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| Replacing a T5 fluorescent ballast body |
With the Hari Raya holidays just around the corner, I took leave for 1 day to fix some stuff at home. One of the items that I have been putting off for awhile was a lamp in the bathroom at home. The fluorescent lamp is a T5 lamp.
A T5 lamps consists of a starter choke, ballast and body. The starter choke is used to fire up the ballast. The ballast is the rectangular electronical device in the lamp while the body is the frame of the lamp. A spherical fluorescent light tube is fitted into the body to complete the whole T5 lamp.
The problem with the T5 lamp was that it had a buzzing sound when it is being switched on, it is normal for the lamp to be buzzing when it is switched for a few seconds but it is not normal for it to be buzzing throughout the time it is being switched on.
If the starter choke is faulty, normally the lamp will flicker a many times before it starts while if the sides of the spherical fluorescent light tube is faulty, the lights coming from the lamp will look dimm.
Therefore, the root cause of the buzzing sound is the electronic ballast. You can get a replacement ballast device for very cheap but for simplicity I got the entire casing, with starter choke and ballast pre installed and tested by the hardware shop guy before I took it back to replace the faulty one. The cost difference between buying a new ballast and the ballast with the entire body is not very big. I recommend beginners to buy the ballast with the entire body first, it's much easier to replace it and you get a spanky new lamp body, the old lamp body would have already look worn out and yellow in color (original color is white). Total installation time took was 30 mins and I saved RM50 from hiring the electrician. By the way, nowadays electricians won't even come to your place for just RM50 job.
I took the opportunity to record all the stuff I did on my newly purchase Yi action camera (kind of like a goPro ripoff), this was to test the camera quality and also maybe upload the whole process on video to my Youtube channel.
A T5 lamps consists of a starter choke, ballast and body. The starter choke is used to fire up the ballast. The ballast is the rectangular electronical device in the lamp while the body is the frame of the lamp. A spherical fluorescent light tube is fitted into the body to complete the whole T5 lamp.
The problem with the T5 lamp was that it had a buzzing sound when it is being switched on, it is normal for the lamp to be buzzing when it is switched for a few seconds but it is not normal for it to be buzzing throughout the time it is being switched on.
If the starter choke is faulty, normally the lamp will flicker a many times before it starts while if the sides of the spherical fluorescent light tube is faulty, the lights coming from the lamp will look dimm.
Therefore, the root cause of the buzzing sound is the electronic ballast. You can get a replacement ballast device for very cheap but for simplicity I got the entire casing, with starter choke and ballast pre installed and tested by the hardware shop guy before I took it back to replace the faulty one. The cost difference between buying a new ballast and the ballast with the entire body is not very big. I recommend beginners to buy the ballast with the entire body first, it's much easier to replace it and you get a spanky new lamp body, the old lamp body would have already look worn out and yellow in color (original color is white). Total installation time took was 30 mins and I saved RM50 from hiring the electrician. By the way, nowadays electricians won't even come to your place for just RM50 job.
I took the opportunity to record all the stuff I did on my newly purchase Yi action camera (kind of like a goPro ripoff), this was to test the camera quality and also maybe upload the whole process on video to my Youtube channel.
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| T5 ballast - faulty |