Are fluorescent lights affected by humidity?

[dgallup]

I got back home last Wednesday night from a week of vacation to find my house air conditioning out. I could tell there had been storms and power outage(s). My ~50 year old house has several rooms with built in lighting using the old fat 4' fluorescent tubes. About half of the tubes were not turning on. It took about 36 hours to get the AC working including 2 nights when I ran my attic fan to cool down the house with the windows open. Due to tropical storm Bertha and subsequent weather events the relative humidity inside and out was 99%. I noticed that by Friday morning in some rooms 100% of the fluorescent tubes were not working. I thought what ever electrical trauma that had occurred had taken out some of the tubes and/or ballasts. However, 2 days after the return of the blessed AC, all but one of the lights is working completely normally.

So does high relative humidity stop fluorescent lights from working and does this present any kind of hazard?

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[IRstuff]

https://homesteady.com/info-12172443-fluorescent-kitchen-light-doesnt-work-high-humidity.html

https://diy.stackexchange.com/quest...re-take-minutes-to-turn-on-in-high-heat-and-h

https://www.homerepairtutor.com/fix-your-fluorescent-light-ballast/

Sounds plausible; there may be a number of things going on

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[btrueblood]

It could. Dust accumulates, then humidity rises, arc paths open up at high voltages used for starting...eventually the moisture and dust are "cleared" by the heating of those arcs/shorts and the light comes on again.

 

[handleman]

I replaced the 4ft tubes in my garage with LEDs a while back. 1000% improvement in the light level, totally worth it. No flickering or anything, comes right on even when cold etc. I got these semi-drop-in replacements:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074M8X8CV

I did have to pop off the cover of the fixture, pull out the ballast, and connect the power directly to the terminals, but that wasn't a whole lot more work than just replacing the bulbs. It beat installing new fixtures by a mile.

 

[EdStainless]

You should wipe the dust off of florescents at least every year. It will reduce light, cause overheating, and when damp prevent ignition.
If you really want light look at these

http://ledt8bulb.com/led-t8-tubes/high-cri-led-tube.html?dir=desc&order=price

I know that they sound expensive (the ones used in studios and paint booths are $100-200 per tube) but the color rendition is nearly perfect. The ones that I use are 4000K CRI95.

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[dgallup]

When the fluorescent lights were not working I was contemplating replacing them with LEDs. However, most of the 4' LED's I've seen are way too bright for normal room lighting. Might be able to use them with a dimmer but I've not been too impressed with LEDs on dimmers. I've got some can lights over my sofa and when I replaced the incandescents with LEDs they no longer fully dim. Most of the time that's OK but if I'm trying to watch a movie with a lot of low light scenes I have to turn them off. Plus, my fluorescent fixtures are all the old T12 size. Some of the tubes have never been replaced in the 30+ years I've had the house.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[EdStainless]

The cooperation between LED light and dimmer is always interesting. Some combinations work well, others only sort of regardless of claims about being dim-able.
YMMV but I have found that the combination of good CRI and 4000K CT makes the lights much less harsh, even the 18W ones.
You could buy a couple of the 12W ones and give them a try.

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[IRstuff]

That's pretty surprising, given that 4000K in a regular LED bulb is pretty harsh and almost into the blue

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[LittleInch]

YMMV = Your mileage may vary ??

CRFI - Colour Rending Index? China Radio International?

CT?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[handleman]

The cooperation between LED light and dimmer is always interesting.

I'll say. I have some can lights and ceiling fan lights on the same circuit in my basement, so two different types of LED bulbs. Both are "dimmable", and individually play pretty nicely with the dimmer. But their dimming amount at the same setting is drastically different. When the can lights reach about half brightness, the others have barely dimmed at all. The cans are pretty much off by the time the other lights get to half.

 

[EdStainless]

CRI - Color rendering index
CT - color temp
Your millage may very
Sorry.
The high CRI lamps do not have the blue peek that make them harsh.
Even though people who film like the 5000K lamps because they are more like sun light I find those a bit much.

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[waross]

I have had two issues with fluorescent lights.
1: An office building in the tropics that was unheated and unoccupied for a number of years.
Most of the fixtures would not light.
The electricians replaced all of the lamps. No joy.
The electricians replaced all of the ballasts. No joy.
I got involved.
The tombstone sockets had developed surface corrosion.
I had the electricians replace the sockets and the lights came on.
2. Running a residence for a few months on a generator.
Many of the lights would not light.
The voltage was a little low.
Increasing the generator voltage about 10% fixed this problem.

These are not the same as your case, but may be worth checking.
If your voltage is a little low, the fixtures may be more sensitive to the beginning of corrosion in the end connections.

Bill
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