Bulb gone or faulty lamp

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Hi Just gone to change outside lamp to be found with this. Neither bulb is working should they work independent of each other so does it suggest a faulty lamp.

Just wondering if one lamp went first and we didn't notice Just don't want to waste money on new bulbs which could be put to new lamp fitting..is the dark area a sign the bulbs have gone.

Thanks


 
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I seem to remember the two tubes are powered from one ballast and starter, and also seem to remember special starter, with the black on the tubes it is likely they have failed, need replacing as a pair.

Some times with electronic ballast tubes going and not being replaced quick can cause the ballast to also fail.
 
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Thanks for the replies thought the bulbs looked expensive but found out there £2 a piece so will try changing bulbs and go from there.Just a simple light so we can see the Chocolate Lab in the garden at night doing his business, so not worth upgrading if a cheap bulb will fix
 
I would also swap to LED, in the main so I can select size of bulb/tube and use smart ones if required, but LED and Fluorescent are about the same power usage for light output and life if using an electronic ballast, and hard to get a fitting with wire wound ballast today.

An 11 watt folded tube is around £2.50 so it is a balance between £5 to test it, and if it works likely will continue to work for a few years, or £40 for something like this
shopping
which is likely better, but the LED is built in, so can't change bulb even if you want, or some thing simple like this
shopping
which does take a bulb, but still £11. Likely I would want something looking better, but this
1061X_P
is £26 and still has integral LED so once it fails whole new lamp.

It seems the EU was about to ban the integral LED lamps, so in a year or so we may see the return of the outside lamp with a bulb, so personally I have been delaying fitting new outside lamps until I can find one I like.

I don't want PIR operated, they tend to switch off at most inappropriate moment, or switch on when not required, waiting for new railings to be fitted before fitting new lamps, but likely will have smart bulbs so I can switch on in the car before walking up the drive. Can do it with smart relays, but not as easy.
 
They are known as PL lamps (not bulbs) and each lamp has an integral starter. With black ends like that they are almost certainly blown. Just replace them as you suggest.
 
A lamp is the whole device, historically we had a spigot, and the lamp fitted on the spigot, and inside the lamp we had a wick or mantle, and as electric arrived a bulb.

I remember around 1980 other electricians saying bulbs go in the ground, well electric wise bulb is short for bulbous which describes the shape.
Being cleaver as I thought I ordered a new head lamp, and got new head lamp, minus the bulb.
 
A lamp is the whole device, historically we had a spigot, and the lamp fitted on the spigot, and inside the lamp we had a wick or mantle, and as electric arrived a bulb.
I totally agree.

I remember around 1980 other electricians saying bulbs go in the ground, well electric wise bulb is short for bulbous which describes the shape.
Being cleaver as I thought I ordered a new head lamp, and got new head lamp, minus the bulb.
Very much as I would have predicted.
Lamps glow
Bulbs grow

They are known as PL lamps (not bulbs) and each lamp has an integral starter. With black ends like that they are almost certainly blown. Just replace them as you suggest.
AFAIC the evacuated glass bits with electric contacts were always called bulbs, and a bulb went in a lamp. One would go into an automotive supplier and ask for an indicator bulb or headlamp bulb. Or into the ironmongers and later the hardware store and ask for a 60Watt bulb or 3V torch bulb.

If I'd asked for an indicator lamp I'd have expected to be offered something like this:
0-570-00-round-surface-mount-direction-indicator-lamp-1291-p.jpg

and doing this:
upload_2021-10-3_14-2-49.png
comes up with only this 3V device in the Ads strip amongst more bulbs than lamps:
upload_2021-10-3_14-5-28.png


Again I'll say that I try to keep up with current fads but changing the term bulbs, which was the only term used for maybe close to a century, to lamps on some sort of crusade is one I truly don't understand. All it's done has create a lot of confusion, especially as a major part of the public use the term 'bulb' for a bulb and 'lamp' for the device the bulb or candle fits into and are unlikely to change all the time the word bulb is printed on the packaging containing a lamp... oh err bulb.
 
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An intelligent comment!

I find it quite amazing that, on North American sites, they write of "Bulbs" even when referring to fluorescent "Tubes" - which are not "bulb shaped".
fluo tubes are called bulbs by a lot of people this side of the pond too, OP being a classic example and an example every single one of us understood without exception.
 
Again I'll say that I try to keep up with current fads but changing the term bulbs, which was the only term used for maybe close to a century, to lamps on some sort of crusade is one I truly don't understand. All it's done has create a lot of confusion, especially as a major part of the public use the term 'bulb' for a bulb and 'lamp' for the device the bulb or candle fits into and are unlikely to change all the time the word bulb is printed on the packaging containing a lamp... oh err bulb.

and what do you do with a bulb - you plug it into a lamp holder :)

I have never come across a bulb holder..
 
I would also swap to LED, in the main so I can select size of bulb/tube and use smart ones if required, but LED and Fluorescent are about the same power usage for light output and life if using an electronic ballast, and hard to get a fitting with wire wound ballast today.

If the OP wants to keep the existing fitting, they could simply remove all of the internals, buy one or a couple of lamp holders on brackets to mount in it, then fit one or two LED 240v bulbs/lamps/light thingummies :) The pound shops sell the LED lamps for £1 each these days. Lamp holders to suit can be sourced on ebay.
 
and what do you do with a bulb - you plug it into a lamp holder :)

I have never come across a bulb holder..
Oh no it was always a bulb holder. the title altered as the name of the bulb did.

A lamp holder was asomething for the lamp to fit onto; typically a bracket on the wall or an opening in a ships internal wall/bulkhead with an iron grill each side to accomodate a lamp.
 

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