Fluorecent lights?

[itsiceman]

[ZeroTolerance]

I have found a lot of very interesting things when doing electrical work in the past.

[jpsmith1cm]

OK, guys. There's a lot of brainpower in this thread, so hopefully, you can help this dumb old fridgy out.

I've been fighting a Hill/Phoenix case with lights that won't stay lit. That was the start of this thread.

H/P SSGCSSN8

Case has 2 T5 lamps in the canopy and a LongHorse LH4 (I think, didn't write it down) ballast. These have been ordered from H/P and replaced SEVERAL times.

Latest disaster. Friday afternoon, I showed up, one of 2 lamps out. Dropped the fixture, installed new OEM ends, shrink-tubed the splices, installed NEW OEM bulbs, with sheilds and end guards, installed a NEW OEM ballast. Finished job up around 3:30PM


Lights work, I win, right?

Not so fast........

According to the cutter on duty Friday night, the same lamp had burnt out again by 9PM.

So, I was back there today. My initial thought was to order a complete new fixture, thinking that the wiring is damaged, but, after discussing it with some of the other techs, that has already been tried with NO SUCCESS!



WHAT NOW???

[Pascone10]

Change it to some type of LED fixture..

You won't have to worry about bulbs for 10 years!!

[jpsmith1cm]

Change it to some type of LED fixture..

You won't have to worry about bulbs for 10 years!!

Large corporate customer must approve.

Not happening at this point in time. I've tried, believe me.

[ZeroTolerance]

Is line 120V or 277v also what voltage is ballast? LH4-120-L or LH4-277-L
What is the line voltage reading from your meter without ballast connected?

Are door seals in good shape and sealing properly? Moisture forming on tombstones causing it to short out?

What lamps are you using? F4's, F6's, etc?

What is the operating temp of the case?

I'll call you tomorrow

[ZeroTolerance]

Are you jumpering the sockets? When using two T5 bulbs, you should only be using two red wires and one yellow wire from the ballast.

[jpsmith1cm]

Not exactly sure what all those "F"s mean.

Ballast is a LH4-120 as you mentioned.

Red from ballast splits into 2 wires. Both go to ONE socket on each lamp. Both of the other sockets return on 2 wires and connect to the yellow wire and ground. ***edit***. Each red lead powers one lamp via 2 wires to the same socks end.

Medium temp (35 degrees nominally) case. No misting system, but they do shut lights off at night.

I would consider the water thing if it didn't burn out before the lamps were ever powered off. Should have stayed warm the whole time.

I've go a call out to local H/P rep. This turd belongs to him as far as I'm concerned.

[ZeroTolerance]

The number following the f is the wattage of the lamps.

I'd like to believe you have some kind of line issue. If I'm reading your post correctly.

[ZeroTolerance]

Heres how the wiring should look:



If that is all correct and you installed 4 brand new tombstones, then like I said, I would assume it's a line issue.

Unless you are using bulbs that exceed the Ballasts Max Wattage of 70Watts
That's why I was curious as to what F value bulbs you were using.

The problem is:

A: Line Issue
B: You are exceeding your ballast wattage by using too high wattage of bulbs. Which explains why only one bulb is staying lit and the other is going out.

Are you positive it's a 120V circuit and not a 277V?

[jpsmith1cm]

This is actually how the ballast is wired.

Not sure if it makes a difference.

[nateneff]

None of the lighting leads (yellow and red) from the ballast should be connected to ground. The metal case of the ballast does need to be grounded though. Maybe the wire containing green was intended to go to the ballast mounting screw?

I sometimes use a volt tic (non contact tester) to check a ballast. When ballast if functional the red blue or yellow wires will set the volt tic off. if not replacing the ballast does the trick.

[VTP99]

None of the lighting leads (yellow and red) from the ballast should be connected to ground. The metal case of the ballast does need to be grounded though. Maybe the wire containing green was intended to go to the ballast mounting screw?

I sometimes use a volt tic (non contact tester) to check a ballast. When ballast if functional the red blue or yellow wires will set the volt tic off. if not replacing the ballast does the trick.

None of the Fulham wiring diagrams show a grounded lamp lead.