Shop lighting questions

[Jake Helmboldt]

I need to install more lighting in the shop and wanted to install (among others) several 2-tube 4' fluorescent fixtures. But I just stumbled across some info that said fluorescents can't be wired in series or in parallel? Is this true?

Question 1:
My plan was to run one dedicated lighting circuit and start w/ 4 luminaries, two on one switch and two on another (so each switch operates a pair). I had planned to wire each pair in parallel (after coming off a junction box to split the feed) with the switches at the end of the run. Do I need to do anything different than with incandescent fixtures?

Question 2:
I noticed that the ballast indicated a starting temp of 60 deg F. Is this standard? My shop is not currently heated and I'll frequently be out there when it is in the 50s (still comfortable to me) and I'm wondering if I need to look for fixtures with lower temp ballasts.

Thanks, JH

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Jake,

I started my new shop 3 years ago. I just wired up the lights in the last two weeks. I have 2 circuits (and 2 circuit breakers) feeding 2 rows of lights each. Each row of fluorescents is controlled by it's own switch. 3 of the rows of fluorescents are 3 8' foot 4 bulb fixtures. The 4th row is 2 8' 4 bulb fluorescents.

The 60º temp means your lights may not come on immediately when you turn them on and may be dim if the temperature is below 60º. Most of the time they will eventually warm up and produce normal amounts of light. You can find fixtures that will work at a lower temperature and if these don't work for you you could find a ballast with a lower temperature rating and just replace the ballast.

Good luck....I think it should work for you.

[glenn bradley]

If you had a power strip and plugged 3 shop lights into it they are technically parallel across the hot and neutral of the circuit. Each light has it's own ballast so maybe they are talking about some other sort of hookup(?). To solve your temp problem, go with electonic ballasts. These are more money initially but will let you run T8 tubes which put out more(?) light and only draw 38 watts each.

A quote:

1. If you are still using T12 fluorescent lighting as the major light source in your buildings, it is time to consider upgrading to the T8 fluorescent lamps. T8 lamps are the highest efficiency lamps for 4 and 8-foot fixtures. Most applications will benefit from T8 technology versus T12 for several reasons. The T8 lamps have a higher efficacy (lumens per watt) rating and better color rendering than T12 lamps. Depending on the ballast used, the T8 lamp often delivers the same lumen output for 20% - 40% fewer watts.

[Jim O'Dell]

I've got mine wired in parallel, (one to the next to the next, etc). No problems. How would businesses that have multiple flourescent lights on one or several switches do it? As far as I know, there is only parallel and series, of a combination of the two. I've only seen parallel in AC current wiring. Used to do parallel and series/parallel with multiple speakers on one amp. :eek: Jim