[oldhomeowner]

I have an old house (1889) that was built on stone walls / concrete. We have now pretty much scraped, sealed, waterproofed and painted it. We are now trying to actually move all of our stuff into it. The existing lighting consists of two, four foot florescent "boxes." Each box has room for four bulbs. Some work. Some don't I have tried to replace bulbs, but that is not working very well. One box comes on when I flip the switch, the other requires me to flip it about 10 or 12 times before the lights come on. This is annoying. Is the problem the bulbs or the fixture? I should probably replace at least this second box. Should I stay with the four foot florescent? Is there a special type of "basement" lighting I should look for? When I used this kind of lighting in an outdoor shed, the original installation did not include a fixture that could handle the extreme cold in the winter time and I had to replace them. I don't want to make the same mistake with the basement. Any special issues / concerns? I also want to add more lighting (the two boxes are not enough). Any special considerations / thoughts? Thanks.

 

[CuHead]

Its probably the ballast, needs replacing. Often I've found entire new fixtures for less than the cost of the replacement ballast. In an unfinished basement, easy to replace the fixture when it is something like this
As for the temperature issue, they should be fine in a basement. For outdoor (unheated shed, not exposed to weather) use you need to check the temp ratings on the fixture before buying.

 

[DannyT]

if they are old lights you are better off replacing them with newer ones with the electronic ballasts. those old ones may contain PCB's and should be disposed of properly. also the old ones arent nearly as efficient as the newer ones.