I suspect that most woodworkers like to listen to music while in the shop as I do. But florescent lights—I have 16 bulbs all told in mine—emit a constant hum that spoils my “listening pleasure.” I’ve been told to mount an antenna outdoors and run a wire to my radio inside. I’ve had no luck with this. I suspect I need some kind of shielded cable running to the radio from outside to make this idea work. Any suggestions?
Replies
A couple of quick questions and suggestions to narrow down the source of the problem:
Is the hum is coming through the radio's speaker, that is it isn't just the lights themselves humming, which is common.
It is possible that one light unit is the culprit, if you can run them one at a time you may be able to identify the offender and replace it, sometimes just the bulb is at fault.
Is it possible that the radio is on the same circuit as the lamps, which will often make the problem worse. Plugging the radio into a different circuit or running it on batteries would solve the problem.
I have found that the chargers for cordless tools will cause a lot of interference, the lights may not be the source of your humming.
Modern lights with electronic ballasts generally don't cause interference, it would be moderately expensive, but upgrading the light fixtures would probably eliminate the humming.
I don't have nearly enough radio experience to advise you on a better antennae hook up, so hopefully some of my other ideas will help.
John White
Thanks.
It comes through the speaker. I've tried two radios.
All my lights were purchased since 2003.
The lights and the radio are on different circuits.
I do have battery chargers inthe shop but the humming is there whether they're on or not.
I'll experiment with the various lights.
El Viejo
Not all lights, even modern ones, have electronic ballasts. If you purchased the less expensive lights from someplace like Home Depot they very well may have low quality ballasts that are creating a lot of electronic noise.
Another thing to check that I should have mentioned the first time: if the lights aren't properly grounded because of a fault in the wiring in the wall or because the circuit is an older ungrounded service, this could be the source of your interference.
John W.
I've narrowed it down to one fixture. It's a large, 4 bulb, light less than a year old. The balast recently failed. I got a new ballast from Sylvania which I replaced.
I'mv going to investigate the possibility that it's not grounded properly.
Thanks for your continued interest.
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