Electrician question: grounding a ballast for retrofit light installation

[trilinearmipmap]

I installed two 48" Sunlight Supply T5 retrofit light kits in my 75g plant tank and I am in the middle of installing another Sunlight Supply 36" retrofit T5 kit in my 58g plant tank.

The 48" retrofit instructions clearly showed that the ballast should not be grounded.

The 36" retrofit kit did not come with any instructions but the ballast has no ground wire attached where the spot is to put a ground wire in.

Clearly these folks don't want people to ground their ballast.

I am wondering why? Isn't it an electrical hazard to leave the ballast ungrounded? There must be some reason they do this; they are a well-established company with a reputation for quality.

Anyone who knows more than I do about electrical stuff care to comment?

[mike31154]

What brand of ballast are we talking about? I checked the Sunlight Supply site and it appears they offer both Advance & Fulham Workhorse ballasts for their retrofit kits? Or do they have their own brand of ballast? In any case, I'd recommend grounding the case of the ballast, especially if it is metal and I think all of them are. If there's no connection or connector provided, just make your own lead with a terminal lug and run the ground from one of the ballast mounting screws. I don't recall ever seeing a ballast that was not grounded on a properly wired set up.

[banditpowdercoat]

Most Flourescent ballasts are not grounded. The lamp shade/fixture is grounded, but the ballast itself is not bonded. Not totally sure why. On regular fourescent fixtures, the ballast is held in with a nut. Maybe this qualifies as a ground to CSA? I dunno. But never have to ground the ballast for code or anything. Just make sure the fixture is grounded and you will be safe

[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.

[banditpowdercoat]

But normally, the metal case is powdercoated, so is the case of the ballast. This does not lead to ensuring a good electrical bond. Usually grounds have to be more solid. Just like pipe. Can't use teflon tape on conduit threads, as it may impar the bonding.

[Binare]

That's why you gotta scrape the powder coat off, just use a self tapping screw with a washer, wrap the ground from your supply around the screw under the washer and tighten it up. Ballasts normally are grounded to the case if its metal. Screw and washer would cec acceptable... But then again, the retrofit aint csa anyways, unless you spend 500 bucks on gettin your dyi light hood inspected and get a csa designation for it.

[banditpowdercoat]

I know to scrape. But just dont ever recall the factory ones being scraped at all? just funny. I must have installed/repaired 1000+ fixtures in my career, never noticed about the ballast itself grounding

[Slick Fork]

With my new retrofit fixture I grounded the ballasts. Both the icecap 660 and the advance dimmables had a spot to insert a ground wire.