Problems installing Flourecents (with raw wires - including Green Ground)

J

jaekriel

Active Member
Ok so - yes I'm stupid...I wasn't looking closely at what I was buying

I making a "Clone Closet" which is basically a Enclosed Storage Cabinet I bought from Home Depot.

For growing small plants (seedlings) or cuttings/clones - these cabinets are perfect.



Anyway....usually I buy my 24" Fluorescents from Amazon (cheapest Ive found for Fluo Strips) but while in Home Depot - I asked someone if the had T5 Fluo strips and they did

So I bought a couple without inspecting closely - they have no AC Plug or adapter

They have raw wires - apparently for installing in a similar way to what one would do for a Ceiling fan..

..or what is behind a AC Outlet/Light Switch in the wall....




Anyway....I read elsewhere that all I have to do is buy (or use a spare) extension cord and cut off the end and splice together the wires...but here I'm stuck



AC cords (two prong) have two wires (Power and Neutral) and the light has the corresponding Black and White wires....

But it also has a Green wire which I assume is the ground wire

But it's not connected to the Ballast inside the fixture.



The white and Black wires are coming straight out of the Ballast, and the Green (ground?) wire is on one end connected to a screw that is connected to the frame of the light, and the other is exposed bare wire




And so my question is....do I need to ground this light? (since I am not wiring this directly to my house electrical wires) ?

Or can I just remove this ground wire (unscrew it) and leave well enough alone...

And if I do have to ground it - ...how?

What do I connect the bare end to?

The other end is already "screwed" to the metal casing of the light....




Not sure what to do here..

Any electricians in the house?

I don't want to electrocute (sp?) myself or burn my house (or my dope) ...down....



Thanks in advance

Jay
 
Xeno420

Xeno420

Active Member
jaekriel said:
Ok so - yes I'm stupid...I wasn't looking closely at what I was buying

I making a "Clone Closet" which is basically a Enclosed Storage Cabinet I bought from Home Depot.

For growing small plants (seedlings) or cuttings/clones - these cabinets are perfect.



Anyway....usually I buy my 24" Fluorescents from Amazon (cheapest Ive found for Fluo Strips) but while in Home Depot - I asked someone if the had T5 Fluo strips and they did

So I bought a couple without inspecting closely - they have no AC Plug or adapter

They have raw wires - apparently for installing in a similar way to what one would do for a Ceiling fan..

..or what is behind a AC Outlet/Light Switch in the wall....




Anyway....I read elsewhere that all I have to do is buy (or use a spare) extension cord and cut off the end and splice together the wires...but here I'm stuck



AC cords (two prong) have two wires (Power and Neutral) and the light has the corresponding Black and White wires....

But it also has a Green wire which I assume is the ground wire

But it's not connected to the Ballast inside the fixture.



The white and Black wires are coming straight out of the Ballast, and the Green (ground?) wire is on one end connected to a screw that is connected to the frame of the light, and the other is exposed bare wire




And so my question is....do I need to ground this light? (since I am not wiring this directly to my house electrical wires) ?

Or can I just remove this ground wire (unscrew it) and leave well enough alone...

And if I do have to ground it - ...how?

What do I connect the bare end to?

The other end is already "screwed" to the metal casing of the light....




Not sure what to do here..

Any electricians in the house?

I don't want to electrocute (sp?) myself or burn my house (or my dope) ...down....



Thanks in advance

Jay
Click to expand...
You don't need to worry about the green wire unless you have a 3 wire cord and a 3 pronged connector. Just connect the white and black wires from your fixture to the 2 wires from the cord and you are done. I have my setup like this and it works great. +rep for me for giving you a good answer :P
 
J

jaekriel

Active Member
So ok...that sounds good - one quick clarification

The green/ground wire that is "screwed" to the frame of the light -

Do I unnscrew it as to not have it ther e anymore - or do I leave it alone completely....

I guess my question is: if I am not going to implement in any way, should it be there attracting attention?

Thanks in advance for the quick reply and info

Jay
 
Xeno420

Xeno420

Active Member
jaekriel said:
So ok...that sounds good - one quick clarification

The green/ground wire that is "screwed" to the frame of the light -

Do I unnscrew it as to not have it ther e anymore - or do I leave it alone completely....

I guess my question is: if I am not going to implement in any way, should it be there attracting attention?

Thanks in advance for the quick reply and info

Jay
Click to expand...
Just leave it there, it doesn't bother you in any way and if you needed to have it set up with a 3 wire cord in the future, it will be there, ready for use.
jaekriel said:
Ps -

(+rep for me for giving you a good answer :P)

How do I do that?

Thx

J
Click to expand...
Click on the little scale icon on the far top-right of this post, next to where you see #6. Approve and if want to place a short message, you can. Thanks man.
 
stumps

stumps

Well-Known Member
ya know that ground wire is there for a reason. But it's your choice not to use it. hope you don't have a fire or get shocked.
 
tom__420

tom__420

Well-Known Member
Xeno420 said:
Just leave it there, it doesn't bother you in any way and if you needed to have it set up with a 3 wire cord in the future, it will be there, ready for use.

Click on the little scale icon on the far top-right of this post, next to where you see #6. Approve and if want to place a short message, you can. Thanks man.
Click to expand...
You look kinda sad asking for rep especially when you didn't give that great of advice...

Buy a three pronged extension cord and connect white to white, black to black and green green. It is really simple
 
J

jaekriel

Active Member
Ok so I SHOULD get a three prong cord ....


and THEY have the green ground wire?



And if I don't I could get shocked or cause a fire?



Just to clarify....

Thx

Jay
 
J

jaekriel

Active Member
Oh yeah one more thing:

After looking up three prong cords, does amperage matter? or gauge?

As well - do I have to buy a single cord for each light or is there some way to (simply) wire them all together? (I have four)

Thanks in advance

Jay'
 
stumps

stumps

Well-Known Member
I would put a plug on each one then run them to a power strip myself. They could be wired togather but don't do it if you don't know how to.
 
Spasticsmoke

Spasticsmoke

Active Member
you could run them all in series aka black to black to black, by connecting all your leads ( twist them all togeather) and even run that threw a switch to an existing wire, thats basicly how the electrical boxes are wired to your subpanel. but if you don't have first hand knowlage with simple electrictian work i wouldn't recomend it. the power coming from your boxes luckily won't kill you, but obviously they can start a fire with faulty work. i would suggest you connect them seperatly, and the green wire you speak of is the neutral you SHOULD use a three prong set up but as someone else mentioned you can use a two and disregard it, imo i would go three prong.
 
Leothwyn

Leothwyn

Well-Known Member
Like most here said, just buy the 3 prong cords - you can buy a cord with the plug on one end and loose wires on the other. You don't need to buy an extension cord and cut it. The cords shouldn't cost much, so to be safe (since you don't have electrical experience) I'd keep it simple and get one for each light, and use a power strip like stumps said.
About the amps... it would be a good idea to check that. Your light should have a sticker on it that says what it uses. Same with the cord you buy. Just get a cord that's rated for higher amps than what your light uses.
 
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