Need help wiring my new flourescent light.

Hi guys,

I just got a good deal on a 2ft-2tube floro for my moms/clones. When I got home with it, I realized that it doesn't have a plug! I guess it is supposed to be wired into the ceiling or whatever.

Question is... how do I wire a plug on this thing so I can plug it into a wall outlet? It only has a white and a black wire - connected to a little plastic quick connect plug. Can I just wire a two prong wall plug into the two wires that are present?

Thanks for your help in advance

~rock~

I'm not an electrician, but yes, you should be able to attach a wire with an electrical outlet plug to the light. If it was mine, I would also try to attach a ground wire to something inside the light fixture, like a screw or something.

black wire is the hot wire, and white is neutral. Get male plug end from home depot and wire it in if it has a cord coming out of it. The thin prong is connected to the black (hot) wire. The fat prong is connected to the white (neutral) wire. If it has no length of cord you can cut off the male end of an extension cord and wire it up. You can attach the green wire to a screw or something as dabong said, but its unnecessary for a small fluorescent. I would just wire up the 2 wires and use it.

As long as the existing wires are long enough to reach an available outlet, you could use something like this:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Outlets-Plugs-Plugs-Connectors/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbodr/R-100357053/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

If there's just wires coming out of the fixture (but no cord) - and you need more length to reach the outlet - just cut off the FEMALE end of a two-prong extension cord, strip off an inch or two of the casing from the severed end (to expose the two individual wires), and connect one wire to the black wire from your fixture, the other wire to the white one from your fixture [Use wire nuts (best) or even just electrical tape (I don't recommend, but it'll do in a pinch) to connect the wires]. Plug the male end into an outlet and the light should come on (if it doesn't, just unplug it and reverse the connections on the wires to get the polarities right...plug it back in and you should be good to go). The cord you use might depend on what kind of fluorescent bulbs you have: for a low-wattage t12 fixture something like this would be fine (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202353562/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053), but if it's a high output T5 fixture you'd probably be better off with something like this (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202353283/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053) and attaching the green (ground) wire to the fixture as dabong suggested. I have a 4-lamp T5 HO fixture, and it came with a 14/3 type cord already attached. But I've wired up a number of T12 fixtures myself using simple ungrounded lamp cords and extension cords like the first one I linked to, and they work just fine for low-wattage, low-output fluorescent fixtures.

Good luck.

when using any electrical device in a small quartered area always use a ground system. as you can not avoid heavey contact with such items. 3 prong cord ends only. the only exception is any device that is double insulated. if you dont know then dont assume it is double insulated. more people are killed every year by so called inconsequential voltages. 110v-135v kills more people than any other type of electrical voltage (and mostly diy's).

you need to verify the correct voltage on the ballast for 110 operation or multi voltage operation. some of your newer electronic flour. ballast are multi voltage 110/208/277v. then once you know your good for household voltage (110v-135v) connect the proper 3 conductor cord and 3 prong male cord end. white to white, black to black. if a grounding screw is not provided in the ballast housing then use one of the threaded ballast screws. place the green ground wire between the ballast and the fixture (remove a small area of paint to assure a good ground path). as this is the only thing that will save your life should you become the unknowing ground path for a transient current flow from the fixture. with out the ground you will be the ground path and the only path for which the almighty electron will surely travel through, back to earth. in other words you will be dead dead dead !