Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions as I've never dealt with a 30-year-old lighting fixture so some of the comments such as the (30-year-old ballast) is a bit foreign to me.

Now I know the best solution would be to just replace the entire lighting fixture (I could do this in a few minutes) but I would rather not. I want more hands-on experience with older fixtures such as this.

With that being said, here what I wanted to know:

1) This fixture is for a closet lamp, upon opening it up I noticed that it's using an old magnetic rapid-start ballast. Now upon looking at the wiring diagram, I noticed that it states

• Neutral Wire From House Goes To Tombstone
• Neutral Wire From Ballast Goes To Tombstone
• Hot Wire From House (Black) Goes To Black Wire Ballast

So my first question is, am I understanding the diagram correctly?

If indeed I am understanding it correctly, I am kinda stumped as to why whoever wired this has left the neutral wire coming from the ballast exposed, not connected to anything. (Screenshot Below)



Or maybe it was connected to this nut that was binding the neutral wire from the house to the tombstone and simply slipped out? (Screenshot Below).



My second question is, is this the correct tombstone to be using with this ballast? (Screenshot Below)




The reason why I'm asking is because on the ballast it says it must be connected to at least one "circuit interrupting lampholder" but I cannot find any marking on it suggesting that to be the case.

Best Regards,
-John

 

I don't see that on the ballast you posted.

The reason for the neutral to go to the socket was so that when the tube was removed.... the ballast is dead.

 

Hi Pete,

It's actually above where it says "lamp" on the diagram in small words it says "circuit interrupting lampholder".

And is it ok if I just leave the exposed neutral wire from ballast in the casing or should I put a nut over it?

Actually, the funny thing is, the ballast is still working. I just opened the lamp to see if it was worth doing the LED conversion since I got fed up buying fluorescent bulbs every year. But after doing some thinking and seeing how I'm moving soon, I prefer just to leave it alone. I'll leave it up to the people who purchase the house.

My main concern is about the exposed neutral wire and what I should do with it?

 

Hi, if that socket came with the original fixture then I see no reason to expect that it is wrong, I would also reconnect the white from the ballast.
Geo

 

Hi Geochurchi,

The thing is I'm not sure if that's the original that came with the house or if someone changed it along the way. But from the looks of it, I'm guessing it is. This future was installed when the house was first built in 1993.

Does the white wire from the ballast go to the bunched neutral wires as shown in photo 3?

 

Yes.... connect the ballast neutral to the incoming neutral splice.

 

Will do, thanks for the help!

 

I can't see where the wires go into the socket but I am pretty sure that is not a "Circuit Interrupting Lampholder" and it looks like the fixture has been modified with a fuse holder. Only one of those disconnect sockets are needed so the other one might be it or might not, I am thinking not as the white neutral ballast wire was disconnected which is supposed to go to the socket.

The theory of operation is simple when the fluorescent lamp is in place the two pins (White and yellow/black wires in the example picture) touch making the circuit and when the lamp is removed the pins do not touch therefore breaking the circuit and removing the possible shock hazard.

These lampholders are very touchy to get a proper connection and are generally unreliable

Here is a picture of a disconnect lampholder I found on a lighting forum I frequent

 

Hi CircuitBreaker,

For some reason, the form did not notify me about your post until today.

Yes, you are correct, someone did modify it with a fuse holder.

This is exactly what I thought as well, looking at where the wire was and the position it was in, it seems that it might have been connected to the tombstone but simply slipped out over time or it simply was never connected. Not too sure.

I have cut the copper tip of the exposed ballast wire and simply left it as is because the lamp has been working fine up till this point. I was going to do as Peter suggested but I already put the fixture back together and I got busy and never got to it.

So if I understand what you're saying, if indeed the lamp socket was circuit interrupting, it would not work if all 3 wires weren't connected?

 

If indeed it was a circuit interrupting lampholder all three wires must be connected or it will not work.

You can also bypass the circuit interrupting lampholder (If you do indeed have one) by wiring the fixture as I describe below

It looks like you only have a standard (Non-Shunted) lampholder so the white wire from the house goes to the socket and also gets connected to the white from the ballast (It looks like that is what was done but the ballast white was never connected or just slipped out)

 

Got it, thanks for the clarification.