# Wrong Ballast?



## Cheap Noob (Jun 25, 2008)

I probably ought to be posting this in the DIY forums, but seeing as how this is my job, I figured I'd try here first.

I'm an 18 year old kid who does maintenance at a 15 year old movie theater. I got my job replacing light bulbs, flourescent starters, ballasts and the like with no training (I'm much cheaper than hiring an actual electrician). However, recently a light on one of our poppers has gone dead. I verified the wires, they seem to be good, as well as the switch to it. Hence, I'm forced to assume the ballast is the problem. However, we don't have any ballasts for the proper bulb size (about F8T5 or so, off the top of my head), and ordering things can take weeks due to intercompany corporate inefficiencies. We do, however, have ballasts for other sizes of bulbs, larger and smaller.

My question is, is it safe to rewire the popper lights to run off of a ballast guagued for a different size light? Will it blow the lights or burn them out too fast or shine them too brightly? I always have the option of gutting the light fixture and replacing it with different sized bulbs and using an appropriate ballast, but this is almost surely going to be an unattractive fix. Any thoughts?


----------



## TheRick (Apr 13, 2008)

Cheap Noob said:


> Any thoughts?


Tell your boss to hire a licensed electrician:no:


----------



## hpp58 (Jan 28, 2008)

In NJ only licensed electricians or "qualified" workers are allowed to change ballasts if the company has written proceedures to do so.


----------



## Speedy Petey (Jan 10, 2007)

TheRick said:


> Tell your boss to hire a licensed electrician:no:


Damn straight!


----------

