suzukir122
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| This may be a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyways... when a fluorescent fixture is sitting on a shelf, does the ballast have to be securely mounted?
Or would I be able to get away with simply leaving the ballast without the mounting screws? I would still of course ground the fixture, but I'm not
sure if not securing the ballast could also prevent the fixture from being properly grounded.
I only ask this because the LED fixtures that I will be converting to T12 Rapid Start magnetic fluorescent, do not have mounting holes or a place really
to mount the ballasts in general, but if screwing down the ballasts is needed, I will look for screws and nuts to hold each ballast down... which brings
me to my next question: what size screw/nut will be needed, and where can I find them?
All dumb questions, I know, but I'm still in the middle of my up-lighting project, and I'm *hoping* to get it all done today.
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1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
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3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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sol
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| From my experience, unmounted magnetic ballasts hum louder than mounted ones. Especially for HID core and coil. However, you may try it to see because yours are potted fluorescent ones. That said, the proper way would be to mount them. Any nut and bolt that is long enough and big enough will do the job. You might need to find "stove bolts" as that is what they are called at the hardware store. Otherwise, electrical supply stores might have the ones that typically come with fluorescent fixtures.
Do your fixtures have two triangular punched "holes" where the tab of one end of the ballast coud slip into ? If so, you only need one bolt on the opposite end. Otherwise, you'll need two, one on each end.
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joseph_125
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| I generally use 10-32 machine screws and nuts for mounting ballasts. Fixture manufacturers typically use a special screw designed to fit into the keyhole slots in the fixture but any 10-32 screw will work.
As for the nut, flanged Palnuts (basically a formed sheet metal nut) are typically used to fasten the ballast. Older fixtures typically used two per ballast, one on each end. Newer ones typically had a triangular slot to secure the ballast on one end and a screw and nut on the other end. If you can't find a Palnut, a regular nut will work, but I'd add a star washer to it. This will prevent vibrations from loosening the nut over time as well as ensure a positive ground path from the ballast casing to the fixture channel. You might be able to find the Palnuts in the specialty fasteners section at hardware stores, that's where I found mine.
If the channel has the knockouts and slots for a ballast I'd use those, otherwise I'd drill some holes in the channel. Typical ballast locations were centered across the width of the channel, with one position centered between the end and the center knockout and the other position centered between the other end and the center knockout. Some older fixtures mounted the ballast centered over the center knockout.
I'd definitely mount the ballast properly, it slightly reduces noise and ensures a positive ground path between the ballast casing and the fixture body which will ensure reliable starting for some RS ballasts.
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Binarix128
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220V AC 50Hz, NTSC
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| No, the ballast doesn’t have to be screwed down for electrical functionality as long as it’s grounded somehow and not moving around. But for safety, especially with magnetic ballasts which are heavy and can vibrate slightly when powered, it’s definitely best to mount them securely. If the fixture is going to sit still on a shelf and won’t be jostled, you might get away with it temporarily, but for any permanent or regular use: mount it.
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suzukir122
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@sol, those triangular punched holes were the very first things I looked for when I opened up one of those LED fixtures. I may have to drill a couple holes the length of each ballast and then install small nuts and screws on each side. @joseph_125, positive ground path as well... yeah I'll definitely be mounting each ballast, which means I'll need to drill holes in each fixture first. haha... that should be time consuming. I really wish they made triangle slots to make this at least somewhat less time consuming, but I'll have to roll with this. Should still be easy... I just bought a few screws and nuts earlier today before I installed the floating shelves upstairs for those fixtures. @Binarix128, yep, with all of this said, I will be mounting the ballast. The positive ground path is also important in my case since these are Rapid Start ballasts, so I need to insure that each ballast has proper grounding to guarantee each lamp will fire up successfully. I'm now on the phase of installing ballasts into the fixtures, starting with my former F25T8 fixtures that I'll be converting to F30T12, then of course, the LED fixtures that I will converting to F30T12, upstairs. It's the middle of the night... could be almost mid morning by the time I'm finally done.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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joseph_125
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No, the ballast doesn’t have to be screwed down for electrical functionality as long as it’s grounded somehow and not moving around. But for safety, especially with magnetic ballasts which are heavy and can vibrate slightly when powered, it’s definitely best to mount them securely. If the fixture is going to sit still on a shelf and won’t be jostled, you might get away with it temporarily, but for any permanent or regular use: mount it.
While it will function per say, you'll get degraded starting reliability on a rapid start system without a good ground. It's not like a preheat or a electronic ballast that doesn't require a ground to function. @suzukir122 - It should be fairly quickly once you get the hang of it. Fortunately ballasts have slotted holes with are fairly forgiving in terms of getting the hole spacing correct. |
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suzukir122
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@joseph_125, this is true and I plan on taking full advantage of that once I get my upstairs fixtures installed. My downstairs fixtures, which thankfully included ballast mounting, etc, is officially/successfully installed. I'm not completely done yet though... definitely gotta find some sort of cord covers to cover up the cords leading to the fixtures. And of course, still gotta install the fixtures upstairs/ convert those to F30T12. Those Sylvania cool white T12's, on full power HPF Rapid Start ballasts, provide STUPID amount of light. Even the 25w SuperSavers are incredibly bright. Everything ended up well... except... I was suppose to work tonight. Had to call off unfortunately, because I FELL OFF my step ladder and my foot landed on the lowest step at full force. I was bare foot, and the impact gave me a very large gash. I didn't know the severity of the injury, so I kept working, until I looked down and saw blood literally pouring down the ladder and also dripping onto my carpet.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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joseph_125
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| I believe you should be able to find some plastic wiremold to hide the cords. You could also use the metal Wiremold but it's overkill for hiding cords and required a hacksaw to cut. It's mostly designed for hard wiring stuff. (I used a short piece of metal Wiremold to feed one of my louvered fixtures as the junction box was in the wrong location).
Interesting, I have a F30T12 fixture over one of my desks and it's decently bright, even though it's only using a LPF ballast.
Ouch on the fall, I hope you're doing fine. Hopefully with some rest you'll be back finishing your project.
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suzukir122
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@joseph_125, just as I expected, yesterday, I worked on the project from 12am to about 2pm, no sleep... with lots and lots of trial and error -- especially when installing the fixtures on my loft balcony wall -- that one proved to be the toughest part, and that's where I fell off the ladder. Several lessons learned that night/day, and I'll definitely carry those lessons upstairs for the next fixtures. Btw, new Sylvania lamps definitely swirl. A LOT. As of now, I've got 4 GE 25w WW Watt Misers in use, and 8 Sylvania CW, one of them being 25w SuperSaver. All 8 Sylvanias were swirling, including the SuperSaver. One fixture flickered like crazy as if it had an EOL lamp, but the flickering went away within a few minutes, and it hasn't done that ever since, other than swirling. I may start with setting up the upstairs fixtures today, but here soon I have to begin work on my sportscar, since I've finally got all the parts needed in the mail to begin work on it, and I've dedicated today to be the day where I start. So, two projects in one day.  This will possibly be the busiest/most stressful day I've had all year so far.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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xmaslightguy
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Somewhere There Is Light(ning)
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| Hope your foot is ok.
And yeah sometimes new lamps will swirl for some time.. it should go away, especially if you give them a good long multi-hour run.
As far hiding cord, yep that wiremold stuff will work good, or a cheap/simple solution...if you can run it in a corner: just paint the cord the same color as the walls. I did that with some speaker wires for a pair of rear-channel surround speakers, and they blend in well enough that they're not really so noticeable...really did just what I wanted
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!
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suzukir122
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| So far I've been using Cordmate II, and those seem to be working pretty good, although my set up with Cordmate II is definitely incomplete. lol
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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joseph_125
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| I've used Cordmate I for some of my lights. They're a bit thinner but the main disadvantage is that the max size cable you can use is 18 gauge with a ground. Works decently for most lighting but not that well for power.
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suzukir122
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| One thing I've learned with Cordmate is that the sticky side is very serious... I pressed down too hard, not knowing that the sticky side would stick
so well to the wall that it would end up ripping off some of the drywall when taking it off the wall.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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xmaslightguy
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Somewhere There Is Light(ning)
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| Oh yep.. some of that stuff really sticks! You know it aint gonna fall off..
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ThunderStorms/Lightning/Tornados are meant to be hunted down & watched...not hidden from in the basement!
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suzukir122
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| Yep... lesson learned on my part. I'll be keeping all this in mind once I install more Cordmate II's.
By the way, in terms of ballast mounting, all five ballasts were installed successfully. I never thought I'd say this, but... those LED 3 footer fixtures
actually look better than the F25T8 3 footer fixtures in terms of tandem set up. It actually looks cleaner, and the sockets from fixture to fixture
aren't as spaced apart as I thought they would be. In terms of overall conversion, the LED fixtures seemed easier to convert to T12 than the F25T8 fixtures.
Pics and video results will be uploaded soon.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend
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