How to connect electronic ballast

[WVBrady]

I am planning on replacing my old ballasts with some new electronic ballasts. On the new ballast there are only three wires coming out of the secondary side: two blue wires and one red wire. The old ballast has six wires coming out: two blue, two red, and two yellow. The two blue wires go to a socket and the two red to another socket at the same end of the fixture. The two yellow go to a socket at the other end of the fixture and there are two black wires that go from that socket to the other socket at that end of the fixture.

I think that I should splice one of the blue wires to the two existing blue wires, splice the red to the two existing red wires, and the other blue wire to the two existing yellow wires. This seems to be the easiest way to do it; I am just wanting some confirmation.

TIA,
Brady

 

[Torque1st]

Hook it up just like the picture on the ballast shows. It looks fairly straight forward.

One blue wire from the ballast hooks to both blue wires.
The other blue wire from the ballast hooks to both the red wires.
The red wire from the ballast hooks to both of the yellow wires.

 

[Mr_fixit]

And when it's wired correctly don't forget to use new t-8 bulbs. The old t-12's won't work.

 

[WVBrady]

Torque: That does seem more in line with the diagram. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't something that I was overlooking.

Thanks for the responses!

Brady

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The end caps are simply snapped into that fixture. Remove the end plates by using a screwdriver in the right place to disengage the lock tab, and after they are removed, pull out one of the bulb holders and go to Home Depot or Lowes and buy four new ones. They are cheap. Your old one will require that you push a tiny screwdriver in to release the old wires, you will find the wire contacts are possibly burned, the bulb contacts are probably burned, and most likely, you will break one of the bulb holders putting in a new bulb.

Put in new bulb holders and push the stripped wire ends in them and you will have better luck with everything working when you are done. If you need additional wire for jumpers, just cut some off the old ballast.

I installed one new electronic ballast in the place of two magnetic ballast in each of two four bulb fixtures in my kitchen. I ended up replacing virtually all of the bulb holders before I was done, and I used wire off the old ballast to make the jumpers needed to connect the terminals of the bulb holders on one end.

Charles

 

[Aceman]

bulb holders

We call them tombstones around here.

Our shop does a lot of lighting retrofits, we don't replace the tombstones unless they are visibly damaged or break when inserting the new lamps. If you have a lot of ballasts to change, Wagos are the way to go.

 

[Torque1st]

I don't replace the holders either unless they are damaged or burnt etc. Fighting with the cheap sheet metal parts just ends up with more bent parts than it is worth. Nothing seems to come apart and fit quite like it is "supposed" to.

The new electronic ballasts don't seem to have a filament heater circuit. With the old style magnetic ballasts and bulbs it always seemed that it was the filaments in the bulbs that burned out.

 

[WVBrady]

Thanks for all of the replies. I replaced two of the ballasts with no problems.

I used: F32T8 - (1-2 Lamps) - 120 Volt - Normal Light Output Ballast - GE-232-120-N - GE 23671

My "tomestones" were in good condition, so I just spliced the wires. The only problem I had was that I dropped one of the biodegradable plastic lenses and it broke into three pieces. I used some Goop and glued it back together. I doubt that I will ever find a replacement, so I put it in the corner.

Brady

 

[Norcal]

Thanks for all of the replies. I replaced two of the ballasts with no problems.

I used: F32T8 - (1-2 Lamps) - 120 Volt - Normal Light Output Ballast - GE-232-120-N - GE 23671

My "tomestones" were in good condition, so I just spliced the wires. The only problem I had was that I dropped one of the biodegradable plastic lenses and it broke into three pieces. I used some Goop and glued it back together. I doubt that I will ever find a replacement, so I put it in the corner.

Brady

That wraparound fixture is a Lithonia LB series ( Homevue is their homeowner line) Homedepot has replacement diffusers in stock....

 

[Maxalan]

My first post here. The two remaining black and white wires fm the ballast.
Do I splice them into the two double wires that come fm the ceiling?
Thanks,
Max

 

[rburke65]

The black and white wires " coming from the ceiling" should be feeding the old ballast and are the 120 volt feed. You have to refeed the the new ballast! Black to black and white to white. You might want to purchase a Basic Wiring book at the big box store.

 

[dittle fart around]

Ballast are in parallel with the bulbs. For a two bulb fixture your probably have two blues and one red. The blues feed one end of the fixture and the red is for the other end. On the blue end, each tombstone gets a blue wire.Two wires out of the tombstone and one blue for each bulb, wire nutted together. The other end of the fixture is a return path back to the ballast. Four wires out of the two tombstones wire nutted to the one red wire. The black and white wires are for power. Black is hot and white is the return.
Finally 4 years of electrical apprenticeship and 25 years on the job have paid off.

 

[DoyleDee]

If you did want to remove the wires from the tombstones, I have had luck with just pulling slightly and "twisting the wire like I'm unscrewing it".. (hope that made sense)
I work on commercial lighting and equipment.. 15 years ago I did my first ballast.

 

[Greatbear]

I reballasted all the fixtures in my garage several years back with T8 electronics. The fixtures are all industrial channel mount with porcelain reflectors and pressure holders (not twist-lock tombstones). Rather than disassemble each fixture I cut the wires back to pigtails at the holders then used wire nuts to connect all the wires of a particular color together, effectively wiring the fixtures per the diagrams. Took a lot less time, especially when dealing with 26 fixtures.

 

[fireguy]

There may be rebates if you are changing old tubes and ballasts, or the whole fixture. You have to use "approved" lamps and ballasts. I know in BPA land there is a rebate program. I am looking to upgrade the lights in my rented shop.

 

[tfi racing]

If you did want to remove the wires from the tombstones, I have had luck with just pulling slightly and "twisting the wire like I'm unscrewing it".. (hope that made sense)
I work on commercial lighting and equipment.. 15 years ago I did my first ballast.

Your method works fine 8 out of 10 times,the sure way is to strip a small length of wire,push it in beside the wire already in the socket to push the "clip" back slightly to release the old wire you would like to remove.Once you have the feel for it,you can just use the new ballast leads to release the unwanted conductors.