Recessed lighting replacement options

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mad-chad

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Hey guys,

I have a unique situation. In my church are several recessed lights, approximately 12" square, with a hinged glass lens. On the side of the light housing is a handy box, which is fed with a 1/2" EMT conduit. The handy box opening is inside the light enclosure, with a cover that is removed by turning a lever. There is a notch in the cover where the wires feed the lamp socket, which has an incandescent 135 Watt lamp. This is all a factory assembly. Now for my question....These lights are in an asbestos ceiling, so removing them is not an option for the church, due to the expense of asbestos abatement. They want to cover the fixtures with decorative fixtures, which have a standard round canopy. I suggested removing the glass lens and trim, and replacing it with a removable sheet metal plate with a chase nipple in the center for the wires to pass through, and 2 threaded holes for the new light canopy to mount to the plate. I told them that my fear was that this was not a listed assembly, and would not pass inspection. I also told them that this could be a liability issue if there was an electrical fire in the future. I don't know if there is any way to retrofit fixtures over these. Thanks for the help.

Chad
 
Depends, I guess on what will be required to replace the existing verses the new choice. Can this choice cover the 12" sq?

I might consider removing the hinge and slip a capped plate inside the light, like a gutter end cap!
ie, Use a large flat guage with a small 90? flange edge, or rivit edge, instead of just a flat piece, and even a smaller but all flanged insert of metal to obtain an access.

Could you gut the light and repull you lengths to pass outside the device box through your new cover plate and use you chase nipple, as you decribed, well maybe.

I would call your local Authority and get their read, call the OEM manufacture and get there insight.

Banking and working for the Lord, what a way to go... Good Luck!
 
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Well, as long as the wires are enclosed in an approved raceway from the handybox to the new fixture I think your proposal might work. You might want to put a blank cover with center knockout on the internal handy box and mount a fixture box, octagon, on the backside of your steel plate within the fixture. Run a piece of flex between the handy box and fixture box, with enough slack to remove the plate for maintenance and wiring accesss, and wire up the new light fixture. A chase nipple in center of your plate into the fixture box would work or cut out a round hole to expose the inside of the fixture box from below. Probably need some small angle brackets to fasten the fixture box to the plate.

I would be careful to make sure that the old fixture is supported sufficiently to handle the weight of the new light fixture. That might be a bigger problem.
 
Get big enough fixtures to cover the existing ones (surface mounted fluorescent 2x2's)

Remove the lens, prewire an MC stub off the existing JB's and terminate them in the new fixtures.
 
I suggested they cover the housings with a 2 x 2 surface mount, but they want something that has a canopy type mount. Thanks for the suggestions.

Chad
 
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