Does removing florescent fixtures while the power is still on count?

Does removing florescent fixtures while the power is still on count?

Depend on how the power input is connected: If wires emerging from the wall had to be loosened from screw terminals, then it count. But when it mean only disconnecting the connector, then not...

I often work on live circuits, in a few cases there's no choice (connecting consumer units or where a power interruption would be a problem) but the worst I've seen is this outside mains socket.

Not long after I bought my house I did some investigations on the electrics having encountered a few issues .. one of the lights stopped working form one of the switches (still worked from the other ones!) so I took them all off and found every neutral screw connection was loose, plus the live ones weren't exactly ideal. I suspect they had been taken off for decorating.

Under the floors a couple of the old sockets (with steel cable, although this was OK) had been connected into the new ring main using 5 amp junction boxes, the screws had fallen out as there was no room in the blocks for the thick cables; these boxes were resting on some strips of lath on the ceiling below !! These were soon remedied ..


BG

Here's one I see all the time.  Although IMO it isn't "Bad" I still wonder if even the USA NEC (National Electrical Code) permits this or not: Using a blue "Carlon" box of the type that's designed to be recessed IN the wall as a surface-mount box, by screwing it to the wall so the box is surface-mount and the supply wire is visible (but with a faceplate on the outlet or switch). Seems fine for "Add-On" wiring to me but is it permitted by the NEC?

I have seen that done myself before. I don't see it as a code violation (not sure it is) but it looks tacky.

Wedged a stainless steel spot light fixture between my neck, whilst I worked in it live!!, yes I got a hell of a belt in the neck!

Here are a few I came across over the summer:
277v F32T8 ballast wired to 120v...no worky! I wonder why...but the light was $10 at a thrift store...
A building I frequented this summer originally had the exterior lit with a couple different models/wattages of Appleton MV floods. Some had been retrofitted to large spiral CFLs in an okay manner, but others had some really UGLY retrofit jobs...one in particular had the original mogul socket removed, another socket of the type you see on outdoor "Motion-light" type fixtures (those sockets can be bought at hardware stores) and a large 2700K CFL put in diagonally! It was pretty awful I thought! (And only a few weeks before had a nice cleartop merc lamp (Probably Sylvania) that still worked! Another identical light had a similar "Mod" only they used two lamps...but the light distribution was pretty poor!
Same place had red infared heat lamps installed in the shower rooms instead of the white ones...which means you'd go in there and "Auuugh! my eyes are burning!". After a couple minutes you'd of course get used to it but when I was done normal cool white fluorescent (and daylight outside) looked very bluish at first! One night the HPS wallpacks on the building next door looked downright incandescent at first!
I know there's others but right now I'm kinda slapping my forehead forgetting them!

If you want crazy, take a look at Photonicinduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShODNbQ6m5E

I found a few hack jobs at school when I was repairing lights this past summer:

There are a few places where wraparound lights were installed on top of existing 70s-era square recessed lights. This was in a drop ceiling too, so a troffer could have been used instead. The fixtures were just screwed into the metal grid at either end. To make matters worse, when I opened up one of these lights, it wasn't grounded.

On one wraparound, instead of using a knockout to bring wires into the ballast compartment, someone had cut a huge, rough hole into the top of the fixture, probably with tin snips.

Yet another fixture had a ground wire entering the ballast channel, but it wasn't actually connected to the fixture. I connected it.

Finally, I found a fixture that was using the neutral wire to ground the fixture. Fortunately, the polarity was correct so the fixture casing wasn't live.

Ahh, I never cease to be amazed by some crappy hack jobs! Although they DO work!
I'm assuming the troffers had dead ballasts?
I have one going right now, I have a 400w MH multitap highbay ballast hooked up to 120v like normal powering a 277v Advance T8 ballast off the 277v tap, running TWO spent lamps IN PARALELL on a single-lamp ballast.  Sometimes they both light, albeit at less-than-full brightness.  This thing makes for an interesting EOL show. Right now I have a spent GE Mainlighter and a spent Chroma 50 in there.  The Mainlighter is swirling at the bad end.  If I loosen the other lamp it will get the full zap and then the fatal orange flashing will start. 

All of the fixtures I mentioned had dead ballasts except for the wraparound with the big hole cut into the top.

I have hooked fluorescent bulbs to Mercury ballasts and blown them out. I have tried arc welding with IS ballasts.

Not my personal experience but something a friend related to me
He was asked to find out why 4 out of 5 newly installed flourescents in a large outdoor she'd were taking ages to start and then glowing dimly it turns out someone had wired 4 of them in series with the first ones ballast! Also my friend noticed that the ballast of the first one had got so hot that the tar they use as insulation had started to come out he said it smelled of burning too.
Next when they hooked power to the new building ( before the above happened) a club member climbed the utility pole and wrapped the neutral round no problem when it came to the phase wire as soon as it was touched to the pole wiring there was a HUGEflash and bang someone had put a partial short on the sheds fuseboard all this happened in a 240 volt 50 c/s area

I seen recessed cans that came miswired from the manufacturer

Well, the manufacturer (A) buys recessed cans (2x PLC 26W Magnetic) from another manufacturer (B). Then A rewires one of the lamps with an emergency ballast, so the lantern now works both as normal (2x 26W magnetic) and emergency (one of the lamps powered from internal battery)

Well, the original system (manufacturer B) is made as a remote gear box B, containing 2 chokes and PFC capacitor, with the capacitor between Phase and Neutral. From the box to the lantern goes a 4 core cable - 2 ballast outputs from 2 chokes, 1 Neutral and 1 Earth

Then manufacturer A insrert their emergency gear box A (additional box) on the way between the first box and the lantern. The supply cable is now connected to terminals in box A

Manufacturer A repurposed the cable of gear box B. Now instead of Neutral, the 3rd wire is carrying the Phase into gear box A. But they didnt change the connection inside box A, so the only component getting the Phase now is the capacitor.....

With the capacitor in series with the 2 chokes, the overall impedance is low so the setup overdrives the lamps VERY bad, and burns the chokes down to ash in a couple months

They replaced quite a few chokes and i spotted the problem when i looked at how they replace the chokes for the 3rd time in less than a year.....

I have a few:
1. I once saw a metal clip-on lamp clipped onto a chimney with a CFL lamp. It was dayburning, and directly in the path of where rainwater would run off the roof.
2.I was trying to wire a 150w HPS ballast. I thought I had it wired correctly, but when I turned it on, I was greeted by a loud "FSHHHHHHH" and smoke literally shooting out of it. I had quick reflexes, so I immediately turned off the power and aired out the room. i haven't tested it since, hopefully it didn't get too much damage.
3. I got a GE 250w MH lowbay from craigslist for $10. When I got back, I opened it up, only to find an extremely blackened and bulged Sylvania Metalarc 175w lamp. I guess they didn't know that you need to match the lamp wattage with the ballast when it comes to  .
So there are my stories.