General Electric Magnetic Ballast By kman63 on Mar 14, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

If you have a flourescent light fixture in your home, sooner or later you will find that it will quit working altogether one day. That means your ballast has burned out and needs replaced. (Note: If just one bulb has burned out, it is just that bulb, and not the ballast.) When looking for a replacement at The Home Depot, I found this model made by General Electric. It was very easy to install, all I needed to do was follow the instructions that came packaged in order to know which wire went where. If you are unsure, a professional should be called - and, don't forget to turn off the power before doing any electrical work. This ballast works only with a 120 volt electrical supply. These generally will give you years of service before needing replaced, so I think that $35 dollars is a fair price. It is also very efficient to use a flourescent light, because the ballast uses far less electricity than a standard incandescent bulb. It starts up instantly, with full brightness as soon as you flip the switch. A few problems with these, though, is that the ballast will make a slight humming noise, but it has to be pretty quiet for you to hear it. And, it may contain chemicals that are not good for the environment, so when these do go bad, make sure they are disposed of according to the law.