. 

AGAIN, let me remind you that touching a live wire can give you quite a shock and in extreme cases kill you. You've been warned - just turn off the power :)

Now on to our problematic light -

After removing the cover, you will notice that it is held in place by 4 screws (circled in red - the 4th one is under the wire). To remove the fixture, you have to disconnect it from the wires that give it power (black ones) and then remove the screws

After removing the fixture - make sure you separate the main wires and never don't them to touch each other. Since I will be testing the fixture before I install it, I will be turning the power back on again. If both wires are live and comes into contact with each other, sparks will fly and these are not the ones that you would want to watch - they can result to a blown fuse or worse, melted house wiring.

Ballasts can be bought at local hardwares for under 100 pesos. But since we have old fixtures lying around in the garage, I've decided to test if I can salvage some parts from it first.

To test, I have hacked off the plug from a broken lamp and used this to plug in the lamp to a socket.

The old one works while the cleaner and newer one doesn't - on to switching the ballasts! TIP! Observe that the power connection between the lights and plug are not on the fixture itself but is placed on the wooden table. The fixture's base is steel and can conduct electricity - having the wires set there could result to sparks and electrical shorts.

To give everyone a better understanding - here are the parts of a traditional fluorescent light. This diagram also applies to tube fluorescent lights and lamps.

Removing these two nuts frees the ballast. After transferring the ballast from the old to the new fixture - everything's set and I can place it back again in the ceiling. Just make sure you test it first and switch off the power lines again. Also wrap the power lines with electrical tape once you connect them

Hopefully, this doesn't give us problems again soon.

It only took me 20 minutes to finish this repair and so can you. You just have to always follow safety precautions and everything is fairly easy. Always bear in mind that YES YOU CAN FIX THOSE LIGHTS!

COST: Nothing - got the ballast from old light fixtures
TIME to complete: 20 minutes