Question for you Electricians out there

[cooltouch]

I'm building a light box for examining slides and negatives. I've got a nice wooden case that wine came in that I'll be using for the box. To light it, I bought a couple of those fluorescent light units you can pick up at Home Depot for under the cabinet lighting in your kitchen, etc. They're self-contained, each having a couple of fluorescent bulbs in a housing with an on-off switch and a power cord. For this project, I want a single power cord to exit the box.

My question is: can I run these two fixtures in series, or do I have to wire them parallel? I know that if they were incandescent, series would be no problem, but I don't know if fluorescents, with their ballasts and all, might present a different problem.

A few words of explanation should probably accompany my crude drawing below. The rectangles are the fluorescent fixtures. The two lines exiting to the left of each rectangle represent a two-conductor power cord. What I will do to join the power cords is just clip the wires and use wire nuts to join them together.



Best,

Michael

[Jeff_Green]

My recommendation would be to run in parallel. In fact that should be the only way to wire it as there shouldn't be an output source coming from the ballast to run in series. You would still be running parallel, just connecting inside the fixture.

If I'm missing something, someone let me know!

[chihuahuaphil]

They must be run in parallel, otherwise they would be running on 1/2 voltage. This would also apply to incandescent lamps, although they would be able to run with reduced brightness & lower color temp. The fluorescents might not even be able to start on half voltage.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by chihuahuaphil

They must be run in parallel, otherwise they would be running on 1/2 voltage. This would also apply to incandescent lamps, although they would be able to run with reduced brightness & lower color temp. The fluorescents might not even be able to start on half voltage.

parallel: absolutely, positively affirmative.

[ggeen]

Ditto, what the others said. -G

[acymc]

Yes to parallel . . . but your diagram is not exactly correct. There should be instructions with the fixtures, but you can connect both black wires from the fixtures to the line cord, both white wires to the line cord and connect all the ground wires.

You can also connect one fixture to the other (blk to blk, white to white, etc) and then to the line cord. This probably seems like parallel but isn't.

[cooltouch]

These fixtures are the ones that come in those practically indestructible plastic packaging and sell for about ten bucks apiece. They're not really made to be dismantled, and the instructions consist pretty much of the standard list of litigation-generated warnings. Just a two-conductor power cord sticking out of the plastic housing.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, guys. Parallel it is.

Best,

Michael

[Jeff_Green]

Make it really simple and feed an extention cord through the end of the box and plug both into it. No cutting/splicing/creating potential fire hazards!

[cooltouch]

Originally Posted by Jeff_Green

Make it really simple and feed an extention cord through the end of the box and plug both into it. No cutting/splicing/creating potential fire hazards!

DOH! Now why on Earth didn't I think of that! :

[Jeff_Green]

That's why I'm a master electrician! (ok, really I'm a master electrician because I can pass a silly test, not because I know what I'm doing!)

[kenw]

Originally Posted by acymc

Yes to parallel . . . but your diagram is not exactly correct. There should be instructions with the fixtures, but you can connect both black wires from the fixtures to the line cord, both white wires to the line cord and connect all the ground wires.

You can also connect one fixture to the other (blk to blk, white to white, etc) and then to the line cord. This probably seems like parallel but isn't.

yes, that is still parallel.

But a simple extension cord makes the most sense. And it will keep your insurance intact......