Problem with voltage?

Question

I have an electrical problem:

I find that the tube light in my room does not switch on (it keeps flickering) in the evenings. This happens usually in the period 6-9pm. The rest of the time it acts perfectly fine. What might be the problem? It cannot be due to excess loading from my house since even though I switch off all other lights in my house this still continues to flicker. Repeatedly switching on and off does not help either..

How may I overcome this.? I'm curious to know what exactly is happening...

Changing starter did not help :(

Answer 1

It sound like there is a slight brown out situation in the area. To rectify the situation, it may be in order to check the ballast of the fluorescent light. This would be done by a squelch test. If the ballast is good, you may have to go and purchase a dimmable ballast. You can, after you document the voltage drop for timing, contact the service provider, as they must maintain certain standards. A voltmeter to any plug-in will do.
Most modern fluorescent lighting doe not have the little starters that they used to have, especially with an electronic ballast.

Answer 2

The most likely problem is that your unit is close to failing (see answer 1) and is sensitive to low voltage. The low voltage dies not come from your house, but from the load that the neighborhood puts on the system when people come home from works, turn on all the lights and TV and do cooking. If you had a meter, you would probably find that the day time voltage was 10% higher than early evening - in the US this would mean it might be 112 at evening and 122 in light use time of day. If your unit is really bad or other factors, the more common drop from about 117 to 110 will do it - below 110 is brownout and you should be hearing about that on the news.

Answer 3

Change the starter which is of a small cylindrical shape fitted on the plate on which tubelight is fitted. It costs about Rs. 10/-. You can do it yourself.