do PC lights need to be grounded?

[Meloco14]

I am taking a little 13 watt pc from a worklight and retro-ing it into a nanocube hood alongside the existing light. The worklight cord is grounded, but I noticed that all of Hellolights's retrofit kits are not grounded (only a two prong cord). So if I don't need to ground this it would make things a lot easier as far as retrofitting, simply because of the design of the worklight. I don't know enough about electrical currents to know whether I should be using a grounded cord or not, or if it really matters. The existing light is grounded, and my lights on my other tank are all grounded, so I assumed I would have to ground this one, until I looked at the pictures on hellolights. What should I do? thanks

 

[taikonaut]

If I remember correctly, you will need to ground the ballast's metal case (if the retrofit kit ballast is metal) and if the hood/reflector is metal, you ground that too... anyone can confirm this?

 

[Meloco14]

Ok, the reflector is metal and grounded so it will be easy to ground the new ballast to the reflector. But I still need to know if I need to ground the power cord. Anyone?

 

[Anonymous]

A three prong plug will just have the ground attached to the metal case. You don't quite need it, but it's one more safety measure that may save your life one day.

If both lights are on the same circuit, and one is grounded, (IE teh reflector for the first light) and there is constant metal-to-metal contact between them, then the whole circuit is grounded. However, if the second light shorts out at the ballast box, the current will flow 'the long way' to get to ground, up the cable, through the reflector, and back down the other cable, rather than 'the short way' of going right down the cord to ground.

It's up to you whetehr you want to ground it.

B

 

[Meloco14]

that makes sense, thanks. I think just to play it safe I will leave it grounded. It can't hurt, and it will just take a little more effort on my part. Thanks!