Exactly. The tubes I get have L at one end and N at the other, so I connect all of the reds and/or blues to the incoming black and all of the yellows to the incoming white.
OK great so that's what I've been doing but trying to keep my neutral white (lots of yellow and other colors) and many of the fixtures are paired so as to have two ballast in one fixture and one ballast in the second fixture with three tubes in each fixture. Those paired fixtures have two ungrounded conductors, one neutral and an egc in one end of the first fixture with all wiring from there being 18awg fixture wire. So to keep it tidy I had extended the neutral from where it enters the wireway of the first fixture to the other end of the same fixture with a piece of 12 AWG THHN. If there's something wrong with extending the neutral with 12 AWG THHN then I can probably scrape together enough short pieces of white 18 AWG and join them together. I'm going back tomorrow and I will confirm the fixture wire type which I think is rated at 60 degree as I think it is TF. Thanks
OK thanks, that's what I've been doing also and the harness (18 AWG) that connects the two troffers together has a black and white for the third ballast so I'm just connecting line to one end and neutral to the other, I'm trying to keep them switched the same as originally configured which is two outside tubes in the first fixture and the middle tube in the second fixture on one control and then visa verse for the second switch and remaining three tubes. If I could use a little THHN it would be neater and faster, I don't see the problem with that but I'm not sure. thanks
That's what I do.
It also means you don't have to figure out which wire of each socket's pair connects to the active pin.
Yes, exactly
My first conversion project was a nightmare for this issue. Could only get single end tubes at the time & all sockets were shunted. Had to order nonshunted sockets, open 1 end of light & swap out sockets, then wire each for line & neutral & close end back. Disconnected all wiring to other end so those sockets were just supports. A couple of different guys came occasionally to help out & were confounded by all the work. They had never heard of shunted vs nonshunted sockets. I put the factory conversion labels on each light & marked L,N as well with a marker. Later on, double end tubes came out. If I’d thought of it, I should have wired dead end for neutral, in case of this very thing. Now we have the combination type which can connect either way. When I do swaps now in our plant, I do line at one end & neutral at other, as near alike as possible from light to light. All in a row will be same.
Fitting instant start T8 lamps into an existing fixture using rapid start without using shunted sockets or shunting very close to the socket is how you end up with premature lamp failures. If those guys did retrofits from t12 to T8 before, their work probably experienced premature lamp failure.
Can you please explain what you're saying?
Yes. I was saying if those guys who were unaware of shunted vs non-shunted have also done T12 to T8 retrofits in the past, chances are they left simply installed T8 instant start on old T12 sockets without shunting and their retrofits would have experienced very short lamp life.
OK, but confused,JM is talking about changing to LED tubes, does what you are saying have anything to do with that or are you just making a historic point?
Are you talking about connecting both wires of each T-12 socket to each T-8 ballast wire?