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Home Repair - - If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Otherwise look here.
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Posted by Terry Cano on May 16, 2007, 7:07 pm
Hmmm.....I got a ballast that says can be used with two Lamp, T8.
There are less wires, it shows a diagram of three lamps looks like one
goes to ground side and one to hot - any suggestions?
The Ballast changes the 120 VAC to DC correct?
Terry
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Posted by RBM on May 16, 2007, 7:23 pm
If you have a ballast for two T8 lamps, it should show a diagram for two T8
lamps. There are less wires than what?
> Hmmm.....I got a ballast that says can be used with two Lamp, T8.
> There are less wires, it shows a diagram of three lamps looks like one
> goes to ground side and one to hot - any suggestions?
> The Ballast changes the 120 VAC to DC correct?
> Terry
>
>
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Posted by Jeff Wisnia on May 16, 2007, 7:28 pm
Terry Cano wrote:
> Hmmm.....I got a ballast that says can be used with two Lamp, T8.
> There are less wires, it shows a diagram of three lamps looks like one
> goes to ground side and one to hot - any suggestions?
Put some more detail into your posts.
> The Ballast changes the 120 VAC to DC correct?
Correct NOT.
Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
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Posted by terry on May 17, 2007, 3:37 am
> Hmmm.....I got a ballast that says can be used with two Lamp, T8.
> There are less wires, it shows a diagram of three lamps looks like one
> goes to ground side and one to hot - any suggestions?
> The Ballast changes the 120 VAC to DC correct?
> Terry
No.
A 'fluorescent' lamp/fixture ballast operates on the AC voltage from
the mains supply.Normally a ballast has nothing to do with converting
from AC to DC.
In North America the mains supply is usually (domestically) 115 volts
at 60 hertz. In Europe and other parts of the world it may be 230
volts at 50 hertz.
The ballast raises the voltage and also heats small filaments at the
end of each fluorescent (note spelling) tube, so that a small amount
of mercury is vapourized and the higher voltage from the ballast
(which is a form of low to high voltage transformer) is conducted
through the fluorescent tube.
The light actually comes from 'fluorescence' of the coating on the
inside of the glass tube.
In my experience installing/maintaining and/or rebuilding several
hundred 115/230 volt fluorescent fixtures; 'No'.
Nothing on the output of the ballast normally connects to ground and
to do so might be dangerous and make the metal fixture case live and
dangerous!
If you don't have a poper circuit diagram, although there is often one
on the ballast case, get some advice/proper help.
Be safe.
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Posted by Steve Kraus on May 27, 2007, 5:51 pm
I don't know about a T8 ballast but the typical two-lamp ballast for tubes
having two pins or other style connections at each end would have 8 wires.
Two red would go to one socket of one lamp. Two blue would go to one
socket of the other lamp. Two yellow would go to the second socket of one
lamp and in *parallel* to the second socket of the other lamp. Black and
white are the power feed, hot and neutral respectively. The ballast case
may be grounded by virtue of being installed in a grounded metal fixture
but is probably not required.
If you don't know what you're doing you should not be playing with this.
It's not super dangerous like a neon lamp but even ordinary 120V can kill
so whatever you're planning to do get some advice from someone more
familiar with electrical work.
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