Fluorescent light bulbs may not work for a number of reasons. But one culprit could be
the ballast. Hey, DIY Nation! It's Jeff with HomeRepairTutor.
And if you have a light like the one behind me in this laundry room—which is my laundry
room—and it's not working, chances are it could be the ballast. If you know how to replace
an outlet or a switch, you can definitely switch out a ballast. So stay tuned. This
is an easy fix. You're going to save a lot of money doing it yourself. And before you
know it, your light's going to be back up and running in no time. So let's get to it!
Before you get started, turn the light off at the circuit breaker. It's as simple as
that. What kind of tools do you need? So you need
three kinds of tools. You need a voltage detector to test for electricity going to the ballast.
You need a Philips or a flathead screwdriver. And if you don't mind putting up the money,
get an insulated one like this. And then finally, a combination stripper. Always have this little
buddy with you whenever you're doing electrical work. You're probably going to need it.
So how do you know if the ballast is the culprit? How do you know if the ballast is what's causing
your fluorescent light to not work? Well, in my case, two different things. Whenever
the light switch would go on, the light bulb was having a hard time lighting up. So that's
the number one clue. And then secondly, after the light stopped working, I tested the power
going into the ballast. So there's the power cord right here and it's going into the ballast,
and that had voltage going to it. But these wires right here, had no juice, had no power
whatsoever. So a nice indicator that the ballast is most likely the problem.
So the two screws that are holding the ballast to the light need to come out. Hold on to
those screws because typically the new ballast isn't going to have them.
Now it's time to remove the light bulb. Simply just push on the tabs that hold them place.
And then, pull out the plug—whoa! Pull out the plug without breaking the light bulb.
Then you can set this aside. There are two screws holding this frame to
the junction box. So what you want to do is take those screws and loosen them. This will
allow you to slide the frame and pull it off. I recommend you look at the wiring and take
a picture, although it's probably not that complicated.
So in this case, we have the black going to the red wire up in the ceiling. And we have
the white neutral wire coming from the ballast just being connected to the neutral wire up
in the ceiling. Oh, and don't forget the ground wire. The ground wire's wired to the bare
copper wires up in the junction box. To loosen the wire nuts that are connecting
all the connections, I always like to undo the hotwire—in this case, the black—then
the neutral wire, then the ground wire last. Now you can pull the ballast wires from the
frame and put the new one in its place. Place a new ballast on the frame of the light and
just tighten up the screws that held the old ballast in place. So screw here and screw
here. Then finally you need to do is feed the hot and the neutral wire—the black and
the neutral wire—through the hole where the old ballast wires were. Because the ground
wire is so bad and so kinked, I'm going to cut it and strip it ¾ of an inch.
All right, now it's time to rewire the new ballast. So what you're going to do is wire
the ground wire—the green wire—first, then the neutral—which is white in this
case—and then the hotwire—which is black. And then, in this example, the hotwire's going
to be wired to this red wire. Super simple project, right? So like I said
at the beginning, if you can change out an outlet or a switch, you can change out a ballast,
too. Now, one thing—listen up—one thing about
ballasts. There are magnetic ballasts and then there are electronic ballasts. Magnetic
ballasts are dinosaurs. Electronic ballasts are way better. I replaced the old ballast
with a magnetic one and listen what happens. Okay. So as you could hear—hopefully as
you could hear—there is a little bit of the noise whenever the light turned on. And
the light took a little bit longer to turn on. That's because magnetic ballasts operate
that way. And if you can get an electronic faster ballast, that's way better. But I couldn't.
It's right before the holidays. I had to go run out to the home store and buy the ballast
that was available. So I just wanted to let you know that it's
normal to hear that pop and the light to delay a little bit with magnetic ballasts. And I
didn't want you to think that there was something wrong with the electrical wiring.
So anyhow, if you have any questions, let me know. I'm only a handyman. I'm not an electrician.
So I'll help you out the best that I can. And leave your comments in the comments section.
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so that you don't miss any. Until the next video, have a great day, and
I'll talk to you soon. So in this case, we have the black going to
the red wire up in the ceiling. And we have the white neutral wire coming from the ballast
just being connected to the neutral wire up in the ceiling. Oh, and don't forget the ground
wire.