I have some pendant lights that have a sticker saying they are UL Certified, with US-CA.
Inside the light socket it says 660w and 250v.
Thers also a sticker that says Type A bulb.

The ceiling mount has three wires (white, yellow w/green and black) which go into a white plastic piece with screws. The opposite side is where the household wires are inserted and screwed down. It’s a European looking connection.

Using an ohm meter, the black wire goes to the sockets center button and zeros out.
The white wire goes to the thread portion of the socket and zeros out.
The yellow w/green wire doesn’t go directly to the socket, it is about 3” long with a ring connector and goes to the ceiling cover plate, which grounds to the cover and the support wire to the light. The only issue with this yellow w/green wire, is that it too zeros out at the button in the socket.

If I connect the line to the black, neutral to the white and ground to the yellow w/green, it’s going to pop. If I don’t connect the ground, the light housing itself will be energized.

This is a European light maker. Is it possible they installed a EU 220v bulb socket and wired it wrong? My US light bulbs screw in perfectly it seems.

 

Welcome to the forums.

You must check for continuity of wiring with nothing connected to the house.
Black to center pin, white to shell and green/yellow to metal frame.

If you are seeing continuity from black to green..... there is a wiring problem at the socket.
Have you checked all the pendants ?

That has a UL certification which means it was designed to be sold here.
The wiring colors are correct for North America.
Eur wiring would be blue, brown and green.

 

yellow with green stripes is earth in Europe, green with yellow stripes is grounding conductor here. Either way it shouldn't be connected to the center button of an Edison base bulb.

Perhaps the UL/cUL tag is fake or this is just a bad batch. The 250v is just showing that it can handle 250v between conductors.

 

You can read continuity from ground to neutral because of the bond connection in the service panel.

 

The cord runs straight thru to the socket. I’ll pull it through and see if there’s a break in the wire sheathing.

it seemed to me to be wired for US otherwise, which you’ve all confirmed. I’ll test some of the other lights to see if this issue is prevalent.

thank you much.

 

OP says; If I connect the line to the black, neutral to the white and ground to the yellow w/green, it’s going to pop. If I don’t connect the ground, the light housing itself will be energized. pcboss says; You can read continuity from ground to neutral because of the bond connection in the service panel. Number4, is your statement above with/without a power cable (hot/neutral/ground) connected to the light fixture?

 

Beelzebob, testing without any power source to it.

I removed the light socket from the stem and wiring from the socket. It’s stranded (obviously) wire and what I found was that there was one strand from the black wire that went backwards and would have been in the metal stem, making contact. What sloppy wiring for what is supposed to be an expensive light.

There was also one on the neutral, but it was covered with plastic.

 

there is a CE mark test that is called "loose strand". You take the wire, strip exactly 8mm of insulation and make the connection, leaving ONE strand out. If that strand can touch anything significant (usually any metal), then the test fails. I've done this test myself on various euro destined equipment. Failed at least one.

Long before that, I was given a table lamp for a wedding gift. It had some strands that didn't make it under the screw head, instead touching the metal shell of the ungrounded lamp. I took a hit with that one. There is another CE mark rule to test all el items with Hi-pot to metal in production. It would have failed that one too.