One thing that might help with high load-related dimming is a multivolt ballast. I am not sure. They operate on voltages between 120 and 277. It has never been clear to me if they adjust to differing voltages in a discrete or continuous fashion and how fast the adjustment is. Maybe someone else will know that detail. On-off is probably killing your tubes On the other hand, good program-start ballasts are recommended for occupancy sensor use. At some point, you begin to measure fluorescent lamp life in "starts" instead of hours. I wish that I could be more certain that the T8 ballasts will eliminate your noise problem completely. All I can say is that I don't hear mine at all. I know, however, that I have some high frequency hearing loss. Any good new electronic ballast operates above 20kHz for efficiency purposes. They are more likely to cause EMF or RFI problems than audible noise. (They need to be designed to avoid frequencies that cause EMF and RFI problems.) If you buy your ballasts locally, you could just change over one of your three and disconnect the other two for sound testing purposes. If it does not work for you, maybe you can get the store to agree, beforehand, to take the ballasts and lamps back. One thing in your favor is that your lumnaire appears to have non-shunted sockets and is wired for rapid-start/program start. There are some wiring diagrams (and other information that might be of interest) in this link: http://www.lighting.philips.com/pwc_li/us_en/connect/advance/assets/1-01_to_1-69_Atlas2012.pdf I like ballasts that will continue to operate the rest of the lamps if one goes out. Not all do that. I bought two boxes of ten (one each 1 or 2-tube and 3 or 4 tube) on ebay for $10 or less/ballast. I have a lot of linear fluorescent that came with my house and garage. Your light quality is likely to be greatly improved with the T8 tubes. I think that high CRI tubes are available in T12 format, they are not as common as for T8. Look for a high-quality lamp. I bought a bunch of GE SPX tubes. (SP are lower CRI). Other manufacturers have other notations. Color is largely a matter of taste. I like a more natural, daylight color. If you ballasts qualify for the NEMA Premium Ballast program, you are more likely to have good quality. Here is a link that might be useful: NEMA Premium Ballast

Sorry, don't know what happened to the first pic i posted. It was from the internet, maybe someone recognized it and pulled it? I'll try to describe. It was like your set-up, but they framed out the edges from the highest part of the box down to the main part of the ceiling with layers of molding. Kind of like rectangular rings, so it actually reduced the size of the box a bit, as it stepped upward and inward. It was painted the same color as the ceiling, then there was a small chandelier hanging from the center of the box. If you need to cover some of the electrical box, you could use those embossed ceiling tiles and paint them to match it all. I'm off to search for another pic, because it really was a great look. edited to add: Found it! The pic is still on the internet, but I'll link to the blog instead... Here is a link that might be useful: Updated light box This post was edited by olychick on Wed, Apr 3, 13 at 12:57

The electrician finally came this afternoon and it turned out to be something minor that could have been really bad. The guy who installed my lights several years ago did a bad job of wiring into the junction box and somehow started a little fire last Friday. It was an hour job to replace the wiring but thankfully the fire didn't spread and was contained to the box. So I can take the new light fixtures and ballasts back to Home Depot as he was able to wire the existing light fixture that continues to work fine. All the other lights came back on and I am good to go. Thanks for all your help!

We just removed a similar light box in our kitchen! The drywall under it was in good shape except for a few holes, like where the wires came from the attic. We have a rancher, so it wasn't too hard for an electrician to put in half a dozen insulated, LED can lights. I know we got a bargain, but our (licensed) electrician charged us about $700, including removing and disposing of the light box, buying and installing the can lights and dimmer switch, and he also installed an outside spot light and replaced an under cabinet lighting. I love the change in our kitchen! I just finished patching and painting the ceiling. We didn't go with any pendants over the island. I love the bright, wide open look, and the lights are energy efficient, cool, and dimmable.