mild shock from fluorescent fixture?!

i've got some cheap-ass T8 and T12 fluoro fixtures from home depot. they've been running for about 9 months.

the other day, i had a damp hand (not dripping wet) and made incidental contact with a metal chain that supports the fixtures and got a mild electrical shock. it was kind of like putting a 9V battery on your tongue (if you ever did this as a kid) or feeling the juice coming through a phone line. when touching the fixture with a completely dry hand, i don't feel anything.

is this supposed to happen? i thought it was a short in the fixture, so i replaced it. same result. so i touched all of my fluoro fixtures with a damp hand and, sure enough, they all gave me a little tingle. it's not enough to trip the GFCI and, yes, everything is grounded correctly.

is this normal? does the ballast use the ground wire (which is connected to the housing) to get rid of minute amounts of electricity as it switches on and off?

anybody brave/stupid enough to try touching a fluoro fixture with a damp (not dripping wet) hand?

During the wiring of a light while under the influence I accidentally switched hot and neutral.
Everything worked fine for months, then while I was adjusting this light's chain I leaned into the reflector of the next light over. Exactly the result described by haole420.

Is there ANY chance the house wiring is faulty in the circuit that feeds the outlets being used? Too many lights to all have shorts in them, the outlet is the other item in common. Fed by the main breaker box.

Very few items quit with the hot and neutral reversed.

was just doing a few searches and found lots of info "stray voltage" and aquariums. i though maybe my aquaponic system might have something to do with it (which is on the same circuit), but aside from the fish, the aquaponic system is pretty much the same as any hydro system (water with stuff in, submerged water pump, air pump) and i've never heard anyone talking about stray voltage/current in hydro.

while i'm still no closer to finding out what's up with the tingling, i did come across some interesting results when load testing my lights trying to find a short or anomalous load:

here are my results:

4ft dual T8 with (2) 32 watt bulbs = 210 watts (146 watt or 228% overhead)
4ft quad T8 with (4) 32 watt bulbs = 413 watts (285 watt or 223% overhead)
2ft dual T12 with (2) 20 watt bulbs = 73 watts (33 watt or or 83% overhead)
2ft octo HOT5 with ( 24 watt bulbs = 247 watts (55 watt or 29% overhead)

lumatek 600 watt ballast + 600 watt HPS bulb:
- 600 watt mode = 635 watts (6% over)
- 400 watt mode = 435 watts (9% over)
- 360 watt mode = 400 watts (11% over)

lumatek 400 watt ballast + 400 watt HPS bulb:
- 400 watt mode = 443 watts (11% over)
- 275 watt mode = 310 watts (13% over)
- 250 watt mode = 290 watts (16% over)

i though T8 fluoros were supposed to be efficient? fuck "the bible," man. it says the only thing more efficient than T8s are 600 watt HPS. my ass! shit: three of my dual 4' dual T8 fixutres uses just as much power as my 600watt HPS! fuck that. i have a spare digital ballast and hood that i yanked from flowering due to heat issues. going to run out and get a MH bulb tomorrow and scrap these piece of shit fluoros.

somebody tell me what's up. is this normal or is something seriously wrong with my fluoro fixtures?

edit: i stand corrected, cervantes says the 1000w MH, 1000w HPS, and 600w HPS are more efficient than 32w T8. his calculations are way flawed though, as he's only looking at bulb wattage, not total input wattage of ballast.

Phaeton said:

During the wiring of a light while under the influence I accidentally switched hot and neutral.
Everything worked fine for months, then while I was adjusting this light's chain I leaned into the reflector of the next light over. Exactly the result described by haole420.

Is there ANY chance the house wiring is faulty in the circuit that feeds the outlets being used? Too many lights to all have shorts in them, the outlet is the other item in common. Fed by the main breaker box.

Very few items quit with the hot and neutral reversed.

Click to expand...

will pull the outlet and use my tester to see which wire has a current on it. for flowering, i ran my own 10ga, so i'm certain it's wired up right, but veg is just using the existing wall outlet. it wouldn't surprise me if it was, indeed, switched... will report tomorrow.

Hmm... interesting... I noticed when changing bulbs in my T5 that when I twisted the bulb to release (while the fixture is on), my knuckles touched the reflector and the bulb at the same time for a split second and I felt exactly this. I thought it was a burn from the heat built up in the reflector, but I touched it again after the bulb was out and it was not hot at all.

Not sure how that fits in but I thought I'd throw it in there.

haven't tested the polarity but did have a chance to check the ground on the outlet with a power strip that has a little light that comes on when the circuit is correctly grounded. apparently, either the GFCI outlet is bad or the ground wire running back to the circuit breaker from that outlet is bad. other outlets in the house appear to be correctly grounded, according to this power strip.

load tested one of the T8 fixtures in a properly grounded plug and it now reads 249 watts (more than last night) with (2) 32-watt bulbs.

appliance load tester was the best $30 investment i ever made. should pay for itself on my next electricity bill.

turned out to be a broken prong for the ground on the male end of the extension cord! it was there but fell out when i unplugged it. so there you have it: lots of stray voltage/current accumulate if the circuit isn't grounded.