Question with 277V volt lighting

A building that had 277v and now does not? That is pretty strange. You will need to buy all new ballasts for the fixtures for the new source voltage of

I would be extremely concerned about the equipment that originally installed. A fair amount of the rotating equipment may not be dual voltage.

Sometimes when buildings get converted from commercial use to residential, such as lofts made from old warehouses, the power company gets all snotty and won't let you have the cool voltages at 277 and up anymore, and makes you have to put up with the lame 240/120 everyone else has. I'd rather have 600Y/347 but that's very rare in the US. Even 240Y/139 is more common.

If this is a case of a comercial building staying commercial and getting stuck with 240/120 or 208Y/120 when it had 480Y/277 or such, then it does sound fishy.

| I would be extremely concerned about the equipment that originally | installed. A fair amount of the rotating equipment may not be dual voltage.

Definitely.

Some electronic ballasts can be wired either 120 volt or 277 volt. Read the labels on the ballasts.

Well, I would rather not want to mess with a bunch of transformers around the place to give the 120/240 that the inexpensive appliances lap up.

The original poster can TRY to run his lights on 240 volts. There is a fair chance it will work. The next step would be a "buck/boost" transformer. I suspect he isn't the only one with the problem and the local supply houses have the transformers in stock.

B J Cornner has shed some valuable common sense on the problem. Makers of fluorescent fixtures buy an obscene amount of ballasts for production. The original poster cannot possibly buy the ballasts cheaply enough to make the conversion feasible. Then you have the labor cost of replacing every ballast. Buy new fixtures specific for your voltage. Sell you old fixtures to someone who will have the need.

One more thing. You may have to recircuit the whole place. Fixtures at

On Sun, 23 May 2004 22:22:50 GMT B J Conner wrote: | One more thing. You may have to recircuit the whole place. Fixtures at | 277volts draw less than half the current the same fixture will at 120. If | you have switches that were swtiching 16 amp at 277 volts you will need two | of them now. If as I noted you go to T-5s you can configure the switching | to save energy.

Or get a transformer and use genuine 277 volts.

Have you priced transformers lately? With the price of aluminum, copper and steel on the rise it will be cheaper to get new fixtures than a transformer and new wiring.

Or get a transformer and use genuine 277 volts.

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----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Phil Howard KA9WGN |

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Not really related: I noticed the acceptible voltage range of a replacement computer power supply when in 240V mode, went as high as

| Not really related: I noticed the acceptible voltage range of a | replacement computer power supply when in 240V mode, went as high as | 275 volts. I thought "almost but not quite good enough to be plugged | into a 277V wall outlet." That made me wonder: Is there such a thing as | a low current (15 or 20A) 277 volt single phase standard outlet? Not that | there would be hardly any need for it.

NEMA 7-15R

See page A-28 of:

Should have guessed that.

BTW, while googling 7-15R I found something even more obscure, NEMA 24-15R.

| snipped-for-privacy@ipal.net writes: | |>On Tue, 25 May 2004 04:05:47 +0000 (UTC) Michael Moroney wrote: | |>| Not really related: I noticed the acceptible voltage range of a |>| replacement computer power supply when in 240V mode, went as high as |>| 275 volts. I thought "almost but not quite good enough to be plugged |>| into a 277V wall outlet." That made me wonder: Is there such a thing as |>| a low current (15 or 20A) 277 volt single phase standard outlet? Not that |>| there would be hardly any need for it. | |>NEMA 7-15R | | Should have guessed that. | |>See page A-28 of:

There are uses for them. I'm using 12 of them for my HID lights, makes changing out the fixture real easy, just unplug them and unhook them from the I bolts and you can service them on the ground.

William.....

And your not the only one. There in most of the "big Box" stores like Costco, Fred Meyer, Home Depot etc.

Interesting. I'll have to look next time I'm there.