Icecap wiring?

[drw94]

I just got 4 icecap 250 mh and got a question on wiring them up. Let me know if this is correct or not. The balist has five wires but i am only concerned with the green(ground). From my understanding I connect the green from the ballist, and from the power cord, as well as the one from the pendant all together contacting the ballist housing. My only other questions is why do i need to have them contact the house. The ground coming from the house should be fine?

Thanks

[tdwyatt]

If the ground wire (green is in contact with a good connection to the pendant housing, it makes the best (lowest resistance) path in case for some reason the wiring for the hot wire (black) or the high voltage for firing the bulb (blue and yellow) come in contact with the housing. It is another pathway between the black and the return or ground in a circuit. Anything in the lighting fixture that is capable of conducting a current MUST be grounded. The fixture for the housing for the ballast is already grounded if you use metal screws or bolts to attach it, but the reflectors and any other metal housing should be grounded to the green wire either directly by attaching a grounding loop or indirectly by being bolted with conducting bolts to another object that IS directly grounded. This keeps YOU from becoming the path of least resistance if you're grounded (leather shoes on wet pavement, for example) if there should develop a short between the hot source wiring and the metal frame object.


HTH