Help! electricity leak

[wezx]

hi guys,

I know that this is really dangerous so i want to consult you guys before doing any testing and stuff.

I dont know anything about lights and stuff.

Apparently, electricity is leaking from one of my lights, and my metal rack is conducting it. (pitchers conduct electricity too! wierd) I bought one of those electrical screw drivers, and it lit the glow thing, so... uh oh!

is there a way i can fix this myself? Does water have anything to do with the problem to start with?

help!

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Its not grounded by the sounds of it.

 

[herenorthere]

If this is serious it's a dangerous situation and you disconnect the power from that light. Otherwise it's like James Thurber's aunt who ran around the house making sure something was plugged into every outlet so the electricity wouldn't leak out. Ozzy, who knows a thing or two about electricity and jokes, can get to the bottom of it.

 

[CP30]

It is a grounding problem. Are you using a socket adapter (perhaps to plug your lights into a timer)?
I have this issue, but the leakage is extremely minimal and I have 7 4' double fixtures plugged into a powerstrip that is adapted into a timer. I plan to ground the adapter to the screw in the outlet but have not gotten around to it yet.
I will be watching for the answer to your problem.

 

[Ozzy]

I think these guys have dianosed your problem correctly. It sounds top me that your lights are not grounded.
First unplug the lights NOW. Then connect a wire to the metal part of your lights and run that to any ground source. A ground source is any conductor that is connected to the earth. It can be the bottom round socket on a recptical or it can be almost any green or bare wire or it can be connected to a copper water pipe.
I don't know what kind of screwdriver ou used but if it has an induction meter (a meter that detects the presents of electricity without coming in contact with a live wire) it could have been set off by the lights themselves.

If you have any questions you can send me a pm. Or if you want to talk to me about it send your phone number and I'll call you.

This could be a serious lifethreatening problem, so I would not take it lightly.

 

[wezx]

Thanks alot guys!

i called the electricity guy as well, and he said it might be the ballast or the starter that is not working. Can this be the case?
The problem you suggested, to ground the lights, is it sort of an 'easy way out'? I suppose after grounding the lights electricity will still leak, but will leak to the ground instead of my metal rack? Am i right?

The electricity guy told me that it;s probably not the adapters too, (i have 2 timers and 2 adapters), i dont know who to listen to right now.

Also, i don't know where the electricity is leaking from. I have normal shoplights and they don't seem to conduct electricity (when i touch the induction meter on the white, metal like case, it dosen't light up, strange), but it must be from the lights because those are the only things connected to the metal rack.

Thanks guys, is there a way to test exatly what is leaking/not working so that i can fix it? may be the starter/ballast, the adapter or the lights, im a little confused now...

wezx

 

[seedjar]

If your lights have three-prong plugs, get three-prong timers and plug the whole shebang into a three-prong outlet. If you don't have three-prong outlets, you'll need to run a line from the adapter to a ground (like Ozzy said, a water pipe or something.) The adapter should have a little metal ring on it where you can attach a ground line.
That third prong is a built-in ground; if you're using an adapter to plug your lamps into a two-prong outlet, then the problem should fix itself when you plug them into the right kind of outlet. Three-prong to two-prong adapters interrupt the ground built into three-prong wires, so your lights may already be properly grounded and you've just accidentaly un-grounded them. It could be your ballast, or starter, or even bad wiring in your fixtures, but it sounds to me like you don't have the lights set up the way that they were supposed to be operated. It's perfectly normal for many types of electrical devices to produce an excess charge; that's why modern electrical outlets all have ground connections built in.
A friend of mine used to have a bunch of grow lights in a house that only had older, two-prong outlets, and when I went over to his place I would regularly get shocked by excess static or whatever it is that the ground normally carries away. The ground is very important - if too much electricity builds up in your rack, it could discharge to another metal object nearby and the sparks might start a fire. Or it could discharge into you and do things that are much more unpleasant. I used to have a link to a more educated treatment of the whys and hows of grounding, but I can't find it. Wikipedia does a decent job.
~Joe

 

[herenorthere]

And don't forget that a lot of thoughtful people have replaced inconvenient two prong outlets with three prong outlets in older homes/apartments without bothering to provide a ground. But is that screwdriver just showing the electric field created by your fixture? I've only noticed a ballast/starter problem when a light didn't light or took a while. I can't see that charging your fixture.

 

[lol]

Hmm. I need some help too. I got this cheap, 24", 20 watt fluorescent fixture from lowe. I had to got out and buy a two prong adapter since it didn't come with the part that sticks into an outlet. It also mentions that I need to connect a wire to the green screw to ground it. Are you saying that if I buy a 3 prong outlet adapter, I can connect the third ground wire into the third prong? I really need to know today, thanks.

 

[seedjar]

lol, are you saying that your light fixture doesn't have a plug and cord? Get a three-prong appliance cord from your hardware store. It should have three wires bundled together - one red, one black or white, and one green. Connect the green wire to the green screw, and the red and black/white wires to where ever the instructions say, and you're good to go.
~Joe

 

[lol]

Just got back from lowe, and that's what I did. Thanks

.

 

[wezx]

Hi,

All my lights are 3 prong, all my powerstrips are 3 prongs except for these few: a 3 prong adapter and all my (4) 2 prong fans.
So, what i did was i disconnected that adapter and all the 2 prong fans. End result was still the same, even with these 2 prongs/adapters unplugged, i checked with my screwdriver (which yes herenorthere checks for electrical current) and there was still electrical current running through.

Is it possible that these 3 pin prongs do not have the 'ground' propelly connected? These lights came from quite a cheap shop and im afraid that they might have done a sloppy job of connecting em'.

Only 3 out of 6 of my shelves have leaking electricity, which is strange. Maybe its the lights afterall?

Quote[/b] ] friend of mine used to have a bunch of grow lights in a house that only had older, two-prong outlets, and when I went over to his place I would regularly get shocked by excess static or whatever it is that the ground normally carries away.

That sounds alot like mine! sometimes i get a shock and sometimes a dont.

Thanks guys

 

[seedjar]

So what kind wall outlet are you plugging all of this into? The only type of adapter that should cause this problem is one that takes a three-prong plug and connects it to a two-prong outlet. Or, like herenorthere pointed out, your wall sockets could be improperly wired and ungrounded. It sounds like you should maybe have an electrician look over the whole thing.
~Joe

 

[wezx]

oh darn... yes all are 3 prong...

But it kinda seems to be the lights, oh well, first ill get a guy to look at the lights, then if nothing changes i'd get an electrician