picassotrigger1
New member
After countless visits and advice from friends on my 'shocking' situation, I still have questions
First, the story goes that I purchased a 24" T5 fixture from hellolights in December of 2008. It's the Tek look a like. I placed it over my aquarium in February of this year and have since been getting little stings from exposed metal and the screws. Now, this is not when touching water but rather touching the fixture alone. I have stuck my hand in water while holding the fixture and would get a slight shock from time to time but nothing different from just touching the fixture itself. Just last week I had gotten bit pretty heavily as my arm grazed exposed metal. Now I had contacted hellolights when the shocks first started happening and they said they had never heard about it before and they couldn't do anything since it was a sale item. So I kept the fixture and that leads to having been shocked hard last week. I email hellolights and this time they offer to have it sent in to get fixed.
The parts that have me confused are many different opinions, some from electricians and some from non electricians and the fact that at other places besides my home, I have plugged the lights in with no shock or readings on stray voltage. But the difference between those places and mine is that those places have grounded outlets.
One electrician tested the lights on a grounded outlet and got no readings on voltage, then he placed a two prong adapter to lose the ground and got a 50 volt reading on screws and exposed metal. He suggested I just place a ground, as any aquarium needs a ground. True, but it's not that easy. I am renting currently and have issues with my landlords as far as getting them to send an electrician to check the outlets and wiring. They ended up having someone come check and found the outlet I was using the lights on was broken and leaking volts in the light fixture, got readings of 116. They replaced the outlet and placed a 2 prong outlet since there was only a hot and neutral wire. I was gonna get a quote to pay for the ground myself, but again was having landlord issues and they said either get it done or not but that I couldn't get a quote since it's not my house. So I passed on it and have since broke my tank down.
Anyway, much advice has been given from friends, many things said that confuse me. Such as, I'm ok without a ground because if I wasn't, I'd be getting shocked by my TV and other appliances with 3 prong plugs and no ground in the outlet. And others saying that it's not so much there not being a ground but that I may have a leak in one of the wires in the house. And others saying that no, my problem of getting shocked by my lights IS BECAUSE I have no ground and the fixture is looking for a ground with it having a 3 prong plug.
My question is, which makes more sense to me, IS my fixture with a three prong plug looking for a ground and when there is no ground in the outlet, I'm the ground? But why is it doing that? I mean, why is there voltage just straying around? To me, it's like voltage going through the ground prong and not finding ground in the outlet and using me...does voltage go through the ground prong? I just figured the ground was there to stabalize things...I only thought power would go through hot and neurtal being there to also help stabalize things. I'm confused as you can tell. When my electrician plugged the lights in a grounded outlet, there was no readings, but once he took off the fixtured ground, he got readings. So that means that voltage is leaking somehow through the fixture, is that why it's trying to find a ground?
First, the story goes that I purchased a 24" T5 fixture from hellolights in December of 2008. It's the Tek look a like. I placed it over my aquarium in February of this year and have since been getting little stings from exposed metal and the screws. Now, this is not when touching water but rather touching the fixture alone. I have stuck my hand in water while holding the fixture and would get a slight shock from time to time but nothing different from just touching the fixture itself. Just last week I had gotten bit pretty heavily as my arm grazed exposed metal. Now I had contacted hellolights when the shocks first started happening and they said they had never heard about it before and they couldn't do anything since it was a sale item. So I kept the fixture and that leads to having been shocked hard last week. I email hellolights and this time they offer to have it sent in to get fixed.
The parts that have me confused are many different opinions, some from electricians and some from non electricians and the fact that at other places besides my home, I have plugged the lights in with no shock or readings on stray voltage. But the difference between those places and mine is that those places have grounded outlets.
One electrician tested the lights on a grounded outlet and got no readings on voltage, then he placed a two prong adapter to lose the ground and got a 50 volt reading on screws and exposed metal. He suggested I just place a ground, as any aquarium needs a ground. True, but it's not that easy. I am renting currently and have issues with my landlords as far as getting them to send an electrician to check the outlets and wiring. They ended up having someone come check and found the outlet I was using the lights on was broken and leaking volts in the light fixture, got readings of 116. They replaced the outlet and placed a 2 prong outlet since there was only a hot and neutral wire. I was gonna get a quote to pay for the ground myself, but again was having landlord issues and they said either get it done or not but that I couldn't get a quote since it's not my house. So I passed on it and have since broke my tank down.
Anyway, much advice has been given from friends, many things said that confuse me. Such as, I'm ok without a ground because if I wasn't, I'd be getting shocked by my TV and other appliances with 3 prong plugs and no ground in the outlet. And others saying that it's not so much there not being a ground but that I may have a leak in one of the wires in the house. And others saying that no, my problem of getting shocked by my lights IS BECAUSE I have no ground and the fixture is looking for a ground with it having a 3 prong plug.
My question is, which makes more sense to me, IS my fixture with a three prong plug looking for a ground and when there is no ground in the outlet, I'm the ground? But why is it doing that? I mean, why is there voltage just straying around? To me, it's like voltage going through the ground prong and not finding ground in the outlet and using me...does voltage go through the ground prong? I just figured the ground was there to stabalize things...I only thought power would go through hot and neurtal being there to also help stabalize things. I'm confused as you can tell. When my electrician plugged the lights in a grounded outlet, there was no readings, but once he took off the fixtured ground, he got readings. So that means that voltage is leaking somehow through the fixture, is that why it's trying to find a ground?
