Sunslight, "Checking the actual, inside, dimensions of the shelves, I came up with approximately 46x16." Actually, I have one of those shelves right here beside my computer, in use to hold my computer, scanner, video camera, CD drawers, and a bunch of books. I bought three of those shelf units, and I have one of them in use as a fluorescent plant stand right now. The distance between the posts is actually a bit less than 16 inches. I measure about 15¾" between the chrome posts. The distance between the heavy wire structure at the bottom ends of the shelves is about 46¾ inches, maybe a hair more. However, that should be not problem, because you hang the fixtures from the wire shelf above the shelf, and the fixtures can extend well beyond the end of the shelf, if need be. I use 1" S-hooks to hook over the wires of the overhead shelves, and the lightweight chains that came with my Home Depot shoplights. The chains let you adjust the height of the lights to keep them reasonably close to your plants for the best results. That leaves the problem of how you fit three fixtures in the relatively narrow space of 15¾ inches. There are several possible solutions. For your 50" x 6" fixtures, you hang them in a "staggered" configuration. Hang two of your fixtures snug against the poles, down a few inches lower than the minimum hanging distance, and hang the third fixture higher up and centered so that its light can come down between the other two fixtures. A variation on that would be to hand the outside fixtures at enough of an angle to allow the third fixture to fit between them. That would put your three fixtures in sort of a "hip roof" configuration, fitting between the poles and protruding a bit beyond the end of the shelves. A third possibility would be to hang all three of your fixtures at an angle, in a sort of "venetian blind" configuration. A fourth possibility is to buy some narrower fluorescent shoplights. Home Depot has $8 48-inch T8/T12 shoplights that are only 5 inches wide, and three of them fit neatly between the chrome wire posts. Since Home Depot sells a box of 10 Philips Cool White T8 bulbs for $19.95, they cost only $2 each. They draw only 32 watts each, contain less mercury, and are more efficient than T12 bulbs, so they put out as much or more light. And their lifetime is rated for 20,000 hours, which is a long time. Another advantage of the Home Depot Commercial Electric shoplights is that they can be converted to "overdrive" your tubes for at least 50% more light output per tube. That would give you the light equivalent of 9 tubes per shelf. MM

Let's face it, any time someone wants to hold another persons feet to the fire, they'll point to a code. There's almost a code or law for everything. So if we're rubbing a nose into the fact a code has been breached, ok, there's no argument there. If we are saying not using a wire nut joining multiple grounds is a highly dangerous situation in which the OP must go into an emergency replacement situation, you know as well as I do, putting technicalities aside, it just isn't so. The OP should NOT be pulling their hair out over this. No one said tape was required to make it work. What was said is there are situations where tape backup is required and that being in some commercial and industrial applications. JMV, It may be a regional thing about paying for code upgrades. My State Farm policy specifically states some code upgrades may not be covered. I won't dispute using a wire nut on the ground wires should have been done with the new wiring but if the wires were tightly wound, it won't cause a problem. Heck, every telephone connection in the country at the telephone office is wire wrapped around a connection post on a terminal strip and conductivity seldom is a problem. I won't even get into credentials, and education and certifications and all that crap. I will say if anyone has been at this stuff long enough, they know where the real problems are and where striking fear into someone over minutia are.

If power is first fed to the ceiling box it sounds like they wirer a switch loop. This is one possible wiring scheme: 14/2 white and black run to the ceiling box, but black is not connected to the ceiling fixture. The 14/2 cable's black is connected to the 14/3 cable's black wire, running to the switch- providing a hot wire at the switch. The red and white in the 14/3 cable wires are connected to the fan and light, so they also run back to the switch. They should have been marked with black tape or marker to indicate they are switched hot wires. At the switch end the 14/3 black is spliced with wire nuts so that it provides power to both the fan and the light switches. Then the red and white wires are marked as black (switched power) and connected to each switch. In your case they may have had only a light, so they just looped the white wire in the box and left it unused. Bruce

The insulation on that wire is rubber with braided cloth over it. The braid was used to protect the rubber from abrasion. The wire is most likely type R. It was standard for knob and tube wiring in the first half of the 20th century, A similar or identical wire was also used in early BX and NM cable. The conductors in this cable aren't aluminum. IIRC aluminum was sometimes used even then in service entrance cable (also used for ranges), but in those sizes, it was always stranded. If the wire is solid, it absolutely is NOT aluminum. Aluminum solid conductors in #12 and #10 was a 1960s and 1970s era disaster. You won't find it with a rubber and cloth covering. It's silvery looking because it's tinned copper, meaning that the copper is coated with solder (lead/tin alloy). This was done so the rubber wouldn't stick to the copper or corrode it (the rubber contained sulfur), and also to make soldering the wire easier (splices were usually soldered in those days). Trivia: splices in type R were supposed to be insulated with material equivalent to the insulation on the wires. So you didn't use our modern plastic electrical tape. You soldered your splice, taped it with gummy rubber tape (the layers stuck together and eventually fused), and then taped over that with cloth tape called friction tape. This is where one possible problem for you enters. As Greg points out, type R was rated 60 deg C. The later type RH was rated 75 deg C. I don't know of any way to tell them apart, so I always assume that any cloth-covered rubber wire is 60 degree wire. The problem arises where fixture or luminare instructions call for connecting only to 90 deg C wire. You're actually supposed to rewire the box if you don't have 90 deg wire in it. Unlike the old incandescents, which were/are basically electric space heaters with light as a byproduct, many modern LED and compact fluorescent luminaires don't actually seem to produce that level of heat. I don't know why they're labeled for 90 deg C wire. Maybe someone else knows. Now for grounding. Knob and tube and early NM don't provide a ground. I'm not sure, but I don't think that's what you have there. I'd have to see your box in person, but it looks to me like you have either conduit or BX coming into that box. If it's one of these, there's a good chance the box is grounded (a test light will tell you). However, if it's BX, the ground may not be safe. If it's conduit, you can ground your luminaire by drilling the box and tapping it for a 10-32 green grounding screw. I used to use grounding clips like these back in the day, but I don't know whether code allows them now. Besides, they were a bit of a pain to put on. If you don't have conduit, I'd just coil up the luminaire ground wire, tape it for insulation, and stuff it up into the box.