{"id":17882,"date":"2026-11-02T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/?p=17882"},"modified":"2026-11-02T15:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:21:05","slug":"besting-the-ballast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/2026\/11\/02\/besting-the-ballast\/","title":{"rendered":"Besting the Ballast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The fluorescent light mounted on the ceiling over my work area in the garage has gradually but inexorably declined in its willingness to do the one job for which it was created. For the past six months \u2014 maybe more; I can’t recall when it actually started \u2014 the dual-tube light might or might not come on when the wall switch was flipped. In the beginning, flipping the switch on and off a couple of times successfully roused the slumbering tubes. Later, they would awaken partially, like a teenager sensing waffles being cooked for breakfast, but not certain whether or not it’s a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inevitable finally happened a few days ago: the fixture went completely dead and refused resurrection. I sprang into troubleshooting mode. I first toggled the wall switch twenty more times just to confirm the death diagnosis. I then went through my mental checklist of things that could have gone wrong. It was a very short list, because I don’t know anything about fluorescent lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This is my permanent mantra for DIY projects<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I immediately dismissed the possibility that a squirrel had gotten into the attic and chewed through the wiring. The chance of that happening is not zero, but I’m pretty sure we would have detected the aroma of barbecued tree rat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then tried swapping out the fluorescent tubes, but that proved fruitless. The last thing on my list was the ballast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what role the ballast plays in creating light for my benefit. I did know that the wiring from the attic that carries the house current to the fixture first runs through the ballast, and my initial assumption was that it was a transformer \u2014 not like \n\n \n\n\n \nBumblebee or Optimus Prime<\/a> \n\nThese are fictional characters from the Transformers movie franchise. For those without eight-year-old boys in the family (or adults who act like one), Bumblebee typically transforms into either a VW Beetle or a Camaro, and Optimus Prime typically transforms into either a Peterbilt, Western Star, or Freightliner semi-truck cab, depending on the movie. <\/span><\/span>; even I knew that \u2014 but I was wrong. Big surprise, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re like me and barely on speaking terms with electricity, and you clicked on the above link to Wikipedia’s explanation of what a ballast is and what it does, you might come away even more confused than when you got there. I asked ChatGPT for a basic layman’s explanation, and here’s what it told me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

A fluorescent tube needs two things from its electrical supply:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A way to get started. The ballast helps provide the electrical conditions needed to get the gas inside the tube conducting electricity.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A way to keep going without self-destructing. Once the tube is lit, the ballast limits the current so the tube doesn’t draw progressively more electricity and burn itself out.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Think of it this way: The ballast is part starter motor, part traffic cop. It gets the process going and then keeps the electrical traffic from getting out of hand.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Besides being curious about the role of the ballast, I also wondered how it got its name. The term was originally (and still is) used in a maritime context \u2014 shipping to be exact \u2014 to describe water that is pumped into an unloaded vessel to stabilize it; it acts as a counterweight in place of the cargo that would normally provide the stability. In the late 19th century, it began to be applied metaphorically to devices that stabilize electric currents, according to this website<\/a>. The more you know…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, armed with that knowledge (OK, not really; I looked everything up just now) and an acutely unjustifiable level of confidence, I decided to replace the ballast myself, rather than ordering a new fixture. I hopped over to Amazon.com and ordered a new ballast, and it was delivered the next day. The game is now afoot, as Billy Shakespeare said, although not in reference to fluorescent lighting (which wouldn’t appear until about 300 years after he wrote Henry V<\/em>, and I trust you’re impressed by the literary reference, regardless of its irrelevance).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I kicked off the project by violating the first rule of doing stuff around electricity: I just turned off the wall switch that controlled the lights instead of toggling off the breaker. Don’t try this at home, kiddies; this approach should be taken only by the most incompetent of DIYers \u2014 you know, sort of like “professional driver on a closed course” but substituting “ignorant fool” for “professional driver” and “closed coffin” for “closed course.” (I’ve often relied on the Biblical pronouncement that God takes care of fools and small children, which is another of my shortcomings, considering that the Bible doesn’t actually say that anywhere.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately, the ceiling in that part of the garage is less than nine feet high, putting the fixture in easy reach of a stepladder, and I was able to quickly remove the bulbs and then the fixture itself. I laid the fixture on the work table, splayed out like a corpse at an autopsy on NCIS<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The next step was to disconnect the multitudinous wires from their connectors (which I would eventually learn are called “tombstones,” aka lampholders or sockets; keep that in mind, as we’ll come back to it later). I put the new and old ballasts side-by-side and determined that they had the same number of wires in the same colors, which gave me [again, unjustified] confidence that I was on the right track. Still, the mass of wiring was intimidating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Photo:
    The old ballast (top) compared to the new and sleeker one. Apparently, the old one’s technology was based on magnetism; the new one is all electronic. Don’t ask me what that means, because I don’t know.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    I was sure that the new ballast would come with instructions for installing it, and, for once, I was right. The first instruction read something like this: with the old ballast still in place, snip each wire at least 8″ from the tombstone so you can see where and how to connect the wires from the new ballast<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Oops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I have the memory of a gnat, and that’s on a good day, so I knew there was no way I could figure out which wire went where. A lesser man would have wept and given up, and that was my initial plan, to be honest. But then I remembered that there was an identical two-bulb fluorescent fixture in the other garage. Surely, it was installed at the same time as the one I was working on, and surely, it had identical wiring. It was just a matter of opening it up, photographing the connections, and using them as a template for the new ballast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Since I didn’t have to uninstall that fixture from the ceiling, it was a simple matter to remove the acrylic cover, the fluorescent tubes, and the metal shielding that hid the ballast and the wires. I then photographed the tombstones at both ends of the fixture, as well as the middle section where the wires carrying the house current connected to the ballast. For good measure, I then took a video of the installation from end to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I reassembled the fixture (and tested it to make sure it still worked; I know my skill level pretty well!). I loaded the photos and video to my computer and fired up Photoshop to get the detailed views that I hoped would allow me to wire the new ballast correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s a composite photo of the connections at each end:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Photo:
    This is the wiring on the fixture that I had to use as a template to install the new ballast.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    While the photos initially appeared to be exactly what I needed, on closer examination I found that I couldn’t tell if the yellow wires were supposed to be inserted in a separate port in the tombstone, or if they went into the same ports as the red wires. That would be illogical, but nothing about electricity is intuitive to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    That’s where the video I took came in handy. I was able to scan to the point where those tombstones came into sight, and the video captured a better angle than the still photo. I paused the video and took a screenshot, imported it into Photoshop, and enhanced it so I could tell how the wiring was supposed to be routed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Photo:
    This perspective clearly showed how the red and yellow wires were routed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Now armed with photos, I secured the new ballast to the fixture and proceeded to install the wiring. I was a bit concerned when the yellow wires were barely long enough to reach the proper tombstones, and I had to scavenge a couple of short lengths of red wire from the old ballast to complete the connections as shown in one of the preceding photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I also used gaffer tape to ensure none of the wires shifted out of place when I reinstalled the protective cover. That proved to be not only unnecessary but also a mistake. I’ll explain in a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once the wiring was in place, it was time to attach the fixture to the ceiling and wire the ballast to the house current. One of the advantages of not choosing to replace the entire fixture is that I could reattach the fixture without having to drill new holes in the ceiling. It would be a simple matter of using a couple of new toggle bolts \u2014 aka butterfly anchors \u2014 which I had on hand. However, I quickly discovered that the original installation used different fasteners, as the toggle bolts were too big to fit through the holes in the ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I looked at the box that held the toggle bolts and learned that they required a 5\/8″ hole for use. It took less than two minutes to put a 5\/8″ bit in my little DeWalt drill and ream out the mounting holes to the proper diameter. The first toggle bolt went in without a problem; not so, the second. The spring-loaded “wings” of the second anchor locked in the closed position once inserted through the drywall, so it couldn’t be secured in place. Fortunately, I had another toggle bolt and the installation was easily completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I connected the line power and ground wires, and popped in a couple of new hybrid LED tubes. These are replacements for typical fluorescent tubes, but often can be installed in fixtures with or without ballasts. If you infer that I didn’t actually need a ballast to use them, you might be correct, but replacing the ballast means that I can still use regular fluorescent tubes as well as LEDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having connected the line current and installed the bulbs, I had reached the moment of truth: it was time to see if all my work was worth the effort. I flipped the wall switch, and \u2014 voila! \u2014 the garage was again brightly lit. I literally breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But the job wasn’t yet complete. I still had to install the protective metal wiring\/ballast cover and the main acrylic diffuser cover. Both of those things should have been drop-dead simple, should<\/em> being the operative word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You might remember that I mentioned using gaffer tape to hold the wiring in place. I thought it was a smart idea, and I guess it was, but the execution was, well, less than<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The metal cover forms a protective channel that hides the ballast and the wiring, and it snaps into place via tabs that are inserted into cuts in the fixture’s body. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently managed to place the gaffer tape directly over about half of those cuts, preventing the installation of the cover. I had to painstakingly peel away the tape without disturbing the wiring it was intended to hold in place. This process served to add a bit of drama to the end of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I got the metal cover installed, and then the acrylic fixture cover, and once more held my breath as I flipped the wall switch. I was relieved that the wiring had all stayed in place and the light worked as hoped. I’m happy to report that (1) the light continues to work, and (b) I haven’t yet burned the house down. If that’s not a win, I don’t know what is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Closing Thoughts and Caveat Lector<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Although this little project turned out well in the end, I strongly advise you not to follow in my footsteps as they relate to dealing with electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Turning off the fixture via the wall switch rather than at the breaker box is a bad idea, and I got lucky. There are multiple reasons why this is dangerous (feel free to google them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also, many magnetic ballasts \u2014 such as the one I replaced \u2014 contain a capacitor that stores electrical energy. Even when it’s disconnected from a power source, it can still deliver a strong shock if the wiring is mishandled. Again, I was fortunate, especially since I didn’t even know about this situation until after the job was finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion, the fact that the little sockets that the wiring connected to are referred to as tombstones seems quite relevant to these warnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    A.I. Disclosure<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    I did not use A.I. to generate any of the text or images in this post, other than that which was explicitly identified in the body of the article. I used the “AI Overview” feature of Google Search as a research tool. I also submitted the final draft to ChatGPT for a copyediting review to identify misspellings, punctuation errors, and problematic grammar and made a handful of changes based on that review. It also suggested a couple of text revisions to clarify the presence of capacitors in ballasts and the use of so-called hybrid LEDs.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    How many Aggies does it take to change a light bulb? In my case, just one…but it also takes a REALLY long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[37],"tags":[724,722,725],"class_list":["post-17882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tools-diy","tag-ballast","tag-electrical-ballast","tag-electricity","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/header_ballastwiring.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17882"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17940,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17882\/revisions\/17940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}