The ceiling is too low for high bays or even low bays. 4 tandum T8 strips (4 lamps per fixture) will work just fine for you, and they should cost around $50 each. Put those on a different circuit from the high bays and you'll be all set. Post a pic of the finished product. This has been a good thread, and I'd love to see how it turns out.

GFCI circuit breaker... Yes,
Home Depot has some good prices...

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Originally Posted by hfcarson

GFCI circuit breaker...Yes,
Home Depot has some good prices...

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You can use a GFCI breaker if you want, though it's not required. Seems like a waste of $40 to me. Also, avoid the big box stores. A local electrical supply house will be competitive on pricing, but they will take the time to discuss what you want to do, and offer you valubale insight, and recommend fixtures for your unique application. Home depot won't do a light calc for you. Stick to where the pro's shop!

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

You can use a GFCI breaker if you want, though it's not required. Seems like a waste of $40 to me. Also, avoid the big box stores. A local electrical supply house will be competative on pricing, but they will take the time to discuss what you want to do, and offer you valubale insight, and reccomend fixtures for your unique application. Home depot won't do a light calc for you. Stick to where the pro's shop!

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Good advice, I send people to the supply house all the time to buy cases of 4' T8 lamps who are paying up to 5-6 bucks apiece for low quality ones. " How would you like to get 30 better quality lamps for what you pay for a dozen of these?"

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

Nope. The description says the fixture is a Howard Industries Fixture. Check Howards site. below is a link to that fixture on Howards site, clearly saying on the lower left that the fixture is rated 120 OR 277V ONLY. Try again

http://www.howard-ind.com/HowardLigh...escent/HIB.pdf

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I just checked (over the phone) with a Sylvania representative about the 120-277V universal voltage T8 and T5 ballasts today.
A friend of mine mentioned hooking up 12 fixtures with these ballasts (replacing high bay fixtures 250W MH) , he said there was no neutral and he hooked them up to the existing 208V circuit after checking with the wholesale house salesman. Apparently I WAS right all along,( I had not run into a situation yet where I had actually hooked them up to a 2 line circuit yet, so I didn't know for sure.)
The Sylvania guy assured me they would do fine on any voltage between 120V and 277V and were designed where the white neutral lead could indeed be hooked up to a second hot line for 208,220 ,240 or 2 line 277 from a 120/277 panel.

I suspected as much from the way they were labeled, but like I said, I hadn't actually done it yet.

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Originally Posted by shuntripper

I just checked (over the phone) with a Sylvania representative about the 120-277V universal voltage T8 and T5 ballasts today.
A friend of mine mentioned hooking up 12 fixtures with these ballasts (replacing high bay fixtures 250W MH) , he said there was no neutral and he hooked them up to the existing 208V circuit after checking with the wholesale house salesman. Apparently I WAS right all along,( I had not run into a situation yet where I had actually hooked them up to a 2 line circuit yet, so I didn't know for sure.)
The Sylvania guy assured me they would do fine on any voltage between 120V and 277V and were designed where the white neutral lead could indeed be hooked up to a second hot line for 208,220 ,240 or 2 line 277 from a 120/277 panel.

I suspected as much from the way they were labeled, but like I said, I hadn't actually done it yet.

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Sounds good. Give it a try, let me know when you cook the ballasts and need new ones. I'll sell them to you cheap. Trust me on this one.

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Originally Posted by shuntripper

The Sylvania guy assured me they would do fine on any voltage between 120V and 277V and were designed where the white neutral lead could indeed be hooked up to a second hot line for 208,220 ,240 or 2 line 277 from a 120/277 panel.

I suspected as much from the way they wre labeled, but like I said, I hadn't actually done it yet.

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Tell the Sylvania guy to go back to school. There is no such thing as a 120/277v panel. Your options are single phase - 120/240v or three phase 120/208v or three phase 480/277v. You can't get 120 out of a 277 service without using a transformer.

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

Tell the Sylvania guy to go back to school. There is no such thing as a 120/277v panel. Your options are single phase - 120/240v or three phase 120/208v or three phase 480/277v. You can't get 120 out of a 277 service without using a transformer.

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You need to get some more experience, Mike. I can show you several 120/277V 3 phase panels, they are not fed straight from the utility. But they are 277V between any two lines.
True, they are fed from customer owned transformers, I never said they weren't.
And there is no 277 service, that would be a 480/277 service. There are also straight 480V 3 phase power with a ground no neutral.

Some 120/208V services have 208V high legs, some 120/240V have a 240V high leg.

How did I get 240V three phase (three 120V legs) out of a 120/208 service last week to run a sewage lift station motor? Can you answer this without looking it up?

And Sylvania tech line knows everything about the products they make, laughable that you would dismiss them.

Sounds like you have a high leg delta system. Next job you have, wire the ballasts 240V and let me know how you make out. I'm not going to go back and forth. Let me know when I can sell you a replacement ballast :)

If a ballast is labeled "Universal" with regard to the voltage, clearly it is listed for operation within any voltage as indicated on the label... It appears Shuntripper is correct.

Input voltage. In the United States, lighting loads are typically within 110- or 277-volt electrical systems. Some Canadian lighting systems use 347 volts (Canadian Standards Assoc. 1999). Most ballasts will operate on only one voltage. Ballasts are now available that can handle any voltage within a wide range (such as 108 volts to 305 volts) and can operate on either 50 hertz or 60 hertz systems for compatibility with both North American and European electrical systems. Regulatory requirements in Europe differ from North America's, so these ballasts may not necessarily meet European requirements for radio interference unless specifically labeled as such. Ballasts operating on 347-volt electrical systems require higher voltage-rated components, and thus are still typically dedicated to that one voltage (Wigglesworth, 2002).
2003 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Originally Posted by hfcarson

If a ballast is labeled "Universal" with regard to the voltage, clearly it is listed for operation within any voltage as indicated on the label...It appears Shuntripper is correct.

Input voltage. In the United States, lighting loads are typically within 110- or 277-volt electrical systems. Some Canadian lighting systems use 347 volts (Canadian Standards Assoc., 1999). Most ballasts will operate on only one voltage. Ballasts are now available that can handle any voltage within a wide range (such as 108 volts to 305 volts) and can operate on either 50 hertz or 60 hertz systems for compatibility with both North American and European electrical systems. Regulatory requirements in Europe differ from North America’s, so these ballasts may not necessarily meet European requirements for radio interference unless specifically labeled as such. Ballasts operating on 347-volt electrical systems require higher voltage-rated components, and thus are still typically dedicated to that one voltage (Wigglesworth, 2002).
2003 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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How can an electronic ballast operate without a neutral?

As long as the applied voltage is within the range indicated on the label, whether one of the conductors is grounded doesn't matter, right?

Why is a neutral important?

A neutral is nothing more than a grounded return.

There is 480 volt ballasts available, for both fluorescent and HID ballasts.

They work fine with out a neutral.

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

sounds like you have a high leg delta system. next job you have, wire the ballasts 240V and let me know how you make out. I'm not going to go back and forth. let me know when I can sell you a replacement ballast :)

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No high leg in that 120/208V supply, guess again

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Originally Posted by tkrussell

Why is a neutral important?

A neutral is nothing more than a grounded return.

There is 480 volt ballasts available, for both fluorescent and HID ballasts.

They work fine with out a neutral.

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The OP wanted to know if he could wire a ballast rated at 120-277v with 240v single phase. And it simply can't be done. You would be feeding the neutral on the ballast with 120v. How would that not cook the ballast. True you can get a ballast rated at 480v, but it would be specifically designed for that. A standard off the shelf ballast rated 120-277 requires a neutral no?

I'll do wire one tomorrow and we'll see what happens...

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Originally Posted by roycemek

The lights I've choosen are Lithonia IBZ-454-WD. In looking at the specs online I noticed that they list it rated at 120V or 277V. This might sounds like a weird question but is 240V the same as 277V? Or is 277V achieved only in comercial applications? Will it be safe and efffecient to run these on a 240V residential service. For reference the garage is detached and I have a 400A panel running both the home and the garage. 200A to the home and 200A to the garage.

Thanks,
Royce M

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Note the rating on his ballast. 120 OR 277. How would 240 work?

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Originally Posted by shuntripper

How did I get 240V three phase (three 120V legs) out of a 120/208 service last week to run a sewage lift station motor? can you answer this without looking it up?

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I'm lost... Looking for 3 120v legs, each phase to neutral would give you 120v.

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

Note the rating on his ballast. 120 OR 277. How would 240 work?

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For one thing, Lithonia doesn't make ballasts, they offer a choice of ballasts when you order them by the pallet. The part number googles up to this;

http://www.platt.com/platt-electric-...px?zpid=853492

Notice the text says multivolt ballast, that's referring to Sylvania Mvolt ballast. 120 -277 volt. It takes 120V nominal ,208, 240, and two leg 277 ,and 277 with a neutral.

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Originally Posted by mike 165278

I'm lost... Looking for 3 120v legs, each phase to neutral would give you 120v.

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But phase to phase, and utilizing all three phases can be 208, 240, and 277.

My source voltage out of a 120/208 service without a high leg(aka power leg, stinger leg) only gives me 208V phase to phase. Customer at public fairground property hosting hundreds of firefighters battling forest fires around the clock found that their sewage lift station pump had failed.
Customer had a pump with a 240v 3 phase motor to replace it, but the Service there is all 120/208.
I hot tapped a 200A circuit breaker for power( no room in any of 6 panels) set a fused disconnect and went 70 feet to the pump station shed, My employer found two three phase buck boost transformers while I was getting the power over to the shed. I wired the buck boosts together to give me three legs of 120v that measured 240V phase to phase.
The turds were moving again in 4 hours.