How to Ground a Light Fixture

Grounding is an important safety activity for lighting systems. If you’re not familiar with how to do it, let us teach you how to ground a light fixture.

When people handle their lighting systems, you’d most likely hear something about grounding the electrical wiring. They usually do this when they install new light fixtures. Grounding is actually a safety practice that allows you to prevent having electric shocks. 

Electric shocks usually happen when there is excess or displaced electric current is present in your wire system. In order to prevent this, there is a grounding rod or screw in the system so that the excess current will not concentrate in just one direction. This makes the concentration of the current weaker. So, even if you do receive a shock, it isn’t a strong or concentrated shock. 

That said, learning how to ground a light fixture is important in keeping you safe around lighting systems. 

Here are some steps on how to ground a new light fixture:

Easy Steps on How to Ground a Light Fixture

1. Go to the light fixture or mounting bracket and take out your ground screw.
2. If there is no ground screw, then you can alternatively locate a ground wire that’s colored green which is found in the electrical box.
3. If you cannot find a green wire, then look for bare copper wire.
4. If it is green, then strip it down a half-inch to expose the bare wire.
5. Locate the other wires in the fixture and bring it to the ground screw/ground wire.
6. Use a pair of pliers to form a hook in the wire’s tip.
7. If you’re hooking the wires to a ground screw, hook the wire to the ground screw, hook it on the screw and use your pliers to tighten the knot.
8. If you’re hooking them to a ground wire, use a wire nut to connect the two.
9. Mount up the light fixture in place and test to see if everything works like it is supposed to.

In these steps, we taught you how to ground a light fixture without a ground wire and a ground wire as the presence of one depends on the type of fixture you have. That way, you’ll be ready when the time comes to do this procedure. You don’t need to worry too much if it all sounds foreign to you because learning how to ground a light fixture will be much easier when you’re already doing it. Just take note of the nine steps that we have provided above. 

Safety Tips

After learning about the steps on how to ground a fluorescent light fixture, we need to take some time to talk about a few safety reminders. As you’ll be dealing with electric current, there will be some risks of harm if you’re not careful. 

That’s why we added a list of safety tips to go along with the steps on how to ground a hanging light fixture. 

So, whenever you ground your light fixture, always take note of these tips below:

• Always make sure that the power to the circuit is off when you’re at work.
• Always shut the main breaker off as well.
• Check which wires are dead first through the help of a voltage tester.
• Make sure all wires are tightly connected before you put the power back on.
• Wear rubber gloves and rubber-soled shoes when doing this.
• Don’t touch the wires if any part of your body is wet– especially hands.
• Use your tools to hold any metal as much as possible.
• If you’re adding some extra wire, only use copper to copper and never aluminum.

Those are a few of the very important safety reminders that you absolutely need to take note of when doing this procedure. 

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Conclusion

Now that you know the steps on how to ground a light fixture, you’re now ready to do it. Always keep this guide beside you so that you’ll have a reference when needed, especially if you’re a beginner.  Also, take note of all the safety precautions that we have listed above so that you can avoid any accidents while you are grounding your light fixture.

Always remember that it’s better to be safe than to be sorry, specifically if you’re dealing with electricity. This guide will help keep you out of harm’s way and aid you to get the job done quickly.