# temp power problems



## bobbarker (Aug 6, 2015)

You already know the answer now just have confidence in it


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## 3D Electric (Mar 24, 2013)

Possibly a ground fault? 🤓


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## HAL9000 (Feb 28, 2016)

no ground fault, that is not it, all the connections are good, insulation is good, I have had this happen before the lights would not fire on when connected to the temp power gfci, but would turn on when connected to the regular power source


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

I have never had call to plug a bunch of tube fluorescents into a GFCI but I bave heard that they can commonly cause tripping.

Whether it's because of coupling to the metal fixture, or just leaky Chinesium construction, I don't know.

Put your Fluke in series with the equipment ground and measure leakage current as each fixture is energized. Will point you in the right direction.


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## nbb (Jul 12, 2014)

Big John said:


> I have never had call to plug a bunch of tube fluorescents into a GFCI but I bave heard that they can commonly cause tripping.
> 
> Whether it's because of coupling to the metal fixture, or just leaky Chinesium construction, I don't know.
> 
> Put your Fluke in series with the equipment ground and measure leakage current as each fixture is energized. Will point you in the right direction.


I'd bet dollars to doughnuts the ballast is leaking current to ground. Either put a meter in series as stated before, or pull the ballast out of the frame and measure from ballast case to ground. I found this out when I tried to temp up some fluorescent lights and they would not light until I got a grounding extension cord.


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## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

Try non-ballasted lights, such as quartz.


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