# Plastic Light Fixture with no Ground



## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

I assume you are referring to the green or bare ground wire from the cable. You should attach that to the box, if it is a metal box there should be a place for a grounding screw. If you have a plastic box (I think you said you did), they are typically not grounded, but you could attach the wire to a grounding screw anyway, not that it is going to do anything in that case. Definitely do not attach the ground wire to the neutral. The grounding wire is the independent equipment ground, which is there in case there is a line to case fault, in which case a metal case could become live, and the IEG is there to safely conduct the current and minimize the potential for you to get a shock. Also acts to trip the breaker in the event of a line to ground fault. So you are not going to have that protection, but lights are somewhat peculiar, in that they can be sold with no grounding connection, unlike most anything else electrical.


----------



## rjschwar (Nov 13, 2009)

Yes, my box is plastic. As you said attaching the ground to the case won't accomplish anything as it is plastic, so should I just shove the ground wire into the back of the box?


----------



## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

Call me excessive, but I usually attach the ground wire to a screw through the box, just to keep it from flopping around on the totally outside chance it shorts across the hot and neutral. I know, never gonna happen, but I do it anyway.


----------



## rjschwar (Nov 13, 2009)

Great, Thanks.


----------



## Yoyizit (Jul 11, 2008)

Just make sure the neutral terminal goes to the lamp socket shell and that there is a max of about 1vac between this shell and earth ground when the lamp is on, the 1v being due to other appliances drawing current on this same circuit.


----------



## bbo (Feb 28, 2010)

also do not use electrical tape to connect the hot and neutrals to the fixture. use wire nuts. properly sized.


----------



## rjschwar (Nov 13, 2009)

I'm using the terminal screws for the connection. The electrical tape was just to cover any metal after the wire was connected to the terminal so the bare copper ground wouldn't end up touching anything and tripping the circuit when I pushed everything back into the box.


----------



## Julius793 (Dec 13, 2011)

Daniel Holzman said:


> Also acts to trip the breaker in the event of a line to ground fault. So you are not going to have that protection, but lights are somewhat peculiar, in that they can be sold with no grounding connection, unlike most anything else electrical.


You make it sound as if there should be a ground on the plastic fixtures :laughing:


----------



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

I just cut the ground off near the insulation. There there's no way it can touch anything.


----------



## Julius793 (Dec 13, 2011)

joecaption said:


> I just cut the ground off near the insulation. There there's no way it can touch anything.


What if it's a bare ground?? Just leave it in the box and it should be fine, the only times I have problems is with the pancake boxes.


----------



## rjschwar (Nov 13, 2009)

Yeah, I just shoved it into the back of the box. I can't imagine it will touch anything.


----------

