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I'm looking at retrofitting fluorescent fixtures in my basement for single-ended LED tubes. The electrical and wiring concepts I have down; I could probably do it with my eyes closed (but anyone working on line voltage circuits with their eyes closed is an imbecile that deserves what's coming).

What I don't get is that all the instructions have you cut all the wires right at the ballast (makes sense, so you have longer wires to work with)... but then many of them go on to explicitly state to leave the now-useless ballast in place! It'd make sense if they had you cut maybe 4-6 inches from the ballast, so it could be wired back in in the future if desired, but with nothing but wire stubs it seems to me the ballast is a useless brick in the fixture. Is there some code/safety/etc reason I'm not seeing that mandates keeping a paperweight in your fixture? Or is it okay to just uninstall it entirely and send off to e-waste?

For reference, I'm in the US (in case it's an NEC/NFPA/whatever code requirement). If it's due to a code requirement, insight into the logic behind said code would be appreciated too. I know most codes, even the arcane, archaic, and convoluted ones, have (or at one time had) a basis in personal or fire safety, so I'm curious.!

EDIT: I've added a picture of my fixture... It looks like there was an old ballast in there, possibly magnetic, and they did the same thing: cut it out electrically but leave it mounted. I'd be quite happy to remove both.

enter image description here

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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Doktor J
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First, that fixture looks permanently hardwired. If so, you'll want to add a ballast disconnect. Code requires it, unless you argue that the fixture is now ballastless. But it's so darn convenient that I add them immediately upon starting work, and then, turn the power back on!

Cutting the wires off at the ballast is someting I only do to ballasts which are dead. It's already been wirenutted from the previous ballast swap, I would just do it at the wire nuts.

Generally, ballast instructions are generic and simplified, try to come up with a universal instruction and you can see where it's hard. Potential reasons for the "leave the ballast" instruction include:

  • different ballasts require disposal in different ways, and it's complicated and they don't want to open that can of worms
  • in particular, they don't want to scare the hell out of people with talk of PCBs
  • it may greatly reduce the weight of the fixture, with unknown consequences
  • it will shift the fixture's balance point, relevant to chain-hung fixtures
  • removing the ballast may leave holes on the fixture uncovered, which Code would disallow
  • in some bad installations, the screws holding the ballast also help hold the fixture to the ceiling.
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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