T12 ballast to T8

2815 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by c.bustle, Jul 10, 2011

c.bustle

Discussion Starter · Jul 9, 2011

I am inexperienced with dealing with electricity and wiring. I have wired the old T12 ballasts (8') in and they have worked fine. I recently purchased new ballasts for 4 lamps where the ballast has burnt out. I have heard that the T12 ballast can be converted to the T8 ballast that I now have, i just dont know how. The old ballast had one white, black, blue, and red wire. The new ballast has two blue, one white, black, and red. How should the new ballast be wired in? Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question, I just dont want to short anything out or burn up the new ballast too fast. Thanks.

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Jim Port

· #2 · Jul 9, 2011

There should be a wiring diagram right in the ballast.

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c.bustle

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 9, 2011

yeah, it has a diagram, but im still not exactly sure which wire goes to which...
ive had other people tell me different things, such as one guy just told me to connect one blue to one blue and the other blue to the red and cap the loose red thats coming out of the ballast, but even with the experience that I have, that doesnt sound right. I was just wondering if there was a way to connect the two bulb posts so that I could connect both blue wires from the ballast to the one blue wire to the bulb post...?

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mpoulton

· #4 · Jul 10, 2011

Tons of google results for this, including lots of discussion forum threads like this one:
http://www.chameleonforums.com/diy-t12-t8-ballast-change-31490/

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SD515

· #5 · Jul 10, 2011

Compare the diagram of the old ballast to the diagram of the new ballast. Each will show what the wires are to meant to do. Sometimes you have to connect one of the new wires to 2 of the old wires. Sometimes not.

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c.bustle

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 10, 2011

Thanks all. got them wired up

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