Quick connects and stranded wire

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michael mckague

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connectitcut
If you can believe it, my first encounter with a ballast disconnect(factory installed) the male 277 pin had fell out and was waiting like a trap. Lucky for me I caught it before anything bad happened. Before you remove that ballast cover always assume that its live, you could turn off that circuit and all the lights around the fixture your working on could go off, but your fixture could be on a different circuit(night light). By the time you verify if the circuit is off, you have already handled it, making it impossible to truly work on it and claim the power is off. These disconnects might even make it more dangerous, I do not trust them and its sad the code forces us to use them.
 
M4gery

M4gery

Senior Member
roger said:
Gus, I may not fully understand what the OP was doing but in any case, handling live conductors (especially 277/480v) is not something an apprentice should be doing.

Roger
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You're right about an apprentice, they are electrician. The entire point of the ballast disconnect is to let someone who isn't even in the electrical trade do the work. And when it says "qualified", all that means is that his boss says "OK Mr. Janitor and General Handyman, you sound like you know enough for this job, you're hired".
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
I have never understood why the code addressed this to only double ended ballast, this is in error as the new T-8 ballast do not wire to the sockets as a means to shut the ballast off like in the T-12 single pin fixtures, also some T-12 fixtures had enough room that if you removed one of the lamps you could remove the ballast, so if a person only removed one lamp the ballast will still have full voltage to ground.

As far as being hit by 277, had it a few times, but the worst was getting inbetween two neutrals of a multi-wire 480/277 circuit, Now that hurts! much wiser in my old age now, power goes off.
 
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n8welch

Member
Location
Chesapeake VA
My problem with them is the fact they are rated for stranded as well as solid. There were some that I had little or no problem getting the conductor to go into and others I had to somewhat force in. This was probably the problem the person who installed the one that bit me had. Apparently they had problems getting the stranded into the connector and did not insure all strands were inside. A bit careless and also probable just a maintenence man that didnt know any better.
michael mckague said:
If you can believe it, my first encounter with a ballast disconnect(factory installed) the male 277 pin had fell out and was waiting like a trap. Lucky for me I caught it before anything bad happened. Before you remove that ballast cover always assume that its live, you could turn off that circuit and all the lights around the fixture your working on could go off, but your fixture could be on a different circuit(night light). By the time you verify if the circuit is off, you have already handled it, making it impossible to truly work on it and claim the power is off. These disconnects might even make it more dangerous, I do not trust them and its sad the code forces us to use them.
Click to expand...
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
n8welch said:
My problem with them is the fact they are rated for stranded as well as solid. There were some that I had little or no problem getting the conductor to go into and others I had to somewhat force in. This was probably the problem the person who installed the one that bit me had. Apparently they had problems getting the stranded into the connector and did not insure all strands were inside. A bit careless and also probable just a maintenence man that didnt know any better.
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It takes being bit a time or two for some people to learn to watch for these kind of things.

Ever been working in a breaker panel with primarily NM cables entering it and find out the hard way someone nicked a conductor when stripping the sheath?
 
Smart $

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
kwired said:
It takes being bit a time or two for some people to learn to watch for these kind of things.

Ever been working in a breaker panel with primarily NM cables entering it and find out the hard way someone nicked a conductor when stripping the sheath?
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On opening any live enclosure I have an inherent "respect" for the possibility of nicked/pinched insulation. Never been bit, but have experienced some arc faults that thankfully were not severe.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Smart $ said:
On opening any live enclosure I have an inherent "respect" for the possibility of nicked/pinched insulation. Never been bit, but have experienced some arc faults that thankfully were not severe.
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It probably took a few incidents before you really developed that "respect" didn't it? Or at very least hearing enough horror stories that happened to others in similar circumstances.
 
Smart $

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
kwired said:
It probably took a few incidents before you really developed that "respect" didn't it? Or at very least hearing enough horror stories that happened to others in similar circumstances.
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Can't say whether the "respect" was before or after. I have always considered potential hazards with any project, as long as I can remember. The only one I've tended to somewhat ignore is working with sharp knifes. But I can say the incidents I've experienced have definitely heightened my "respect".
 
M4gery

M4gery

Senior Member
LEO2854 said:
So are wire nuts in my opinion it does not make any difference.:)
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Yes, it does make a difference.

We fully expect people to plug and unplug normal electrical items while the power is on. We would never allow them to splice and wirenut something, would we?

Most electrician consider something that is wirenutted to be hardwired, they don't consider that a disconnecting means as they would a cord and plug.
 
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