# Short lived Fluorescent ballast



## Greenblinker (Aug 4, 2008)

About 3 months ago I replaced a Ruud lighting outdoor fluorescent security light with the same fixture. I was back today after getting a call that our new light has stopped working, as soon as i opened it up I could instantly smell that burnt ballast death smell. I double checked my connections and everything looked great. Voltage was 285V which is a little hot for 277. My question is, could the higher voltage even though slight in the scheme of things be to blame? My gut says no especially since they've experienced no other problems across the rest of the complex. I would like to just chalk it up to Cheap China light fixtures but I don't want this to happen again.


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Don't RUUD fixtures use Venture ballasts? If I have that right, I never cared for Venture very much. Too many failures for reasons I never was able to figure out. Lamps and ballasts.

In your case, have you ruled out a loose neutral of a MWBC or a loose neutral to the 480 panel itself?


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## Greenblinker (Aug 4, 2008)

I haven't ruled it out yet, I planned on putting a load on it and seeing if the voltage would do anything at the fixture and then working back towards the panel. I believe the lights run off of a leviton lighting control panel.


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## goose134 (Nov 12, 2007)

If it is a dimming panel and your problem fixture shares a neutral with a dimmed fixture it could be it. Marc had suggested something along these lines


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## Greenblinker (Aug 4, 2008)

Well, the school that this is at is on Easter break right now so it'll be sometime late next week before I am back out there, but I think you guys got me going in the right direction with the neutral.


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## a-bulb (Feb 13, 2008)

goose134 said:


> If it is a dimming panel and your problem fixture shares a neutral with a dimmed fixture it could be it. Marc had suggested something along these lines


 This is the reason why you should run 2-wire lighting H.R's with a lighting control system....alot of guys run 3 wire H.R's. Problem is when the 2 sw/legs get put on diffrent RPM's and the 2 RPM's are on the same phase.


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