florescent lights

[peterjcb]

I'm installing some lighting in my garage. I picked up some twin 8' T12 florescent fixtures and after I just finished wiring everything up I noticed that they "hum". Is there any fix for this? Florescents seem to be a popular choice for many garages but I don't think that I want to listen to the humming all the time. :?
I'm seriously thinking of pulling them out and getting something else.

[Rich]

The hum is from the ballasts - probably of a low quality or damaged. Could be replaced with electronic ballasts and could lessen the noise.

[peterjcb]

Thanks Rich,
They both hum so I think that I'm going to pull them both out tomorrow and bring them back to Lowe's. I can't stand humming lights.

[peterjcb]

OK, I got some new fixtures from Home Depot and reinstalled them today. The humming noise from these are considerably less than from the fixtures from Lowe's, but it's still there.

I'm not going to bother pulling these out, I've already spent too much time on just installing light fixtures. I set up my CAT5 network cable in the garage so I'll just transfer over some music to my garage computer and it won't even be noticeable. 8)

[Dragon]

Depending on how much time you want to spend you can move the ballasts to another location. They don't have to be located within the fixture.

[peterjcb]

Update:

Some ballasts are noisier than others, they are not all created equal. I found that the Home Depot lights were quieter than the Lowe's brand at the same temperature.
The florescent light humming noise seems to be proportional to the ambient temperatures. The warmer the temperature is, the less noisy they are. The colder it is...the more humming noise they will generate.

I was working out in the garage tonight on my truck and it's about 70F. The florescents were really quiet and I didn't even notice them being on.

[Cole]

Now that I think about, you are exactly right about the temperature. I have noticed that too.

[Tom R]

And if it gets 'too' cold, - - they won't even come on, - - but you probably won't have that problem in the Carolina's, - - or 'Tejas'!!