lighting

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wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
Looked at a job today where the customer is looking to do a ballast retrofit. Found that all the wiring for the florescent lighting in this old grocery store is ungrounded. He says he has never had a problem with the lights working but just wanted to save on energy by upgrading to the more efficient lighting. It would be a major expense for him to rewire the 20 fixtures he now has. I was wondering if anyone has done a retrofit from 4' t-12 magnetic to 4' t-8 electronic in ungrounded fixtures and if so if they had any problems,:confused:

Thanks Stan
 

wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
I'm sure the store wiring is grandfathered, I don't know if changing the ballast would be wrong, Is there an electrician that hasn't replaced a ballast in an old building were the light wasn't grounded
 

Jim W in Tampa

Senior Member
Location
Tampa Florida
What exactly do we call a retrofit. 90% new ? I would view it as new and needs be to code. How hard will it be to pull new with the old romex ? Also with electronic you just might need that ground. Am sure if you say no he find a handy man that will.
 

acrwc10

Master Code Professional
Location
CA
Occupation
Building inspector
I'm sure the store wiring is grandfathered, I don't know if changing the ballast would be wrong, Is there an electrician that hasn't replaced a ballast in an old building were the light wasn't grounded

I am sure there are a lot of electricians that haven't done that. Now as far as has anyone "Refused" to do it is the question.
 

ctmike

Senior Member
as my boss was fond of saying the green wire is the most important. Im willing to guess the new ballast says somthing about grounding.
 

wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
What exactly do we call a retrofit. 90% new ? I would view it as new and needs be to code. How hard will it be to pull new with the old romex ? Also with electronic you just might need that ground. Am sure if you say no he find a handy man that will.

Do you pull the new romex through the old staples. I would consider that hard.

(90% new what does that mean, are you saying if you replace all the receptacles in a house that was built in 1970 that you have to rewire because the wire used wasn't NMB?:cool:
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
Since you don't like any of the previous posters replies and seem bent on doing the job anyway why don't you call your inspector?

Bottom line, he makes the call, not a bunch of electricians on an electrical forum you clearly don't agree with....
 

wireman3736

Senior Member
Location
Vermont/Mass.
Since you don't like any of the previous posters replies and seem bent on doing the job anyway why don't you call your inspector?

Bottom line, he makes the call, not a bunch of electricians on an electrical forum you clearly don't agree with....

It's not about not liking any of the posters replies or disagreeing with there answers, sometimes posters are more interested in trying to prove someone wrong instead of giving an answer to the original question, the original post was about the operation of an electronic ballast in an ungrounded circuit not if it meets nec or local codes or not.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
..... the original post was about the operation of an electronic ballast in an ungrounded circuit not if it meets nec or local codes or not.

If the manufacturer's instruction state it requires a grounding conductor, then installing them with the existing wiring would be a violation of 110.3(B).
 
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