One of the long florescent light tubes in my dining room fixture (there are 4 bulbs in the fixture) burnt out. These are long tubes (4 feet long) and my wing span is not that long. Anyway, with some difficulty I thought I had the bulb in place when I felt a shock. All 4 bulbs then went out. That’s the bad news. The good news is that they all came on after a couple of hours. I have 3 questions. (1) What caused the shock (probably a hot wire in the fixture)? (2) What caused the lights to go out (probably a short - or that is what I thought)? (3) Why did the lights spontaneously come back - some short of reset in the fixture?
So, the answer to the question as to how many people it takes to replace a light bulb, the answer is two if it is a 4-ft florescent bulb, but I live by myself.
When you were shocked you may have temporarily broken the circuit to the other lamps causing them to go out. Sometimes they need time to cool before they can restart. Or you need to cycle the switch on and off.
Also: Make sure you turn the power off when changing bulbs.
I have always found that even after you have installed the florescent tube correctly, you will have to rotate it a bit with the power on for the contacts to work correctly. Am I doing something wrong here ?
look at the bulb ends. quality bulbs will have a painted or indented mark on both ends on the metal, on both sides of each end, midway between the pins. if yours doesn’t then put 4 small marks on the metal ends with a felt marker.
touch only the glass. have the end pins vertical. put the bulb in until the top pin hits the top of the socket and the lower pin having gone in about 1/4 inch. rotate the bulb 90 degrees until the mark, one on each end, is facing straight down exactly in the middle. you may feel a slight ‘slip into place and be held tight’ sensation. don’t let go of the bulb before then because it may not be in tight, may not work, may fall on the floor and break.
socket contacts can have some slight corrosion; this can be remedied by putting a bulb in and out (you can use a dead bulb) a few times. bulb may not be making good contact with the socket, if you don’t feel a slight ‘slip into place and be held tight’ sensation then the bulb isn’t in tight enough.
That video may help. Although you begin holding the bulb in the center, once one end is in, you still have to hold that in while you try to get the other in. Mine are not recessed, not that would make any difference, I do not think. I have to have the lights on so I can see what I’m doing. But starting from below the fixture and inserting one pin from below, then the other from below may be the trick. I finally did get the bulb in, but next time I will try that. I did rotate the bulb once it was in.
johnpost, I know about the indentations on the tube. The problem is I cannot see them as I try to put the tube in. I just check to make sure the pins are vertical and that the slots they go in are also vertical. The slots start out vertical but I sometimes get them off the vertical when attempting to replace the bulb. I have a similar fixture in the kitchen which also has two old bulbs in need of replacement. I will try to put them in from beneath. These are 4 feet long and, I believe, a little longer than those shown. I have had rotator cuff injuries bilaterally, so it is not easy for me to keep holding my shoulders up.
