nastybedazzler
Member
I've been a member and have perused these forums for years though I'm not sure I've ever needed to post for advice until now. I've read about similar situations like the one I'm about to describe but nothing quite like this and I'm hoping you guys have some insight into what might be the real issue here because I'm at the end of my rope with this.
I understand that the situation I'm about to explain sounds a bit like a math story problem. It's confusing, but it's only to give you a general idea of what's going on so maybe we can diagnose the problem. So here goes:
A little over two weeks ago I had an electrician that I trust come over to connect my generator to my breaker box in case the power goes out. The day after that I go into my flower room and realize that the back two lights are out and two of my ballasts are fried with blown fuses. I had a few spare ballasts so I went to connect one to the light controller and it instantly blew it's fuse as well. Then the second ballast with the same result. So I ordered more fuses. At this point I was only down two lights and ballasts out of seven. The next day another light and ballast were gone. When I got the new fuses I tried putting them into the ballasts and hooked them up again, this time the fuse blew right away but it also instantly blew a fuse on another working ballast that was plugged in so I lost another light. Thinking it might be the light controller I ordered a Helios 8 and installed that.
I ordered three new Apollo ballasts at this point, when I got them I plugged one in without a light attached and it instantaneously blew out one of the other working ballasts bringing me down to two working lights out of seven. Five minutes or so later the fuse on the Apollo ballast blew. I honestly can't remember if I tried hooking that ballast up to a light before it died. So I called another electrician that I know and he came by.
He checked my breaker box with his meter and checked the connections, everything seemed to be legit. He checked the light controller and every socket and it all read right around 240 volts. He took apart the new Apollo that fried and noticed that the capacitor was also fried along with the fuse so that ballast is dead. We tried plugging in another of the new Apollo's into a standard socket on a different circuit and that light went up in smoke up but the ballast remained fine. We tried that same experiment with another light and that also went up in smoke. After two hours he could not correctly identify what the problem was. All we know is that all the connections seem to be right as well as the voltages and wattage. He figured that perhaps everything got completely fucked up all at once and basically needs to be replaced. He couldn't be certain if the generator hook-up had anything to do with it, I wasn't there when it was installed, but he could confirm that however it was hooked up and whatever might have happened during the process it was all correctly hooked-up now as far as he could tell. He noted that this resembles a situation where the house could have been struck by lightning but that didn't make a lot of sense because all my other appliances would also be cooked, not just the lights and ballasts on that one particular circuit.
I'm about to buy all new lights and the amount of remaining ballasts I need. Before I do that I'm looking for your guys' input as to whether you think any of my lights and ballasts are salvageable or if I should just bite the bullet and place an order. This whole ordeal has already cost me $1000+ (that's including the generator hook-up if that had anything to do with it) and I really don't want to go and spend another $1000 on lights and ballasts if I don't need to. I'm also curious if you have ANY input at all as to what could be the real root of this problem because we cannot figure it out. It is an entirely frustrating debacle and my sincerest thanks if you've read this far and have any advice whatsoever..
I understand that the situation I'm about to explain sounds a bit like a math story problem. It's confusing, but it's only to give you a general idea of what's going on so maybe we can diagnose the problem. So here goes:
A little over two weeks ago I had an electrician that I trust come over to connect my generator to my breaker box in case the power goes out. The day after that I go into my flower room and realize that the back two lights are out and two of my ballasts are fried with blown fuses. I had a few spare ballasts so I went to connect one to the light controller and it instantly blew it's fuse as well. Then the second ballast with the same result. So I ordered more fuses. At this point I was only down two lights and ballasts out of seven. The next day another light and ballast were gone. When I got the new fuses I tried putting them into the ballasts and hooked them up again, this time the fuse blew right away but it also instantly blew a fuse on another working ballast that was plugged in so I lost another light. Thinking it might be the light controller I ordered a Helios 8 and installed that.
I ordered three new Apollo ballasts at this point, when I got them I plugged one in without a light attached and it instantaneously blew out one of the other working ballasts bringing me down to two working lights out of seven. Five minutes or so later the fuse on the Apollo ballast blew. I honestly can't remember if I tried hooking that ballast up to a light before it died. So I called another electrician that I know and he came by.
He checked my breaker box with his meter and checked the connections, everything seemed to be legit. He checked the light controller and every socket and it all read right around 240 volts. He took apart the new Apollo that fried and noticed that the capacitor was also fried along with the fuse so that ballast is dead. We tried plugging in another of the new Apollo's into a standard socket on a different circuit and that light went up in smoke up but the ballast remained fine. We tried that same experiment with another light and that also went up in smoke. After two hours he could not correctly identify what the problem was. All we know is that all the connections seem to be right as well as the voltages and wattage. He figured that perhaps everything got completely fucked up all at once and basically needs to be replaced. He couldn't be certain if the generator hook-up had anything to do with it, I wasn't there when it was installed, but he could confirm that however it was hooked up and whatever might have happened during the process it was all correctly hooked-up now as far as he could tell. He noted that this resembles a situation where the house could have been struck by lightning but that didn't make a lot of sense because all my other appliances would also be cooked, not just the lights and ballasts on that one particular circuit.
I'm about to buy all new lights and the amount of remaining ballasts I need. Before I do that I'm looking for your guys' input as to whether you think any of my lights and ballasts are salvageable or if I should just bite the bullet and place an order. This whole ordeal has already cost me $1000+ (that's including the generator hook-up if that had anything to do with it) and I really don't want to go and spend another $1000 on lights and ballasts if I don't need to. I'm also curious if you have ANY input at all as to what could be the real root of this problem because we cannot figure it out. It is an entirely frustrating debacle and my sincerest thanks if you've read this far and have any advice whatsoever..
