ankh
New member
- Location
- Alameda County, CA
Spouse asked me to rewire an ancient flickering fluorescent desk lamp. Art deco brass thing.
It's a single 18-inch T8 fluorescent. I expect to remove everything -- put in new ballast, sockets, and lamp -- as the old wiring makes no sense to me (see below)
The ballast is 4" between its screw mounting points, I'm looking for a new ballast the same 4" length if possible.
I find this supposedly suitable ballast:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-120-V...r-T8-18-in-1-Lamp-T12-Fixture-89712/100493832
but the picture on the ballast shows wiring for four lamps.
It's also probably too long to mount properly, though it would probably fit in the space and I'd ground it the ballast and the whole lamp.
_________
The old wiring is a puzzle -- 2-wire AC, nonpolarized plug, no ground.
It has a 2-button switch -- red for on, black for off.
One side of the AC goes directly to one screw on one end of the fluorescent fixture; from the adjacent screw a black wire goes to the ballast box.
The other black wire from the ballast box goes to the switch, and from there to the other side of the AC feed.
From the ballast box, two white wires both go to the other end of the fluorescent tube.
I can't figure that out, thought it might be recognized by someone. I'm not trying to recreate that setup.
-------------
Aside: I rewired our house from knob-and-tube to signoff under current code 15 years ago, so I'll probably be ok doing this desk lamp once I find the parts.
It's a single 18-inch T8 fluorescent. I expect to remove everything -- put in new ballast, sockets, and lamp -- as the old wiring makes no sense to me (see below)
The ballast is 4" between its screw mounting points, I'm looking for a new ballast the same 4" length if possible.
I find this supposedly suitable ballast:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-120-V...r-T8-18-in-1-Lamp-T12-Fixture-89712/100493832
but the picture on the ballast shows wiring for four lamps.
It's also probably too long to mount properly, though it would probably fit in the space and I'd ground it the ballast and the whole lamp.
_________
The old wiring is a puzzle -- 2-wire AC, nonpolarized plug, no ground.
It has a 2-button switch -- red for on, black for off.
One side of the AC goes directly to one screw on one end of the fluorescent fixture; from the adjacent screw a black wire goes to the ballast box.
The other black wire from the ballast box goes to the switch, and from there to the other side of the AC feed.
From the ballast box, two white wires both go to the other end of the fluorescent tube.
I can't figure that out, thought it might be recognized by someone. I'm not trying to recreate that setup.
-------------
Aside: I rewired our house from knob-and-tube to signoff under current code 15 years ago, so I'll probably be ok doing this desk lamp once I find the parts.
