Cheap $35 (400 wattCFL light fixture)

Hey growers, dont have a hydro store near you but want good lighting for your babies.
I hope this helps

A good place to find a fixture to hold a lot of lights is home depot or lowes. They sell light fixtures(vanity) that are 3, 4, 5, 6, o r8 sockets long. I bought the 8 socket one for 30 bucks.( you may need to buy an extension cord, and attach the wires comming out of the fixture to the plug so you can plug it in a wall). then you can buy some y-splitters and double up the lights if you wish.

1. its safe, to put "16"(23-26watt bulbs) in the 8 socket fixture. Amps are the biggest problem about fire hazards, to many amps can cause the wire to heat up and even melt. but with 26wattsX16 = 416
amps=watts/volts , so amps =416/120(U.S average wall output) = 3.44 amps, respectively my belt-sander uses 5.3 amps thats just to give u an idea.

2. More depth on how to wire the fixture to an extension cord plug. its very simple and you dont need to be an electrician to wire.
tools need : light fixture, screwdriver,electrical tape,extension cord, scissors.


I. The most important step, take apart the light fixture and remove any spare parts the manufacture may have thrown in. There should only be 3 wires left a white,black,and green wire(those are the main colors used)

II. after inspecting the fixture, close it up and grab your extension cord. use the scissors to cut the female plug off the cord. there should be 3 wires bundled together in the extension cord a white,black,and green wire.
Some extension cords my wrap the bundled wires in insulation, simply cut down the insulation length wise while not cutting any of the wires. continue cutting until the 3 individual wires are free to move as they please.(12"-8")

III. simply attach the wires to their corresponding colors. you may use the electrical tap here or some fixtures may come with orange wire nuts. to use the orange nuts take the 2 wires you want to connect and twist them together, then take the nut and screw it on like a soda cap till you cant twist it any further.

IV. I suggest wrapping the bottoms of the orange nuts with electrical tape( it insulates, and holds the wires stronger ). After the wires are connected use the electrical tape to wrap the 3 wires together like the insulation did before you cut it( make sure no metal of any wire is showing first) if any metal is showing cover with electrical tape.

V. plug it into a wall and you have a nice cfl light fixture
Attached Thumbnails

Sticky?? Good job

Thanks man, i have grown some pretty big plants with a screen using one of those

i did this too. except i got a 4 socket one, so 8 lights. 12 bucks! cant beat that haha. pics in my sig link

I know right... Sure its not better than a HID but it a good cheap fixture for someone using cfls anyway

Thanks alot this is very helpful.
i was looking for a thread like this for a while and never really found anything
this should be a Sticky some where.

Ok, so those are 23-26w because I tried to grow 1 plant off of 4 23w cfls and it didnt have close to enough light, they grew VERY slow and eventually I just got rid of them. Hoping to do it better this time around

It should grow well if you had 4 dfls on one plant, they should be as close as they can without burning the plant.. start off a 3-4 inches and move them up as the plant grows

I wish i had took pictures when i mad the wiring guide but i already built it. oh well thank you guys for showing love to my thread +rep

Would it be safe to put SIX 65 watt CFL's in a 3 light fixture?

It would be safe for your building wires, but it depend on what gauge wires the fixture have.

1socket = 2x65 = 130
130/120= 1.088 amps

thats not that bad

make sure the gauge of the wire is numbered 20 or lower,
20 gauge can handle 1.5 amps, the lower the number the more amps it can run.
i believe it was awg(american wire gauge) 18 in my light fixture, there should be a number somewhere on the wires to find out.

Read the box and instruction manual it should tell you the max watts for each socket

most lights sockets say do not exceed more than 100 watts butt according to the wiring scale,it should be fine if the gauge is 20 or lower.
i think they just say that because the company dose not want to be accountable if something dose happen, because it is kind of maxing out the ability's of a 20 gauge wire.

i would say if its 18 gauge or lower it is completely safe and i would run it feeling safe. (I am not a expert just knowledgeable)

thanks for the rep//

Well i got bored and put a seed in rock wool 4 days ago... i cut a branch of one of my peppers and stuck the rock wool on it so its closer to the cfls hahahah.. can you find it

RyanTheRhino said:

Well i got bored and put a seed in rock wool 4 days ago... i cut a branch of one of my peppers and stuck the rock wool on it so its closer to the cfls hahahah.. can you find it

Click to expand...

LoL
thats funny

Im thinking about going this route or possibly going with the plug ins and a power strip what do you think?
i mean my only thing is that it seems like it could possible a little bit of a pain to wire it into the extension cord
becauseee i have no clue about things that fall into the electrician category lol

thanks man, well go with what you can work with but i am 99% sure every commercial eletrical use th colors white,black,and green. it is as simple as striping the wires, connecting the wires to their matching color.then just wrap them individually with black electrical tape, or use that orange nut thing.

Ah okay yeah sounds simple enough if everyone uses same colors i was not aware.
but i saw a thread about building a grow area out of 2 stacked rubbermaid boxes do you think
that a light thing like the one you have would fit in there? A smaller version i mean something like
a 3 socket version maybe 4.
Oh and how much are those neat Y splitters?

yea i think a 4 or 3 socket will fit they are tiny i believe the 4 socket one is around 2 feet long and maybe 4 inches wide.

if you plan on using that light in 2 stacked rubber maid i would make a screen out of the first lid so all the buds form where it can reach the light


those y splitters are about $2.22 find them under electrical section in lowes or homedepot next too all the sockets and plugs.

lollygagging said:

Would it be safe to put SIX 65 watt CFL's in a 3 light fixture?

Click to expand...

It depends how many Watts the fixture is designed to handle