Strobing Light Fixtures

Is there a practical way to stop the high frequency (but oh-so-noticeable) strobing of fluorescent lights?

I have a light fixture that seems particularly bad about it, and it drives me nuts!

Remove the magnetic ballast, replace it with an electronic one.

Farlark said:

Is there a practical way to stop the high frequency (but oh-so-noticeable) strobing of fluorescent lights?

I have a light fixture that seems particularly bad about it, and it drives me nuts!

Click to expand...

If you've already swapped out the the tubes and it still strobes with new tubes, then the ballast is going / failing. If it is a magnetic ballast, consider upgrading to electronic as it will be hard to notice any flicker with them.

If your light is T12 and you have to replace the ballast, consider changing to T8- more efficient, brighter tubes.

Then again, for the cost of the ballast and such you might be better off just buying a new fixture. I'm assuming a 4' linear 2 tube fixture. If you have something round or so you are going to be more limited on your ballast selections. I know I replaced the circline ballasts in my Home Depot metal kitchen light 3x (and the 4th time just before I sold the house... which was a moot point when the ceiling came down due to a burst pipe) and they ran about 23$ a piece- more than the cost of the light.