Multiple Fluorescent Ballasts in one light fixture

11 years ago

Hello GardenWeb. I'm not new here, but couldn't log in with my old credentials. I got lots of help and advice here when we built our log home about 8 years ago.

I an now trying to build a custom light fixture to go over our 9 foot pool table. My pool forum buddies have been very helpful in designing the light for maximum playability. Where I need help now is in how to wire 4 48" fluorescent ballasts in one fixture.

I feel comfortable running wire from a new breaker in the panel to a switch, then to the fixture. What is the best way to wire all of the ballasts together to act as a single light fixture?

Thanks in advance. It's great to be back here at Gardenweb!

Mike

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Comments (10)

Ron Natalie
11 years ago
Lots of four bulb fixtures have two ballasts to begin with. There's no magic. You use one ballast for each pair of bulbs and you connect them all together on the primary (i.e., the 120V) side and leave them independent between the ballast and the bulbs they are feeding.
btharmy
11 years ago
Why not just use 1 ballast that can power all 4 tubes? Better yet, install LED.
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bullheimer
11 years ago
if you know how to read an elec. wiring diagram, just buy a 4 lamp ballast and install it. get about 10 orange wirenuts. if you don't know. then dont try it. fyi there is a diagram on every ballast.
elltwo
11 years ago
Once I was in a house on non-electrical business and saw a set-up in a finished basement that had fluorescent sockets and lamps in ceiling fixtures and the ballasts for those lights were in an adjacent utility room. They were enclosed in a few panelboards with hinged covers at an accessible height.

Changing a failed ballast did not have to be accomplished by working over your head on a ladder, it was as comfortable as changing a breaker.

Would this set-up be appropriate for your needs?
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
we have had a single 4 foot two bulb.. common shop light.. hanging over our pool table for 35 years ...

and not once can i imagine a situation ..... needing more light that that ... its not really there.. to light the whole room ....

it is hung about 3 foot above the table .. actually its at moms house.. so i am guessing on that height...

why do you think you need so much light ... the whole point of the matt felt.. is to dull down light???? .. so your eyeballs open fuller ....

regardless.. whatever makes you happy.. is good ...

ken
bus_driver
11 years ago
Regarding remotely located ballasts, it has not always been necessary for the ballast housing and the fixture plane nearest the tube(s) to be grounded. But now it is crucial for proper operation.
bus_driver
11 years ago
Regarding remotely located ballasts, it has not always been necessary for the ballast housing and the fixture plane nearest the tube(s) to be grounded. But now it is crucial for proper operation.
Ron Natalie
11 years ago
Bus provides a good point. In addition these high efficiency electronic ballasts are real sensitive to the lead length on the secondary (lamp) side. Too long wires will introduce more capacitance than the thing can handle and you'll get problems like failure to start, flickering, or low light output for the power consumed.

Specs vary but limits between non permitted at all to 6' to 20' are typical. Further, there are often recommendations on the wiring arrangments used to get from the ballast to the lamp in such situations.

Suffice it to say for me, it's easier just to put the ballast at the lamp and extend the 120V wiring to reach it.
ionized_gw
11 years ago
The GE MVPS ballasts that I have been using allow remote mounting up to 18 feet with 18 AWG wires.
pharkus
11 years ago
When they renovated my High School (1998, all the "cutting edge" high-efficiency electronic ballasts and T8 lamps) in the auto shop area they installed rows of two-tube fixtures with four-tube ballasts installed in half of them and secondary-side wires going back and forth through the strips, in order to be able to turn on "one tube of each light"...

but really, one of those four-tube fluorescent lamps that installs in place of a 2' x 4' ceiling tile is about as small as you can get and still fit four 4' tubes -- can you just build your fancy wooden/plastic/whatever box around one of those?