I recently switched my light fixtures in my room from incandescent to fluorescent and the humming drives me crazy!
Now everyone who has been in my room says that I am paranoid and they cannot hear a damn thing, but I can and it is very annoying to me.
Which part is responsible for the humming? Is it the ballast, the starter, the lamp itself or a bit of everything? And what can I do to eliminate it?
Are we talking about tube-type fluorescents, or compact fluorescent bulbs?
Tube type
Can it be stopped, though? The light fixture in my kitchen buzzes horribly.
As noted in my article, the major culprit is the magnetic ballast. You can try replacing that; if you’re lucky there is an electronic equivalent (which runs at a frequency far beyond human hearing), but even another magnetic unit might run more quietly than the one you have.
If you have an older magnetic ballast, changing it out with a new electronic ballast should greatly reduce or eliminate the noise. If you already have an electronic ballast, then it may be time to replace the fixture.
And before you ask, to determine if your ballast is electronic, take the part number from it and Google it.
I’m sorry, I must have overlooked that part. I promise I read the whole thing!
Thanks, both of ya. I’ll go see what it’s got. 
IME, hum is strongly correlated with “cheapest item found at the big box”. Avoid those and you’re a lot less likely to buy a hummer.
Eh, it’s ok. It’s admittedly long and boring unless you’re really into electrical stuff. 
As you suspect, electricity is not my strong point. I don’t really know how I passed Circuits but I did take my C and run with it. 
I found a helpful photo but I can’t seem to get the bulbs out of mine. I better let hubby handle this one.
Yep, that’s a ballast. Incidentally, it’s easy to tell a magnetic ballast from a comparable electronic one even without part numbers; the magnetic unit will be generally larger and always much heavier.
If you’re considering a replacement ballast, pay particular attention to the starting method. The two primary starting methods are “instant start” and “rapid start”. (There are various subcategories, such as “programmed rapid start”, but for our purposes, just determine if the ballast is “instant start” or “rapid start”.)
The reason you want to know this is because the sockets will be wired differently. And, depending on the type of socket, it may not be possible to retrofit one type of ballast where another one had been. For example, you could not hook up a rapid-start ballast into a fixture with internally shunted, instant-start sockets.
I’m using very general terms here, avoiding overly technical explanations. But don’t be confused - you most likely can find a nice quiet electronic replacement for a noisy magnetic ballast. Just try to match other specifications such as starting type, and the wiring diagrams for each ballast.
