Grounding my DIY Cob fixture

[matt0707]

I'm a little confused about grounding this light that I'm currently building. I keep seeing pictures of people connecting a wire to a screw on the fixture or something but is that step necessary if the LED driver has an earth wire and the wall socket has a ground plug thing? I can't remember seeing anything about it in the growmau5 videos.

My terminology is all over the place so my apologies if this is hard to understand. I probably shouldn't be messing with electricity.

 

[VegasWinner]

If the led driver is mounted to the frame, the driver helps ground the frame. However, it is best practice to create a physical ground between the light frame and COB's to electrical ground or the ground wire on your plug. The driver already has this completed. Some folks feel mounting the two together is adequate but I believe in making sure there is a physical ground between the cob's and the outlet or ground lug. hope this helps.

 

[nogod_]

The housing of your driver is aluminum and inside it the green ground wire from the power cord is mounted to the housing.

If there is a short, electricity will flow through your heatsink, through your frame, through the housing of the driver to the ground. If all of these parts are not conductive (between the short and the ground) the electricity will never reach the ground.

What Vegas is suggesting (I think) is splitting the green ground wire from your power cable (before its connected to the wire coming out of the driver) and connecting it directly to the heatsink or frame. This ensures that electricity has a path that you can verify between the heatsink or frame to the earth wire in your power cable.

I'm a little confused about grounding this light that I'm currently building. I keep seeing pictures of people connecting a wire to a screw on the fixture or something but is that step necessary if the LED driver has an earth wire and the wall socket has a ground plug thing? I can't remember seeing anything about it in the growmau5 videos.

My terminology is all over the place so my apologies if this is hard to understand. I probably shouldn't be messing with electricity.

 

[Abiqua]

i use ground with gfci / afci plug....works great

i also connect the driver ground in conjuction with earth and metal fixture.....if i am using only two wire ac input driver...i still attach earth ground to fixture at very least

if your ground is attached properly, then if ever a live wire comes loose and touches metal, it will shut the breaker connected to the earth ground instead of energizing the metal in your fixture to 110v.......

 

[matt0707]

Thanks for your replies guys, that all makes perfect sense. I think I understand the idea behind it now. Might do a teeeeny little bit more reading before I go powering up this fixture just to ensure I don't kill anyone though haha.

 

[CollieWeed]

Hi guys I have the hbg-60-1050 meanwell driver.
It's only has 2 wires, blue - (neutral) and brown + (hot) and no ground wire, does this mean I don't need a Ground wire? Or do I need to have a 3 prong 18 awg cord?
Thanks,

 

[doz]

Hi guys I have the hbg-60-1050 meanwell driver.
It's only has 2 wires, blue - (neutral) and brown + (hot) and no ground wire, does this mean I don't need a Ground wire? Or do I need to have a 3 prong 18 awg cord?
Thanks,

Power requirement does not need a ground. You can use a 3 prong and connect a ground wire from where you mount to the 3 prong ground if you wanted, but not needed.

 

[CollieWeed]

Power requirement does not need a ground. You can use a 3 prong and connect a ground wire from where you mount to the 3 prong ground if you wanted, but not needed.

Thank you, for verifying that for me, I wasn't to sure.

 

[Abiqua]

Thank you, for verifying that for me, I wasn't to sure.

It is good insurance. Electricity doesn't makes mistakes, but we can