Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

JayDoe71 said:
I took a trip to Lowes today and couldn't find a 12 gauge xchord that was rated for 20 amps. The 20 amps were 10 gauge, and they're big, expensive suckers. I plan on one chord running about 9.6 amps (the light and ballast), and a second cord running the other accessories, about 6 amps. Do I need cords rated for 20 amps?
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extension cords are always rated at a lower ampacity than standard American Wire Guage wire..... a #10awg cord will be the only cord rated for 20 amps.
 
GreenTree87 said:
Question about light socket wiring. I have looked up and read on how to wire light sockets but my question is can I wire 4 light sockets to a single 110v power cord if I'm gonna be using LED lights for the light sockets? Each LED light uses 3.5 watts so I know for a fact that I won't be drawing to much power from a single plug.

I know berets electrical tape is needed so unlike most people that don't use the berets I would have a lower % of a fire starting.

Also I will be plugging them into a 16 gauge wire power bar
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that will work fine.

bongsmilie
 
smackey81 said:
hey man i dont know nothing bout electrical stuff but i have an extension lead running to my grown room with a few power boards and about 10 - 15 different things plugged in like light pumps fans stuff like that, how dangerous is this and what can i do to stop shit happening like a fire or something thanks
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:lol: sounds like you need to hire an electrician.......... but if it was me, i would hardwire the cord to the main panel on a dedicated breaker, ditch the power strips, get some outlet boxes, romex, and plugs, nail the boxes to a wooden stand/board, wire them together, then wire the cord onto the lead receptacle, which should be a GFCI type outlet, then wire the rest of the outlets on the board off of the load side contacts on the GFCI outlet. then plug all your shit back into the now Ground Fault protected circuit.
'
Get some battery powered smoke detectors, and put em up all over the grow room, often there is smoke long before there is a fire, and the earlier you have warning, the more likely you can put out something before it burns your house down, or if its too late, at least have a warning and a chance to get out of the house.
 
Malenki said:
I am making a micro grow 21"w x 10"d x 55"h its going to be a dual chamber grow. I want to get it to where only one wire comes out, at least I think so. There is a good size surge protector at walmart I cant find it on their site it has a 15amp fuse in it. So my question is how much stuff can you put on a surge protector? Will I be fine if I buy one and put say 6 cfls, 2-3 120mm pc fans?

There would be 4 26wat cfls on the bottom chamber with a fan. The cfls would each have there own socket and wire that would then be spliced or plugged together and then into the surge protector. The top chamber would have 2 26 watt cfls, havent decided about location of them yet, and 2 fans.

What would the difference be if there was some 42 watt cfls mixed in? Also if one surge protector with all of that on it is going to burn my place down, would it be safe on two surge protectors? And what if I took two surge protectors and spliced their wires together?
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that single 15amp surge protector will be fine for your CFL's

bongsmilie

GreenTree87 said:
1 - Never touch the surge protector wires mainly because your making the fire % higher. If you cut the plug in part off and use that as your wiring from the plug to your light socket that could work but that can be kinda expensive.
2 - I have 1 PS3 (around 300 to 400 watts), Lizard tank (150 watts), TV, VCR, 2 Laptops and 2 external hard drives plugged into a single 16 gauge power bar with no problems but I wouldn't do more then that for safty reasons.
3 -I would never have more then 1 41+ watt CFL on a single wire because the more wattage you have on a single plug the more risk of a fire you have. Also I wouldn't bother splicing more then 1 CFL onto a single power cord. Now if it was LED lights that use 3.5 watts then you might be able to get away with having 4 of them on a single wire because they would only draw 14 watts in all and they don't give off any heat. I have a few in my room instead of using a few 13w CFLs because do the math and having a single 13w CFL running 24/7 for 30 days would cost around $0.60 compared to around $0.15 of running a 3.5w LED light for the same amount of time.

They are the same as the CFLs where you can't use them on a dimmer but its 1 of the best ways to cut down on your power bill cost thus lowering your chances of a person noticing your bill because face it would you rather have a 600w HPS with 13w to 60w lights that most people use or would you rather use the 3.5w LED lights to cut the cost so that its harder to notice the difference in the power bill.
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on what basis do you make your assumptions? you shouldnt be giving people electrical advice if you dont have the credentials to back it up.
you can splice together the power cord of power strips all say long with no issues whatsoever... its called a parallel tap amnd its how all the outlets in your house are wired anyways, so whats the difference between splicing together two powerstrips to one cord, or plugging in to power strips in different outlets on the same circuit? there is no difference.
an average 25' 16awg extension cord or fixture wire is rated for 2 amps @ 120vac. thats 240w. by my math, that means you could easily have any combination of lamps up to 192w of CFL's on a single 16awg cord with no issues whatsoever. the shorter the length of the cord, the higher the ampacity. if its less than 10' of 18awg cord, then you can run up to 288w, if its less than 6' you can have 432w.....
and as far as math goes, you should check yours because an 3.5w LED has nowhere near the PAR of a 13w CFL
runing the led's would be useless over an almost negligible cost difference. 4 43w cfl's (172w actual)will put to shame 172w of led's.

why is that? APAR and IPAR......
 
hey man I was looking for a similar thing in my native language but don't find it. Anyhow let s see how it goes.
Can you and will you please explain step by step (and I do mean step by step if you have the patience) how to connect an eti ballast(complete control gear) to a cool tube and the ballast to the ground.

here s the cool tube http://www.france-hydroponique.com/administration/produits/images/cooltube-shp-ts-1000.gif

here s the ballast http://www.promshop.fr/img/p/541-1486-thickbox.jpg

I think I've got it actually while surfing for a ballast photo to attach the message but would like to get a professional opinion

Thanx
peace

PS how many watt does 25A mean(we're talking about Europe here like 220 voltage or something ....)?
 
Just a note on surge suppressors: Their job is to keep the incoming power from allowing a high voltage 'surge' through. They really don't protect much, do NOT do voltage regulation. Think of them as a pressure blow off. If things get FAR out of wack they kick in.

Secondly, nearly all are MOV based. These wear out in 6 months to a year. And give NO signs that they are spent.

There is very little reason to use one in a grow room, outside of getting more outlets for more stuff (giggles thinking of Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
 
Awesome now I just have to buy it and mount it in the cab and run the wires then. Which means I can move onto figuring out the wires for the lighting. I have used the small clamp lights before, always took the metal reflectors off. This one from walmart seems to have like a heavy duty ceramic? socket. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bayco-10.5-Brooder-Clamp-Light/14003468#ProductDetail I was just going to splice four of them together and zip tie them to a pvc frame. To ease raising the lights, it should be a tight squeeze but it should beat the large cfls. What do yall think? Love the link havent had to go to their site in a few years.
 
BigBudBalls said:
Just a note on surge suppressors: Their job is to keep the incoming power from allowing a high voltage 'surge' through. They really don't protect much, do NOT do voltage regulation. Think of them as a pressure blow off. If things get FAR out of wack they kick in.

Secondly, nearly all are MOV based. These wear out in 6 months to a year. And give NO signs that they are spent.

There is very little reason to use one in a grow room, outside of getting more outlets for more stuff (giggles thinking of Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
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or A Christmas Story...... the old man, and the light....lol
 
IAm5toned said:
and as far as math goes, you should check yours because an 3.5w LED has nowhere near the PAR of a 13w CFL
runing the led's would be useless over an almost negligible cost difference. 4 43w cfl's (172w actual)will put to shame 172w of led's.

why is that? APAR and IPAR......
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1 - I wasn't saying to use the 3.5 LED for growing I was talking about replacing the light bulbs in the house to help counter the amount of power a grow space uses because most people use 13w+ lights in their house. The hole point of chaging the house lights with LED lights is to cut down on the power bill

2 - The way he was making it sound like he wanted to have 2 power bars spliced together so it only takes 1 plug. Doing that you have a higher chance of over loading that 1 plug and causing a fire


BigBudBalls said:
Just a note on surge suppressors: Their job is to keep the incoming power from allowing a high voltage 'surge' through. They really don't protect much, do NOT do voltage regulation. Think of them as a pressure blow off. If things get FAR out of wack they kick in
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Wouldn't splicing 2 surge protectors together to use one plug cause a problem with it doing its job?https://www.rollitup.org/members/bigbudballs-38682.html
 
GreenTree87 said:
1 - I wasn't saying to use the 3.5 LED for growing I was talking about replacing the light bulbs in the house to help counter the amount of power a grow space uses because most people use 13w+ lights in their house. The hole point of chaging the house lights with LED lights is to cut down on the power bill

2 - The way he was making it sound like he wanted to have 2 power bars spliced together so it only takes 1 plug. Doing that you have a higher chance of over loading that 1 plug and causing a fire


Wouldn't splicing 2 surge protectors together to use one plug cause a problem with it doing its job?https://www.rollitup.org/members/bigbudballs-38682.html
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no. think of a surge protector as a sponge.... it absorbs transient voltage spikes... when it does so, it also breaks the circuit so that that same transient does not pass through your device and fry it in the process.
 
guestaweed said:
hey man I was looking for a similar thing in my native language but don't find it. Anyhow let s see how it goes.
Can you and will you please explain step by step (and I do mean step by step if you have the patience) how to connect an eti ballast(complete control gear) to a cool tube and the ballast to the ground.

here s the cool tube http://www.france-hydroponique.com/administration/produits/images/cooltube-shp-ts-1000.gif

here s the ballast http://www.promshop.fr/img/p/541-1486-thickbox.jpg

I think I've got it actually while surfing for a ballast photo to attach the message but would like to get a professional opinion

Thanx
peace

PS how many watt does 25A mean(we're talking about Europe here like 220 voltage or something ....)?
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so ..i don t think I got an answer yet on how to connect ballast to cooltube.....
-oeace
 
I have two led panels(blue) in my veg room and three led panels(red) for the flowering room. I bought these lights online for cheap on a site called "LAshop.com". they ran for about i think 30 to 40 bucks each compared to everywhere else that cost over 200 bucks.when i bought these they said its for growing.There are 225 led iodes or diodes? i know there is 225 led bulbs on each panel(15x15).my question is would you know how many true watts i am pushing with these?
 
BigBudBalls said:
Probably be easier to just daisy chain them then go through the trouble of splicing them.
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That's what I was thinking and its also less of a fire hazard then splicing them.

darosa420 said:
I have two led panels(blue) in my veg room and three led panels(red) for the flowering room. I bought these lights online for cheap on a site called "LAshop.com". they ran for about i think 30 to 40 bucks each compared to everywhere else that cost over 200 bucks.when i bought these they said its for growing.There are 225 led iodes or diodes? i know there is 225 led bulbs on each panel(15x15).my question is would you know how many true watts i am pushing with these?
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What ever wattage it says the pannel uses that's what it uses. There is no such thing as true watts that a bulb puts out that's not what the panel says it uses. Its like a person buying a 45w CLF and thinking its actuly pushing out 200 watts equivalent because that's what it says. so...

Once again. What the panel says the amount of watts it uses that's the amount it uses. The numbers that truly matter is the Lumes and the Lumes per watt

Lumes - How strong the light is that the light puts out
Lumes per watt - how efficient the lights are for putting out lumes. The higher lumes per watt a light puts out the more efficient it is at doing the job.
 
BigBudBalls said:
Probably be easier to just daisy chain them then go through the trouble of splicing them.
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no, daisy chaining the power strips is not the right answer. by daisy chaining the strips, your passing all of the load through the first strip, which should kick the breaker on it.....
the correct way is to have a parrallel splice on the cords, a "t tap" on the 3 wire 120v circuit.
daisy chaining is making a parrallel circuit into a series/parrallel circuit, and when you do that, voltage drop becomes a major factor. undervoltage causes components to overheat, which causes the breaker to trip on the forst power strip. by splicing the cords together, the load is evenly divided between the 2 strips, whereas if they are daisy chained, all the load goes through the first strip. am i making sense?
 
darosa420 said:
I have two led panels(blue) in my veg room and three led panels(red) for the flowering room. I bought these lights online for cheap on a site called "LAshop.com". they ran for about i think 30 to 40 bucks each compared to everywhere else that cost over 200 bucks.when i bought these they said its for growing.There are 225 led iodes or diodes? i know there is 225 led bulbs on each panel(15x15).my question is would you know how many true watts i am pushing with these?
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you need a good multimeter....

take an amp reading of the fixture, and write it down. take a voltage reading of the circuit the led panel is plugged in, with the panel off. write that number down. multiply the two numbers, to get your wattge. example-
1.41 amps @ 121.46vac = 171.2586 watts
(1.41 x 121.46 = 171.2586)
 
so im looking into what would be necessary to run a small scale sog on abt 200 watts of electricity. (cfl's) could i go about buying myself a pedal powered generator to create and store enough energy to run my op? i wanna live greener and also it would be a great source of cardio and a deterrent to the electric company and/or police from snooping because of energy consumption. Is this feasible? ive got the build to put in work for my babies, but i wanna make sure im able to generate this much power and safely store it before i build a unit. if im on the right track but off in the math, how much energy am i looking at needing to use to run a bubble tank of two mothers (under 4 26w daylight cfls with reflector) and about 10 lil ladies in soil(under 6-8 cool white cfl's across the spectrum. like 7 cool, 1 warm).
 
IAm5toned said:
no, daisy chaining the power strips is not the right answer. by daisy chaining the strips, your passing all of the load through the first strip, which should kick the breaker on it.....
the correct way is to have a parrallel splice on the cords, a "t tap" on the 3 wire 120v circuit.
daisy chaining is making a parrallel circuit into a series/parrallel circuit, and when you do that, voltage drop becomes a major factor. undervoltage causes components to overheat, which causes the breaker to trip on the forst power strip. by splicing the cords together, the load is evenly divided between the 2 strips, whereas if they are daisy chained, all the load goes through the first strip. am i making sense?
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Whats safer splicing the wires with the t-tap or twisting the two wires together and then twisting them around the main wire. This would be for the light bulbs. I would be just using the one surge protector.
 
GreenTree87 said:
Question about light socket wiring. I have looked up and read on how to wire light sockets but my question is can I wire 4 light sockets to a single 110v power cord if I'm gonna be using LED lights for the light sockets? Each LED light uses 3.5 watts so I know for a fact that I won't be drawing to much power from a single plug.

I know berets electrical tape is needed so unlike most people that don't use the berets I would have a lower % of a fire starting.

Also I will be plugging them into a 16 gauge wire power bar
Click to expand...

3.5 watts is nothing you could run a 50 of those on a 18ga cord
 
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