Hmmm.....I got a ballast that says can be used with two Lamp, T8. There are less wires, it shows a diagram of three lamps looks like one goes to ground side and one to hot - any suggestions? The Ballast changes the 120 VAC to DC correct? Terry
If you have a ballast for two T8 lamps, it should show a diagram for two T8 lamps. There are less wires than what?
Put some more detail into your posts.
Correct NOT.
Jeff
No. A 'fluorescent' lamp/fixture ballast operates on the AC voltage from the mains supply.Normally a ballast has nothing to do with converting from AC to DC.
In North America the mains supply is usually (domestically) 115 volts at 60 hertz. In Europe and other parts of the world it may be 230 volts at 50 hertz. The ballast raises the voltage and also heats small filaments at the end of each fluorescent (note spelling) tube, so that a small amount of mercury is vapourized and the higher voltage from the ballast (which is a form of low to high voltage transformer) is conducted through the fluorescent tube. The light actually comes from 'fluorescence' of the coating on the inside of the glass tube. In my experience installing/maintaining and/or rebuilding several hundred 115/230 volt fluorescent fixtures; 'No'. Nothing on the output of the ballast normally connects to ground and to do so might be dangerous and make the metal fixture case live and dangerous! If you don't have a poper circuit diagram, although there is often one on the ballast case, get some advice/proper help. Be safe.
I don't know about a T8 ballast but the typical two-lamp ballast for tubes having two pins or other style connections at each end would have 8 wires. Two red would go to one socket of one lamp. Two blue would go to one socket of the other lamp. Two yellow would go to the second socket of one lamp and in *parallel* to the second socket of the other lamp. Black and white are the power feed, hot and neutral respectively. The ballast case may be grounded by virtue of being installed in a grounded metal fixture but is probably not required.
If you don't know what you're doing you should not be playing with this. It's not super dangerous like a neon lamp but even ordinary 120V can kill so whatever you're planning to do get some advice from someone more familiar with electrical work.
Keep in mind that the electronic ballasts that are usually used for T8 can differ from the above wiring scheme. Also, decent fluorescent ballasts have labels with wiring diagrams.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
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