Grounding Tek retrofit into wooden canopy? NEW troubles...

[Myka]

I am in the process of wiring up my Tek retrofit today, and notice there now is a green grounding wire in the kit (didn't used to be in other kits I have used). The instructions say to attach the two green wires together (one from ballast, one from the power cord), and then to an Earth Ground. It is an Advance ballast with a metal casing.

From another thread:

Originally Posted by mike31154

If the metal case of the ballast is attached to a metal fixture, which is in turn grounded/bonded, then yes, the ballast is grounded/bonded. If you're mounting the ballast to a wooden or otherwise non-conductive material in a hood, as is the case for many retrofit applications, then you'll want to run a grounding/bonding wire from the ballast case to a proper ground. If there's a short inside the ballast to its case, the first time you touch it, could be unpleasant.

I am mounting the Tek into a wooden (and painted) canopy along with a couple halides. How do I ground the Tek ballast? What exactly is a proper ground? What should I screw that ground into?

On another note...the halides are grounded right? The halides are pendants that I am mounting into the canopy, not retrofit. Vertex electronic ballasts with PFO pendants, plug n play.

I don't get electricity...

[cwatkins]

Originally Posted by Myka

On another note...the halides are grounded right? The halides are pendants that I am mounting into the canopy, not retrofit. Vertex electronic ballasts with PFO pendants, plug n play.

I don't get electricity...

How many wires are there in the cable from the ballast to the lamp? If 2 then no ground, if 3 then most likely ground. If they are giving you a ground wire, then to me it says "ground your fixture because the lamp isn't grounded".

My original hood retrofit kit came with a grounding wire which I grounded the hood to earth ground via an outlet (don't ground to a power bar).

When I upgraded my lighting to dual 250W, then the ballasts and lamps came grounded. So now my hood is extra grounded

[Myka]

Originally Posted by cwatkins

How many wires are there in the cable from the ballast to the lamp? If 2 then no ground, if 3 then most likely ground.

In the case of the halide there are 3 wires throughout - from outlet to socket.

In the case of the T5s there are 3 wires from outlet to ballast, then 2 wires from ballast to each bulb (one to each end cap).

Originally Posted by cwatkins

My original hood retrofit kit came with a grounding wire which I grounded the hood to earth ground via an outlet (don't ground to a power bar).

What do you mean you ground via an outlet?

My understanding, and what I have seen is that when there are lights mounted in a metal frame (shop lights, kitchen lights, fish canopies, etc) there will be a green ground wire screwed into that metal frame (I don't understand how that is grounding it though lol). My understanding is that keeps you from getting zapped when you touch the metal frame, the ballast, or the bulb. So, if my "frame" is wood it won't conduct electricity so screwing a ground into a wood frame will do nothing. If I'm not screwing that green wire onto a metal frame, what am I screwing it to?

[sphelps]

Your house has ground wires, the ground spike is usually in the basement and connects to the copper piping and electrical panel. All your household outlets should be grounded, the ground wire connects from the electrical panel to all the metal electrical boxes then your light fixtures and outlets connect to the metal boxes. To ground your ballasts simply connect the green wire from the ballasts to the green wire from the power cable that plugs in the wall. Just be sure to use three prong power cords.

[intarsiabox]

Your neutral line (white) also acts a ground wire. The extra green ground wire is in the event a wire comes loose in a metal electric box the electricity will still be grounded to your house and not electrocute someone or cause a fire. As Sphelps says as long as you are grounding from your ballast to your electrical outlet you will be fine. You don't really need to add another ground from your wooden canopy to the house as the neutral wire is still grounding your fixture and the wooden canopy won't allow electricity to conduct through it in the event of a loose wire in the canopy. Just unplug the ballast before you do any work in the canopy such as bulb changes and you should have no problems.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

Your neutral line (white) also acts a ground wire. The extra green ground wire is in the event a wire comes loose in a metal electric box the electricity will still be grounded to your house and not electrocute someone or cause a fire.

I'll have to disagree with this particular statement. The neutral is a return for the hot wire and should not be considered as what is commonly referred to as a 'ground'. The ground in your residence is connected to a grounding stake or other approved method of providing an 'earth' potential. The neutral (white) goes back to your breaker panel and essentially back to the power provider.

If you take a peek inside a properly wired breaker panel, you will see that the ground wire terminals are separate entities from the neutral wires which are attached to one side of your circuit breakers. EDIT: Ok my bad here, the neutrals are not attached to one side of the circuit breakers, but they are on a separate terminal bar which is connected to one of the lines coming into the house from the power company. The ground terminals are still separate from the neutrals though.

[mike31154]

If your ballast has 3 wires going in, hopefully one green, then you're pretty much good to go. Don't worry about mounting to the wood since your ballast should already be safetied.

You also mentioned a green grounding wire in the kit, is this an extra piece in addition to the third wire in the cord going to the ballast? Some pics of the set up would be helpful, but in the meantime I'll look up the tek retro fixture online to see if that helps me visualize what you have.

My T5HO set up is a bit more of a diy rig with Workhorse ballasts and water resistant endcaps I purchased seperately. It also has individual reflectors for each lamp and I found grounding each reflector was a good idea since I was getting tingles when brushing against the reflectors with my hand in the water. Any piece of wiring will do for this purpose and it can be attached to one of the mounting screws you use to mount the ballast. Since your ballast case is metal, it will provide grounding for your reflectors through the ballast case. If they're clip on reflectors with metal screws holding the clips, you can attach the ground wire there. You'll need one for each reflector unless you prefer to link each reflector with another short piece of wire. Either way it gets to be a bit of a hassle when removing reflectors for cleaning, but that's the price you pay for added safety.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Your house has ground wires, the ground spike is usually in the basement and connects to the copper piping and electrical panel. All your household outlets should be grounded, the ground wire connects from the electrical panel to all the metal electrical boxes then your light fixtures and outlets connect to the metal boxes. To ground your ballasts simply connect the green wire from the ballasts to the green wire from the power cable that plugs in the wall. Just be sure to use three prong power cords.

Ok thanks Steve, I didn't really get the whole grounded outlet thing, but that clarifies it. Obviously, from the work I've done in the past I've seen all this electrical that you're talking about, but I didn't understand how it all worked with each other. I was also thinking that I just need to connect the greens to each other (between ballast and plug end).

Originally Posted by mike31154

You also mentioned a green grounding wire in the kit, is this an extra piece in addition to the third wire in the cord going to the ballast? ... My T5HO set up is a bit more of a diy rig with Workhorse ballasts and water resistant endcaps I purchased seperately. It also has individual reflectors for each lamp

No extra ground wire. The ground comes right out of the ballast, and needs to be connect to the green end coming out of the power cord. Power cord has a male outlet plug on one end, 8' of cord, and the three bare wires on the other end.

The Tek retrofit that I have sounds just like the one you describe. It all has to be wired up DIY. Clip on reflectors too.

Originally Posted by mike

...and I found grounding each reflector was a good idea since I was getting tingles when brushing against the reflectors with my hand in the water. ... Either way it gets to be a bit of a hassle when removing reflectors for cleaning, but that's the price you pay for added safety.

Hmmm, I was wondering about that too. The clip on reflectors are notorious for the "tingle".