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

[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".