277 volt lights

277 Volts is industrial three phase. Can't remember if delta or Y, but I think Y arrangement. I'm sure they'll work on 240V just fine. The ballast inside does the voltage change already and the voltage the lamps see won't be much different.

Two choices - a 16V/32V buck-boost transformer will kick 240V up to

272V which should be close enough for gummint work - but if you can't find one surplus it will cost you a good chunk of change.

Or pass up this "Good Deal", and use the money you just 'saved' on a buck-boost transformer to go buy good light fixtures with the 120V ballasts you need. Even buying these fixtures and new 120V ballasts for them will cost more than the right fixture in a box. Then you have to spend time rebuilding each one.

If you are lighting your shop, you want to buy newer fixtures with more efficient T8 lamps and electronic ballasts. Some people are sensitive to the 60-hz strobe effects of magnetic ballasts, and you will see strobe effect on rotating machinery. With electronic ballasts you aren't going to see any flicker or strobing when it's up at 10 KHz to 20 KHz.

If you know someone with a shop in an industrial building with a

277V/480V Wye power feed, they can use those 277V fixtures.

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This one would probly get you up there :

Hey Andre,

Some good deals just aren't. Maybe you could resell them to an electrician that works commercial or industrial.

Take care.

Brian Laws>I found some brand new 2 bulb 4' fluorescent fixtures for what appears to be

$12 for a 4' fluorescent fixture is not a good deal (unless the OP is talking about a pallet of them). Walmart sells such fixtures for much less, in 110V, with power plugs and all.

My suggestion to the OP is to try to sell them on ebay, once, and if they do not sell, remove all useful hardware such as screws and dump them to garbage.

i who wasted too much time with shit of similar nature.

You can get a transformer cheap enough but is it worth the hassle? It shouldn't be too hard to find used 120V T8 fixtures for nearly nothing- they are considered worthless once pulled out of a ceiling. I have some 277 fixtures I plan on using but only because they're indirect T5 fixtures which would be rather expensive new. In the meantime they're taking up valuable real estate.

I would not take them if they were free!! Greg

What iggy said.

Dude,

4 foot 2-bulb **T-8's**, *electronic fixtures*, w/ reflector, plug, chain, virtually assembled: $7.98 at Home Despot. Two-pack of T-8 buhbs: $3.98. It's called a "shop light".

Cain't beat dat w/ a pair of nunchuks.

120V, of course. But, I would imagine, if you connected two fixtures in series, you could indeed use 240V!

beware of PCBs in old fixtures (in the capacitors inside the ballast) - makes them very hazardous waste, and not a good thing to put in the trash/landfill

I've got 8 of those 277 volt lights that came from an airport remodel running just fine on 240 in my basement shop. Been using them for better than 10 yrs. now.

Garrett Fulton

Yeah, and the scrap guys are proly burnin'em in 55 gal drums, to get at the copper...

--------------------- Mr. PV

The ballasts in those "Lights of America" type cheapo fixtures are not the same as, for example, Advance ballasts in a quality fixture.

Rule: You get what you pay for.

I wouldn't touch Lights Of America equipment (Made in China, or worse) with a twenty foot pole - utter garbage. I've taken them apart after the Magic Smoke escaped, and found that an alleged "65 Watt" fluorescent flood routes all the power through a 1/4-watt film resistor on the ballast board. Something is wrong there.

Another famous trick at LOA is to make fixtures with non-standard lamps (odd pin arrangements nobody else uses) - and they discontinue the lamps after 5 to 10 years. Even if the fixture still works, you can't get new lamps for it.

Even shopping for the allegedly good Lithonia brand fixtures is no guarantee. The "Good" F40T12 shoplights at Home Despot have the much cheaper 'Rapid Start' ballast that can't reliably fire old 40W lamps above 60F, let alone any of the 34W Energy Saver lamps at 40F or below.

You want something with an Advance 'R-2P32' T-8 electronic ballast, or the tried-and-true 'R-2S40-TP' T-12 magnetic ballast, or industry equivalent. Open up the fixture at the store and look. If it has a disconnect lampholder to switch power off to the ballast, that is a danger sign. (Read the wiring diagram on the ballast label.)

And Lithonia is also rolling their own electronic ballasts for FC8T9

22W Circline fixtures, and they don't last for 24/7 use like apartment hallways. Same thing, going for the "Best" quality level gets you fixtures with the more reliable ballasts.

You can buy cheap fixtures every two years, or good ones every twenty. Your call. ;-)

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My Walmart bought "shop lights" accept standard four foot elements, and work in all kinds of weather. (they are in my garage).

i

Thanks for the input,

I have not bought them yet but I spoke to the guy that has them and I'll probably take a look next week. He gave me some info and it would seem they are better quality fixtures (surplus from a commercial fit up) I'm going to look up the model # and see what's up. Apparently there he has a bunch of electrical stuff so if the lights don't pan out maybe there's something else I can make use of. As far as low buck fixtures from HD and Walmart go the last ones I put up buzzed just enough to push me to the edge, so I'm going to be a little more picky this time. I'll look at what they have but the bar is set a bit higher this time.

Andrew

I've got some 277 volt lights in a barn wired to 240 volt. They work alright at 240. The light output might be about 10 percent less but I can't notice it.

Yeah, I bought summa dat shit a few years ago. Also a fire hazard!

No doubt Bruce is correct in what he eays. However, one poster sez they come w/o a reflector, but they do have one, albeit a marginal one. I was actually surprised at their "apparent" quality, and only time will tell. These are certainly heads and shoulders above the crap they used to have.

I personally am so used to getting PV'd by everything/everybody, I just opt for the lower-priced insertion. Kind of a crap shoot--delightful pun actually un-intended.

My local guy who makes these fixtures charges $24 each; I had just bought 4 when I went to HD. Blew my day.

,

Andrew

If the buzz from the flourescent fixtures bothers you, you might want to ask the seller to let you try out one of the 277 vac fixtures he is selling. They may be even noiser than most of the "household use" fixtures.

It is likely that a 277vac fixture was expected to be used in a high ceiling factory invironment where balast noise isnt important. Industrial/factory type balasts are less expensive than home use balasts because of that buzz noise problem.

Jerry