Live suspended ceiling grid

[goldstar]

I got a call from a builder that I work for and he tells me that while he was installing a basement window his neck inadvertently backed into a suspended ceiling grid and he got whacked. I went to the jobsite and after tracing the problem to one specific fluorescent fixture I found this :

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/goldstar13397/Fluorescentfixture003.jpg

The armored cable leaving the JB is suspended in mid air above the ceiling, not properly terminated to anything that resembles another JB and is splicxed to another armored cable in the same fashion which turned out to be the switch leg.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/goldstar13397/Fluorescentfixture002.jpg

The black and white wires coming out of the top of the fixture are the leads to the ballast inside the fixture. The large black RX cable is an abandoned feed to an electric range/oven. Cable was not properly safed-off but I did remove it from the breaker panel

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k130/goldstar13397/Fluorescentfixture001.jpg

I would like to say "entry into" the light fixture but in this case I'll have to say "exit from" the light fixture is through a 1/8" mounting hole. The edge of the mounting hole cut into the black of the ballast wire and livened the ceiling grid. Thank God no one was seriously injured. Don't know what the rest of the ceiling above the grid looks like. I'm afraid to do any more fact finding. We may have to condemn the house.:grin:

 

[bikeindy]

Thats some nice work.

 

[ptonsparky]

An energized ceiling grid about did me in. Anyone thinking that a fiberglass ladder will save your ass, think again, because that current carrying EG you are about to open puts you in series with the circuit. Knew it was a stupid move just as I got nailed. Turned out to be cheap DIY type fixtures. Home owner found all of them on his lawn when he came home.

 

[roger]

We had the same type of situation in a school. We were doing a renovation in another area and were notified that the grid would shock you.

We found out that a grid ceiling had been installed below a plaster ceiling in another project and the maintenance personnel had installed the fixtures

Anyways, they had connected MC to the fixtures correctly but, none of the MC or EGC's were connected to the original boxes, it was just open splices to the ungrounded and grounded conductors

Roger

 

[goldstar]

I forgot to take a photo of this but you could tell right away that this was a homeowner job. Instead of buying std. 2' x 4' drop-in fixture the HO must have gotten this fixture for free. It was elevated and attached to the ends of the ceiling grid with some kind of specially made aluminum brackets that attached to the ends of the fixture and held it about 4" above the grid. The lens was one of those flimsy, plastic, prismatic lenses that you had to curl up to get it to lay on the grid borders. It had to touch all 4 sides of the grid in order to stay up.

(Edited for spelling)

 

[mdshunk]

I forgot to take a photo of this but you could tell right away that this was a homeowner job. Instead of buying std. 2' x 4' drop-in fixtures the HO must have gotten this fixture for free. It was elevated and attached to the ends of the ceiling grid with some kind of specially made aluminum brackets that attached to the ends of the fixture and held it about 4" above the grid. The lens was one of those flimsy, plastic, prismatic lenses that you had to curl up to get it to lay on the grid borders. It had to touch all 4 sides of the grid in order to stay up.

They actually made fixtures just like that once upon a time, specially for suspended ceilings. More or less, modified shop lights with "legs" that clipped onto the grid.

 

[goldstar]

Maybe so Marc, but why would someone buy something like this when you can use and have the room for a 2' x 4' drop-in ? Seems like you're going through an awful lot of trouble to mount a fixture when you can just as easily drop it into the ceiling grid. (Unless you're into mood lighting with fluorescents )

 

[mdshunk]

Maybe so Marc, but why would someone buy something like this when you can use and have the room for a 2' x 4' drop-in ? Seems like you're going through an awful lot of trouble to mount a fixture when you can just as easily drop it into the ceiling grid.

I have a feeling that they were cheap in their day and probably sold at local hardware stores. I only run into them in late 70's to early 80's basement remodels and some low-end commercial tenant refits of the same vintage. These fixtures are a real "treat" to change ballasts in, because if you're not real ginger with the fixture, you'll knock it loose and clobber yourself with it. Normally when you have a ballast in one hand, nutdriver in the other hand, and no extra hands to catch a dislodged fixture.