How the heck do I assemble these strip lights?!

AshK

AshK

Muffin MIX NAO
Jun 24, 2008
481
0
16
38
California, PA
Ok, so I have no knowledge of any electrical stuff. Consequently this post will sound very noob. What I want is a long light blub around 20 watts that I can place above a row of fish tanks. This is what I have: I purchased several T12 24 inch strip light fixtures that take a 20 watt florescent bulb.

The light "fixture" is just a bunch of long metal pieces and wires. Seriously WTH? There is no cord with a plug to plug the thing in even IF i figure it out. I'm in serious doubt of my hardware-store-buy-the-right-stuff-skillz.

Here's a bunch of pictures of the light fixture, the boxes the stuff came in, and the "easy 4 step instructions!":silly:

This picture shows the instructions:
PICT0715.jpg

Here is a picture of the light fixture, which I assembled per instructions (by assembly all I did was snap a couple of white metal pieces in to place)
PICT0718.jpg

Far left hand side:
PICT0723.jpg

Note the white wire goes nowhere

In the middle 2 black wires come out of a white box.
PICT0722.jpg

Note the left black wire goes nowhere. The right wire attaches to the far right side


The far right-hand side
PICT0720.jpg


You can see how the yellow wires from both sides of the fixture are attached to some free floating canister thing. Here is a picture of that canister thing:
PICT0721.jpg




How do I do this? Is this the wrong light fixture? How does energy get to light? Where is the on switch? Do I need additional tools/pieces? Am I too noob?! Thanks for the help...and baring with my total lack of skill regarding this crap!
 
Ok, so I went over to Yahoo Answers and was told these lights need a ballast and an on/off swith to function. So I'm going to cram them back in their stupid boxes, return them to the hardware, and get the right kind of light fixtures!
 
alright i read your post and see that the light fixture you got is one that goes straight to the ceiling and connects to the wires there. Hence you dont have a power cord or on/off switch.
What you can do is cut any old power cord with a ground to it and wire it up with the fixture. As far as a on/off switch you can check out homedepot they have the switches there as well.

But since you are not really good with electrical work I would suggest you just return it and get another fixture thats already prewired.
 
Lol thanks for the help! I can only get rides to a store between 6 pm and 10 pm, so I still have the fixtures.

Could I cut up any old power cord, or does it need to have a ground? Included in the package of the light fixtures is a green screw labeled as a "grounding screw". It seems to be the consensus on the internet that green wires are for grounding, however these light fixtures don't have any green wires. There's a lot of broken appliances around my apartment building so if could I cut off some of their cords I totally will.

Here's the bag of screw type things included with the light fixtures. The green screw and some sort of washer thing are circled in green
Untitled.png


Here's a picture of what the box says about the green screw:
PICT0717.jpg

(no where else is grounding mentioned on any of the writing on the box)

Would I need to buy a switch? Or could I just unplug it to turn it off?

I am definitely interested in trying to make these things work, if I don't have to buy anything else. Rides to store=hard to come by + more expense. Plus these light fixtures were like 10 dollars cheaper than the other seemingly complete strip lights at Lowes.
 
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its best to have a power cord with a ground. (pc wire is perfect) It will contain 3 wires. One black, one white one green. The green one you screw in with the green screw anywhere on the actual light fixture. Connect black with black of the black wire coming out of the ballast (white tiny box) white with white. Use wire nuts to close them up. And bingo

If you dont want a switch and want to just plug/unplug it then sure that will work. Thats what im actually doing with the light thats on my 10g.
 
Are wire nuts what's included in the picture of those screws I included?
 
hmmm....I will see if I can get some of those for free. There are construction people around doing things today...maybe they have wirenuts...

Our apartment building's basement is loaded with stuff from people who got evicted, lease ran out, etc and never came back for their stuff. haha, it's like an all-you-can-take buffet! There must be some stuff down there that has grounding wires.
 
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