direct wiring fluorescent light

amakarevic

just came back from Lowe's looking at some elongated fluorescent lights. i want to install a direct-wired one in my walk-in closet.

the light has two perforated circular access holes that can be removed for wire access, kind of like a regular receptacle box.

what is not clear to me and the instructions inside the box did not cover is how the cable coming from behind sheetrock interfaces with the light because it is not made to be installed on an electrical box, like a regular ceiling light and it is installed entirely outside the wall, unlike, for example recessed lights that have a integrated box.

what i gather is that a loose cable will have to come out of a hole in the ceiling that is just a little bigger than the clamp that will go on the hole in the light but that just doesn't sound right. the light is much narrower than any electrical box that would go in the ceiling, so i don't think that is an option.

ideas appreciated.

thanks.

Bob Mariani

just use a romex connector to attach the wires to the hole in the back of the fixture. The splice is made up inside the fixture. No box is used.

amakarevic

yeah but it's kind of weird the cable coming out the sheetrock through a hole like that.

Bob Mariani

closets require a fluorescent fixture (or covered recessed) so this is how the rough wiring would normally be done in that area.

amakarevic

thanks sir

adpanko

I agree you should just rough out the wire through a hole in the ceiling of the closet. That hole should line up with where the knock-out hole is on the fixture. Then you put a normal Romex clamp/connector into the knock-out hole to support the wire coming into the fixture. Done.

The wire should be supported/stapled up in the ceiling somewhere though. Preferably within a few inches of where it comes out of the rough-in hole and leave yourself enough slack in the wire to work with it and have the rest pushed back up into the ceiling when you mount the fixture.

FYI: in this instance, the fixture essentially acts as both a traditional junction/wiring box AND the fixture itself.

amakarevic

gents, this fixture just smells like a poor design, IMHO

codeone

Hundreds of thousands are in use today , a very common fixture.