lights have a mind of their own....?? shut off suddenly...

H

hockey4848

Well-Known Member
Had something weird happen in my room today. my 2 lights turned on like they always do everyday, they stay on for 2 minutes then both of them turned off at the same time. At first I thought "aw shit lost power" But nope, everything else in the room was working. I went out of the room and both of the ballasts are still running, the timer box still has the green light on showing that it is on. So i unplugged all the ballasts to the timer box and waited 10 minutes, plugged them all back in and everything turned on and seems to be fine.

thoughts?
 
angryblackman

angryblackman

Well-Known Member
Are they plugged into a timer? My timer went out on me and that's what it started doing. The lights would come on and then flip back off. I had to finally switch timers to resolve the issue. Keep an eye on it. :)
 
Dank Raptor

Dank Raptor

Active Member
Check the rating on all of your wires. I am not an electrician but I have had that happen to me when I was using 15 amp breakers. Too many amps will melt wires and create faulty connections. An example would be a 15 amp breaker that is constantly pulling 15 amps. Your wires will overheat if they are not rated. Or your timer box.
 
GRiMCreeper

GRiMCreeper

Well-Known Member
What kind of light are you using? If using hps or mh and it starts doing more regularly then you want to look at the lamp first as its cheaper to replace than the ballast. If that doesn't fix it then look at replacing the ballast.

As far as the previous post goes...a 15amp breaker (if overloaded) should trip if pulling 12 or more amps...figure 80% of what the breaker is rated for is about the most you want to put on it. There are other factors that can be used, but for a general rule of thumb, go with that...it could also be a matter of a loose wire on the breaker, timer or receptacle. Sometimes if the load on the wire is enough, it can jump a loose connection and hold as long as the demand for power is there...which can cause electrical fires or mishaps.

I personally lost a digital ballast whe the neutral wire coming into my house burned up in an underground splice. It caused one leg to read about 180volts to ground and the other leg had about 60volts...thanks for that one power company!

Hope this helps
 
billy4479

billy4479

Moderator
I don't know but when an hps bulb nears the end of it life it will start turning off than tuning back on randomly untell its every 2 mins or so
 
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