Wiring PC lights with workhorse 5 ballast

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safedad

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
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I have a kit for 2 55W PC lights. It comes with wiring diagram 11.

Step 1 is to connect both pin sets of the s0cket before connecting "red" & "yellow" wires. I am not sure what this means??

Step 8 When connecting two red poser wires, they must be joined to make one wire. The picture indicates to me I would take a wire nut for each pair of red wires and add an additional wire. Then run that wire to another wire nut and have two red wires coming out of it. Those I would plug into holes 1 & 2 on the plug. Is this correct?
Could I also strip a section of insulation off one red wire and wrap + solder a stripped end around the bare wire and reinsulate with shrink insulation? It would be much neater and not have all the wire nuts. I would then repeat the process with the other red pair and could do something similar with the single yellow wire.

Thanks,
Bob
P.S. Why do the wires from the ballast need to be joined into one instead of each going directly into the plug?
 
I found the wiring diagram at Fulham's site. It is rather confusing ....
Fulham - Ballasts - <I don't know if this link will work, but it is Diagram 11 for the workhorse 5.>

This is what I think:

The step 8 - You take the 2 red wires, join that to 1 wire that goes to the plug. You would want to do this with a wirenut. <Stripping the wire & joining at the middle is NOT to code ... mainly because the joint/insulation wrap may fail. To be totally to code, you would actually take the wires from the ballast to a junction box, do the joint inside, then run the wire out to the light. If you are mounting the ballast outside the canopy (best), you would also mount the junction box outside (use a plastic outdoor box, totally sealed once installed) & run the wires from the box to the light .... that way, the junction is not exposed to moisture.>

BTW - you join the 2 red wires to get proper watts. If you were running a 13W bulb (eg) you would only run ONE red wire to the socket. Joining the 2 reds together in parallel increases the juice going to the socket to power a higher W lamp.

Next you run the single wire (from step 8 ) & run that directly to the plug. You do not split that wire again to make 2. The diagram shows that you connect the two pins of the sockets with a jumper (this is step 1 - blue in my picture) & that may have confused you. There is a detail box in the link that shows this. To make this clear, I am attaching this drawing (I am only drawing one light, the other side is identical) :
 

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thanks

I thought the jumper detail was only for a linear setup. I see the same symbol (circle with Y) is used in both setups. Again, thanks!
 
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