exposed wiring in fixtures

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teco

Senior Member
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Mass north shore
Hi Guys,
Looking for opinions please. Today I was walking through one of the plants I service. They have had a Lighting Co(I don't this type of work) replacing all of their various high and low bay lighting with a flouresent six t-8 tube, electronic ballast, full reflective replacement fixture. They have a U.L. sticker. I look up at one of these fixtures and saw all the wiring to each lamp socket on each end(12 sockets) is completely exposed. There is no cover over the socket area wiring at all and the wiring jumps from one end to the other along with the ballast leads as aways. These wires are opened and exposed all around the lamps on each end of the fixture and on some fixtures they hang down lower than the lamps. I said to the facility's director that it didn't seem right to me because you can pinch these wires just relamping. Quick check of the book I was thinking about 410.22. What do you think.

Thanks
Mark
 
Where you in Raynham? :grin:

The same thing just went on at a plant where I work and the in house electrician is trying to get the company back to do it right.

IMO it is outside the NEC but I bet the UL listed reto-fit kit is supposed to cover all the openings.
 
iwire said:
Where you in Raynham? :grin:

The same thing just went on at a plant where I work and the in house electrician is trying to get the company back to do it right.

IMO it is outside the NEC but I bet the UL listed reto-fit kit is supposed to cover all the openings.
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No Bob,
Not in Raynham but It may be the same outfit because I know the go all over Mass. I have never seen fixture wiring exposed like this in 25 years in the trade. I don't understand how their getting away with it. You may be right about the kit. I mentioned that to the in house guys. Maybe I should have looked sooner. Where talking hundreds of fixtures here.
Mark
 
iwire said:
It is the same here, I do not know the name of the outfit.

But they did horrible work.
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I know who they are and I bet you have seen them around before. They have been around a long time. I'm looking for something to scare them with to motivate them even though it falls under factory wiring. Thats why I was thinking 410.22 wiring within fixture. You don't think it will fly?
Mark
 
teco said:
Thats why I was thinking 410.22 wiring within fixture.
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It's worth a shot, I am sure many inspectors would have no problem pushing that.

You don't think it will fly?
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I really think we are talking about the construction of a fixture much more then the wiring of a fixture which in my opinion puts it outside the NEC.

We did a job at a warehouse in Woburn where we retro-fitted 5000-6000 fixtures, but the kits we had worked well. They where 'telescoping' so you could fill all the gaps.

Is the gap between fixtures 2" to 3"s? that is what I saw in Raynham.
 
I'm having trouble picturing what's going on here. Is this a factory made new fixture that is being put in place of something old? Or are they retrofitting some kind of existing fixture with an upgrade kit that has all the wires hanging out of it?

If it's a new fixture it sounds like a piece of junk.
 
Pete rip everything out of a 'slimline' strip fixture, the ballast the metal sections that hold the sockets and shades etc.

Now tek screw new metal piece at each end and the middle to hold the new T-8 sockets, of course the lamp length dictates the locations of the new metal pieces, if the fixture was a long one the new metal might not cover the gap between fixtures.
 
iwire said:
It's worth a shot, I am sure many inspectors would have no problem pushing that.



I really think we are talking about the construction of a fixture much more then the wiring of a fixture which in my opinion puts it outside the NEC.

We did a job at a warehouse in Woburn where we retro-fitted 5000-6000 fixtures, but the kits we had worked well. They where 'telescoping' so you could fill all the gaps.

Is the gap between fixtures 2" to 3"s? that is what I saw in Raynham.
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No,
Thats just it . These fixtures are only about two and a half inches deep total and the sockets are slamed against the end wall. There is no room at all for a wire plate say like a regular troffer. You have to pull the top of the socket back just to get a lamp in. Anyway I'll give facility's 410.22. Its all I can do.
Thanks for the feedback.
Mark
 
peter d said:
I'm having trouble picturing what's going on here. Is this a factory made new fixture that is being put in place of something old? Or are they retrofitting some kind of existing fixture with an upgrade kit that has all the wires hanging out of it?

If it's a new fixture it sounds like a piece of junk.
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No Guys
These are new fixtures. They are replacing mostly high bay existing fixtures. Remove the high bay install the new open lamp 2x4 six tube t-8 fixture on the existing 277 volt wiring system. PoCo kicks in money for the energy savings. I wish I was more computor smart I would do a picture but I don't know how.

Bob,
These are made locally by Osram On RT 1 Danvers I think.
 
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