The Easy Lamp Repairs

You turn on your trusty reading lamp and—nothing. Chances are it’s the light bulb. Remove the old bulb, screw in a new one, and you should be ready to go. If not, you’ll have to inspect further. Your problem could be …

➤ The power supply.
➤ The receptacle.
➤ The contact tab at the bottom of the light socket.
➤ The light socket.
➤ The cord or plug.

The power supply and the receptacle are easy enough to check. A voltage tester will tell you whether the receptacle is hot, and a quick trip to your fuse box or service panel will tell you whether the problem is originating there. If a breaker has tripped or a fuse has gone out, you need to discover the cause before you can consider the problem solved.
The contact tab at the bottom of the socket is the same one referred to previously in this chapter in the “Inspect First” section. Simply unplug the lamp and use a small screwdriver to pull up slightly on the tab. If the bulb still doesn’t work, you’ll have to look at your cord and plug more closely.

The Pieces Inside Fluorescent Fixtures

All fluorescent fixtures have the following major components:

• Ballast
• Sockets
• Lamps (a.k.a. light bulbs or tubes) The ballast is like a small transformer inside the fixture.

It has two major jobs:

• First, it provides the spark that sets off the gas within the tube, making that gas fluoresce. This requires higher voltage.
• Then, the transformer reduces the voltage to the (very low) level necessary to sustain lighting.

There are three main types of ballasts or fluorescent circuits: preheat, rapid start, and instant start. (The type is identified on the ballast casing.)
Preheat technology dates back to the original fluorescent fixtures, and it is used today mostly for certain low-wattage fixtures such as compact fluorescent fixtures. This type of circuit uses a starter.
Rapid starts are the most frequently used ballasts today. They maintain a continuous low-wattage circuit to the lamp’s filaments so they start up faster (in less than a second). This style of ballast also comes in a version that allows dimming. An instant-start ballast, as the name implies, ignites the gas in the lamp instantly. It supplies a higher starting voltage than the other types of ballasts, and like the rapidstart variety, it requires no separate starter. The drawback to this voltage boost is that it requires a special lamp. The lamp also will have a shorter life than those used for rapid-start circuits. One way you can distinguish between the lamps is by the number of pins on the ends of the lamp. (These pins insert into the fixture’s sockets or tubeholders.) Rapid-start lamps are bi-pin (they have two pins); most, but not all, instantstart versions have only one.

Try a New Style

Styles and fashions change, a fact that’s certainly not lost on America’s retailers. The dim ceiling fixtures with the square-shaped glass domes from the 1950s and 1960s just don’t cut it any more, unless you’re into retro-hip lifestyles complete with hula hoops and strange-looking dinette sets. The array of fixture choices today is astounding. Just about any period of fixture can be matched, or a completely updated style can be installed. The only limits are your imagination and your checkbook. Some fixtures can greatly increase the amount of lighting in a room. A single overhead fixture in a long hallway, for example, might be replaced with track lighting running the length of the hallway, turning it into a great space to display paintings or photographs. As always, make sure your circuit can support the increased current demand should you replace a fixture with one of a higher wattage rating. There’s no need to limit yourself to using incandescent fixtures to replace your existing ones. Fluorescent fixtures, especially compact models, should be considered as well.