Oggy
Well-known member
I posted about whether or not I should remove the ballast on when replacing the bulbs in my T8 fixtures. There were a couple questions on how to do it, and I would have been more confident if I had seen where/how someone else did it, so I thought I would do a quick write up…
Important: this is how my bulbs get wired, yours may be different. I’m not an electrician and nothing here should be taken as advice.
**Turn the power off to the fixtures. (The breaker, not just the switch)**
Started with this, yep, they all work, but this is the last fixture on this side of the garage to be replaced…
First step is to remove the bulbs and the cover behind them:
This is the ballast, I just cut the wires right where they come out of it. They’ll be reused and I’ll need all of the length I can get for the ends.
The tombstones in the center of my fixture each have a wire going to them, red and blue.
The tombstones on the ends each have a single yellow that feeds both of them:
When wiring the tombstones I decided that the yellow wires would be used for the neutral (white) and the red & blue would be used for the hot. My connectors only have 4slots and I didn’t want to go buy new ones, so I used a piece of wire to feed the other connector.
The bulbs came with a sticker showing how the wiring is, be sure to place the sticker in a conspicuous location so the next guy doesn’t have to hunt it down. I put mine in the outside, it doesn’t bother me and I do t have to open it up to make sure replacement bulbs are the right configuration.
New bulbs in and all lit up (can’t even see the sticker):
Important: this is how my bulbs get wired, yours may be different. I’m not an electrician and nothing here should be taken as advice.
**Turn the power off to the fixtures. (The breaker, not just the switch)**
Started with this, yep, they all work, but this is the last fixture on this side of the garage to be replaced…
First step is to remove the bulbs and the cover behind them:
This is the ballast, I just cut the wires right where they come out of it. They’ll be reused and I’ll need all of the length I can get for the ends.
The tombstones in the center of my fixture each have a wire going to them, red and blue.
The tombstones on the ends each have a single yellow that feeds both of them:
When wiring the tombstones I decided that the yellow wires would be used for the neutral (white) and the red & blue would be used for the hot. My connectors only have 4slots and I didn’t want to go buy new ones, so I used a piece of wire to feed the other connector.
The bulbs came with a sticker showing how the wiring is, be sure to place the sticker in a conspicuous location so the next guy doesn’t have to hunt it down. I put mine in the outside, it doesn’t bother me and I do t have to open it up to make sure replacement bulbs are the right configuration.
New bulbs in and all lit up (can’t even see the sticker):