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Hi, I'm new to the forum. I'm having an issue with the fluorescent light fixture that came with my Craftsman work bench. The fixture contains two 48" fluorescent bulbs. It has no switch so I tried to install a regular light switch on it before I even put bulbs in. When I did that, the fuse tripped. I removed the switch and just put twisted the wires together and electrical taped it to plug it in and see if it worked. Same thing happened. Why is my fuse tripping? The wire that was attached to my light fixture contained three wires. Two power wires with one ground wire in the middle. How should I have wired it to the switch? I had a regular light switch with two power terminals and one ground terminal.
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on your ballast you have two wires, a black and a white. on your power cord you have a black and a white plus a green wire. the green wire goes to any metal part of the fixture. the cord white is spliced to the ballast white with a wirenut. the switch goes between the two black wires, one from the cord and the ballast black. -
I basically cut the power wires in the middle. There's no indication which is black and which is white. Do I just pick one to be the white, and pull it all the way back to the ballast? I still think it's weird that the fuse blew when I just connected the wires together the way they're supposed to go. However, when I had them connected, obviously incorrectly, to the switch, it blew the circuit breaker in the panel. When I connected them the way they're supposed to be connected it only blew the fuse that was on the outlet on the other end of the wall. There's really no way that I can just use the power cord to put a switch in there? I assumed I could wire it so that the switch would just hold or release power from the outlet to the fixture. I'm not an electrician though....Comment
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Oh, I believe there is a ridge on one side. Would this normally be black or white? White is neutral? Correct? Sorry, as I said, I'm not an electrician.Comment
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what you have is called "zip cord" an assembly of two plastic covered stranded wires. One wire has a raised rib in it. This is called the "identified" conductor. Put your switch between two ribbed conductors and don't cut the other wire. Your circuit will be "gold!"Comment
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Ok so good and bad news. Good news, the fuse didn't blow this time. Bad news, the lights dont turn on. When the fuse blew before the lights kinda flickered first. Think I burnt out the ballast? I know for sure the bulbs are good.Comment
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