[Mloupee]

I bought a couple Sunlight Supply 2 bulb T5 fixtures that are pretty old, I assume they are between 5 and 10 years old. One works great, the other is pretty bad and I may have to purchase all new lighting.

The bad fixture is 48" and uses individual reflectors that clip on the bulbs. Every day the light never turns on automatically. I have to go to the light every day and turn the bulbs slightly and mess with them to get it to turn on. Because of this, I was considering just buying new light fixtures anyways. Now, if I touch the metal reflectors there is a bzzzzzing noise and it feels like I am being shocked very lightly. This doesn't make any sense to me because the reflectors only come in contact with the bulbs. Anybody had this happen before?

 

[jolson10450]

yes that happens to me on my retrofit system when my hands are wet. seems as if it is just some sort of static trying to get to ground through the reflectors or something.

i get it a lot when i feed and my hand is in the water and my arm brushes the reflector i get a litttle tickle, nothing bad but you can tell its a tickle.

 

[Wuton]

Is it possible/feasible to ground out the reflectors I would assume the problem you guys are running into would be that when you buy a factory pre-made system the reflectors and the lighting chassis are all grounded.

I don't know for sure and this is just a guess but the bulbs may be leaking voltage into anything close enough to give it an adequate way to go to ground. Unless there is a chance that one of your leads is grounding out on the reflectors, which I doubt because of only feeling a tickle even with one arm in the saltwater. If it was a lead I would imagine you would feel what they call a poke. (It doesn't feel like a poke though)

 

[jolson10450]

mine is retrofit though

 

[Wuton]

I understand this what I am thinking if that you have them set in a wooden canopy,this is a guess of course. I think that when you buy a system the whole thing from fixture to ballast are all grounded out to the plug, three prong plug correct? This means that the ballast has a ground in it. Since I do not know what kind of ballasts you are using I can't give you an accurate way of grounding out the fixture with the ballast. Is there a ground wire already coming out of the ballast, or is it just a positive and neutral?

If there is a ground along with the other two you just have to figure out how to connect it to your fixture, simple enough.

If there isn't and it is a three prong plug the ballast at least has a ground in it and if you can open the case it should be possible to splice your ground to the ballast's. I would use a wire nut and splice the two existing ground that you will have with the third you are adding to the system, maybe tape the nut down to the wires when finished. Make sure if you use this route to check each wire, once you tighten down the wire nut, just to make sure it won't come loose.

If for some reason it is only a two prong plug which I would doubt, you could go to hd or lowes and buy a three pong plug and cut the two pronged plug off and ground out the fixture. I would also ground out the ballast if this is the way it is wired.

 

[streetrodder007]

I am an Electrician by trade, and what you are saying is very feasible to get a tingle from the shade. I have probably changed hundreds of different ballasts over the years, and a lot of the old ballasts will not light a lamp until the reflector or base cover is secured in place. Also most ballasts,( at least what you are using) do not have an external ground wire coming out, they are grounded from their case. When you have to twist a lamp back and forth to get it to light, you usually have a bad/ loose connection at the tombstones / socket ( the ends). They are easy to replace and should only cost about $1 . We carry tons of those on our service vans, its a common replacement part.
Also on a safety note. never, ever touch the ends of a lit, or semi lit fluorescent tube, a ballast is a form of transformer and is boosting the voltage up usually in the 500-600 volt range to excite the valance electrons to get them moving and bumping into each other at a high rate, very small amperage, but high voltage.

 

[Byrd_USA]

I am an Electrician by trade

StreetRodder is correct.
Ballast are grounded to the frame.You do have a leak somewhere.
I would remove from near the water and meter your light.
unless you LIKE that tingly feeling !!!!

 

[Kendall]

ground, ground, ground

 

[streetrodder007]

MLOUPEE- if you need any help or have questions about re-wiring the lighting in a safe and legal manner, just PM me. Glad to help.

 

[Wuton]

Streetrodder wouldn't he/they be able to ground out the fixture to the ballast as long as it has a dedicated ground. This would not solve his problem with the wiggling the bulb to get it to turn on but it would solve the voltage leak wouldn't it. Or am I mistaken?

 

[streetrodder007]

Some ballasts do have a small external ground lead similar to the neutral or hot connection but the ground has to be either a green wire or a bare wire by NEC standards, but most ballast grounding is done through bonding, which in a lot of cases is basically sliding one end of the ballast under some metal ears that the fixture base already has punched in it from the factory, then the opposite side of the ballast has a small screw to hold the ballast to the metal fixture base. usually this screw has an odd sized head, like a 11/32" . The metal frame or case of the fixture is grounded and bonded when you bring your power cord into it, either with a piece of S.O. cord or a piece of M.C. cable, and you would take the green or bare wire and connect it to the green ground screw 10/32" or the light would have an access cover that has a green screw for primary bonding. Sorry if it sounds confusing, its very simple when you see it done correctly.

 

[Wuton]

No it's not confusing at least the wiring application side of it. I just have never worked on or owned a ballast of this sort so I am unsure how it is set up without pics or anything. Most of my experience is in high voltage but it seems odd that there does seem to be a history of this issue and yet the ballast has no grounding wire for the fixture. Also without seeing the whole set up it is difficult to give advice on what the best course of action would be in grounding. I was under the impression that anything made of metal and possibility of carrying a current should have a ground.

I do agree with you though that the real issue would be the improper seating of the bulbs. Even with low ampage it could still be deadly. It has been a year or so since I slept through the safety videos but I think it is something like 5ma across the heart to cause fibrillation.

 

[Mloupee]

MLOUPEE- if you need any help or have questions about re-wiring the lighting in a safe and legal manner, just PM me. Glad to help.

Streetrodder you're going to hear from me, I really appreciate your help. I am interested in re-wiring the lighting in a safe manner...but it does not have to be legal.

 

[slapshot]

It is induced from the bulbs. Mine does the same thing. Go and buy some small alligator clips from Radio Shack and clip them to your reflectors and then ground the other end, either to the fixture casing or an external ground. Problem solved.

 

[streetrodder007]

WUTON your correct about the 5ma, those Safe to Work classes do have some good info....haha.
That's why the NEC in conjunction with the UL have set the industry standards for all GFCI and ARC Fault single pole breakers and devices to trip out when there is a 5ma current imbalance between the Hot conductor and the Neutral . A small child could only take about 3-4ma across the heart possibly, where as a average adult could handle 6-7 ma . So they find the median, and use 5 milli amps.