Hi, All— I had a past client contact me regarding fluorescent shop lights I installed in her basement studio space as part of a renovation/addition 11-12 years ago. She’s having issues with the tubes not igniting when the humidity is high. This is the walk-out portion of a basement built into a hillside, so very little of the exterior wall area is actually below grade, and where it is, I took great effort to keep the foundation as dry as feasible. I also took great care installing a vapor barrier on the slab before insulating and adding sleepers for subfloor and bamboo. Nonetheless, the humidity tends to be high in that space at times, and she has continually monitored/run a dehumidifier over the years.  

I have read old posts regarding this issue and have read solutions such as cleaning dust off the tubes, cleaning the tombstones and pins, replacing the ballasts, and a few other things, but also wonder if noalox might help.  I have also in the past couple years replaced 400 or so tubes with direct-wire LED tubes and wonder if that’s not the best option. Might they have any humidity issues in terms of corrosion and loss of contact in the tombstones?

Any help would be appreciated. I’m trying to help her from afar now, so I don’t have the luxury of trying things repeatedly on-site. 

Thanks so much. —Matthew