i have a ballast that says it needs two hot wires and a grounding wire. it says digital ballasts should never have a neutral wire. from what i understand, a standard american outlet contains 1hot 1neutral and 1grounding wire. do i have to rewire my outlet in order to use the ballast?
I wire ballasts almost everyday in the USA and other than 208V, 240V, and 480V ballasts they all have a neutral sometimes called the common conductor labeled (com)
Yes, you need to re-wire with 240 V, with ground but without the neutral. The new digital ballasts will fail if wired otherwise. There are a couple ways this can be done but you should probably have an electrician perform the work for you to insure you are in compliance with your local codes etc.
A standard 120 volt outlet has 1 hot, 1 neutral and a ground. A 240 volt outlet has 2 hots and a ground. A neutral may be used as well, depending upon the application. Your ballast requires a 240 volt outlet without a neutral. If you have an existing 240 volt circuit that does have a neutral, the neutral can safely be capped with a wire nut. If you have only 120 volt outlets, you will need to have a new 240 volt circuit added.
