We have an ungrounded, single-bulb light fixture in our basement, and I'd like to install a flourescent fixture at that location. The instructions for the flourescent fixture say that it has to be grounded. How hard is it to add a grounding wire to an ungrounded fixture? Does this require running a wire through the ceiling and wall to the nearest member of the house's grounding system? In case it matters, I'm an untrained homeowner with your basic run-of-the-mill experience in replacing fixtures and receptacles.

Thank you!

re: add grounding wire to ungrounded fix	JuiceHead	12:17 pm tuesday september 4, 2001

It's true that to ground that fixture you must run a new wire. That's the easy part, the hard part is cutting & patching walls & ceilings! I would buy green-insulated solid copper #12 wire. Feed it into the light fixture box. Run this wire either to your ground bus inside the main service breaker panel or to the water pipe within 5 feet of the pipe's entrance into the house. If you have a modern electrical service with a ground rod you may connect the new grounding wire to any point on the main ground wire between the panel and the point where it heads outside to the rod. If to a pipe, it is not allowed to be connected farther that 5 feet from the pipe entrance. Buy more than enough wire to do the job, if you come out 6" short after doing all the work to run that wire you'll kick yourself later!

If you do not ground this fixture it will still work. However, if this fixture is within reach of people they can get a shock if touching it. Also, bulbs may burn out more frequently and there is a chance that the ballast will fail eventually. I would strongly recommend going to the trouble to ground this fixture.

Hope that helps. Any further questions let us know and we'll try to help best we can.

Juice

re: add grounding wire to ungrounded fix	Scott Simpson	1:31 pm tuesday september 4, 2001

Yes; this is extremely helpful. Thank you very much. Since this fixture is in our basement and the basement is unfinished, it shouldn't be too hard to run the new grounding wire to the point where the water pipe enters the house (which is just on the other side of the basement).

A few follow-up questions, please: Since I'll be using green-insulated wire (rather than bare copper wire), is there any need to run the wire through a tube or other conduit, or can I just attach it to the wooden beams in the basement?

Also, how should I attach the ground wire to the beams? My first inclination would be to staple-gun it, but I imagine it would be bad if a staple accidently pierced the green insulation.

And finally, what's the best way to attach the (stripped) end of the wire to the water pipe? With a metal, screw-type clamp, maybe?

Thank you!

Scott

re: add grounding wire to ungrounded fix	wirenuts	6:42 am wednesday september 5, 2001

Since your basement is unfinished, and you have access to your electrical panel, would it be just as easy to run a new grounded circuit to said light?

about your pipe Q, they make pipe clamps to attach wires to pipes as Juice has suggested.

re: add grounding wire to ungrounded fix	Scott Simpson	9:27 am wednesday september 5, 2001

Actually, the electrical panel is in the garage. Reaching the panel from the basement would require cutting into drywall in the garage, etc.

Thanks for the info. about the pipe clamps.