Yet another vote for LED's. I converted a friend's faulty fluorescent lamp to a ballast-eliminating LED 'Daylight' lamp (4 foot tubes) and it's like the sun shining in the room. Uses 30% less energy than ballast-type fluorescent tubes, and is more than twice as bright. No heat generated, either. Be sure to get the ballast-eliminating (bypass) tubes. The ones that advertise 'plug and play' with the original ballast suck....and have all the problems that ballast systems have. LED tubes have gotten downright cheap, too.
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Jeff 
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