Extension cords...

im planning on running a 40ft medium load extension cord rated for 13 amps from another part of my house, so as to avoid tripping a breaker. I plan on using two 600's on this cord, which is 10 amps (I think my outlets are 120v), is this ok? I have been told not to exceed 75% capacity on breakers, but thinking that it will be ok.

10amps on a 13amp medium duty (outdoor) extension cord? (used inside)
thanks all

No. Your voltage drop in that line with 2 600-watt lights will increase the load, especially on start up. You CANNOT go too big on wire but can easily go too small. Go buy 15 feet of 12/3 wire and the plug ends. Real ones, not crap cut off a lamp cord. 3-prong, with the ground, and use it. Then make sure the outlet you plug into is grounded. How?

Go to Ace or Lowes and buy an outlet tester. Plug it in. The combination of lights indicates if you're OK or if a ground is open or other shit than can kill you or start fires. Don't be a cheapskate with electricity.

Thanks for the help again dude.
There is a refrigerator in the kitchen sharing the same outlet, but the outlet is three prong. Many of the outlets in the house are older and only have two prongs, but it was rewired at some point and also has a few threes. I do not use any of my current two prong outlets** My last grow I ran an 8 bulb t5 (54w HO) panel and a single 600, with like three inline fans and all my water and air pumps off of a single outlet, why it wouldn't work in this case?

I know you are right, but why? What do you
mean it will increase the drop on the outlet? The kitchen outlet is on a 20 amp breaker, and the other outlet is on a 15 amp breaker. I planned on dividing around 3000 watts evenly between these two breakers. If i absolutely have to I will pay for some more lines to the room but it seems like that would be like 300 bucks that I don't want to spend if i can solve it by getting another extension cord. .. could I not just divide the load again by using yet another extension from an outlet on a different breaker?/another room?

hotrodharley said:

No. Your voltage drop in that line with 2 600-watt lights will increase the load, especially on start up. You CANNOT go too big on wire but can easily go too small. Go buy 15 feet of 12/3 wire and the plug ends. Real ones, not crap cut off a lamp cord. 3-prong, with the ground, and use it. Then make sure the outlet you plug into is grounded. How?

Go to Ace or Lowes and buy an outlet tester. Plug it in. The combination of lights indicates if you're OK or if a ground is open or other shit than can kill you or start fires. Don't be a cheapskate with electricity.

Click to expand...

I cant agree more. I prefer home depot, but either way, bad wiring is a FIRE HAZARD. not only that, but if your lucky, and dont burn your house down, you could very well be losing dollars monthly to an inefficient set up. remember this too, any heat, given off by anything (other then a heater), is money your losing.

And always, ALWAYS use the ground wire. its just a good habit.

make sure your circuit breakers are ready for the increase in power too.

Another good rule of thumb when growing indoors, try to keep everything water related, or wet, waist down, and everything electrical waist up.

this is another good trick to know so you avoid accidentaly unplugging your lights, but dont use this as a permanent thing:

nick17gar said:

I cant agree more. I prefer home depot, but either way, bad wiring is a FIRE HAZARD. not only that, but if your lucky, and dont burn your house down, you could very well be losing dollars monthly to an inefficient set up. remember this too, any heat, given off by anything (other then a heater), is money your losing.

And always, ALWAYS use the ground wire. its just a good habit.

make sure your circuit breakers are ready for the increase in power too.

Another good rule of thumb when growing indoors, try to keep everything water related, or wet, waist down, and everything electrical waist up.

this is another good trick to know so you avoid accidentaly unplugging your lights, but dont use this as a permanent thing:View attachment 2314192

Click to expand...

Yes but who said I have bad wiring? I was talking about a three prong, groundable extension cord in a grounded outlet, on a 20 amp breaker. I had an electrician come look at the breaker box and he told
me it was old but none of the wiring was aluminum, and that everything should be alright if I run extension cords from other rooms

But of course he didn't know exactly what I needed it for. I told him I need around 25 amps, and he said to run extension cords, or that for 200 or 300 he could drop some wires in through the attic or something

for the doubters.. I promise I'm not asking questions for naught. (no pun intended)





It says the extension is rated for 1625Watts, and 125v. The outlet that this cord comes from is on a 20amp breaker, with a refrigerator also on the outlet. SO maybe i should run another extension from another breaker after all. I read that most refrigerators are around 10amps.. assuming that I put a single 600 on this outlet as well, that brings it to 15amps on a 20 amp breaker.. (kitchen)

I will have my T5 panel (3.6 amps) and another single 600 (5amps), and all of my air pumps and water pumps (around 1.5amps). and my fans on "the rooms' " breaker, which should come out to around 10 amp on a 15amp breaker. *again, i am not using any two pronged outlets.*

So I guess I will run another extension from my living room (has only a stereo plugged in, which I will take out) breaker which is 15amp as well - and put two 600's on that, so that breaker will also be safe with 10amps on a 15amp breaker..

Will this be alright? If not, why? I am just trying to learn, not be offensive, thanks in advance for all feedback.

Spend the money on large gauge construction cords. I might be wrong but I think for every 50 foot of cord used it's a 1 amp drop. Maybe it's 100 foot I don't remember.

thanks for the response, I am planning on using two 40ft extension cords.. cant be sure what gauge the cords are though, supposedly they are ok for power tools.
I found this chart right after I read your response.

http://home.mchsi.com/~gweidner/extension-cords.pdf


So will it be using more power from the outlet? or will it drop the amperage being delivered to my bulbs? or both? < thatd be shitty..

yea its odd to me that extension cords was the way the electrician recommended. i guess its a cost / benefit issue. The extension cords will save you money, sure. But, if your planning on being there a while, id run actual wire through the walls, through those metal casings or tubes or whatever, and add in outlets, with the proper rating, and add it to the fuse box, and install the wiring. electrical cords work, but they are ugly to look at, and even tho they are bright orange, women always find a trip on them, causing massive destruction. One thing to make sure you do is surge protectors as well. its always nice to have 1 or 2 switches, near the grow, where you can turn everything off quickly, and anything (aside from your fuse box) to prevent electrical problems is always a plus.

why did you ductape the door shut? how do you plan to get in? next time, get some weatherproofing, and use it where door meets door frame, its cheap and easy.

also, keep an eye on that bucket under the ballast, they have a tendency to get warm, and if something inside fails, they can get very hot, very quickly.

start up a thread or journal on the grow and keep us posted, looks like your off to a really good start.

TheGreenHornet said:

thanks for the response, I am planning on using two 40ft extension cords.. cant be sure what gauge the cords are though, supposedly they are ok for power tools.
I found this chart right after I read your response.

http://home.mchsi.com/~gweidner/extension-cords.pdf


So will it be using more power from the outlet? or will it drop the amperage being delivered to my bulbs? or both? < thatd be shitty..

Click to expand...

well yea in essence, the more wire (RESISTANCE) you have, the less power to the lamps. your paying for the electricity as it comes out the outlet, not as it reaches the lamp. you can start to lose a lot on bad connections, not using electrical gels (for better connections), not using the right connectors, long cables, wrong sized cables, bad ballasts... the key thing is that the HID lamps need a lot of power to start up, sure, but they continue to need an even flow of power after as well. You can tell on some installs, or on videos youll watch, where the lights almost appear to flicker. its wierd. and the ballast has to work around that, and so does the bulb, and it wears down on their lifespan considerably.

either way, HID lamps arent cheap to set up, or run, or replace, so efficiency in everything else is good. the lamps arent efficient at all. Ballasts can lose about 40% of the power they are working with... it sucks. the last thing you want is someone tripping over the cord, or just simply plugging the bitch in and smelling the plastic from some electric cord burning onto your floors. thats bad too.

really, youll know when ya plug it in. If it turns on fairly quickly (less then 10 minutes), and the ballast hasnt started smoking, or the cords gotten hot, or the fuse box hasnt blown, your pretty well off already. if the light stays on for more then 4 hours the first day, you can rest assured itll probably last the first grow atleast. ballasts that are bad will turn on, but they overheat and are programmed to turn off. take that back asap.

sorry for double posting, good luck bud

lol, it isnt taped shut, I left about half the width hanging off the frame and folded it over (on both sides of the threshold) so it blocks almost all of the light.. still working on getting the small openings sealed where the cords run under the door.

thanks dude, that was some awesome info... i had no idea that ballasts could be that inefficient, its amazing. I got my hoods cheap, dont have experience with cool tubes - only the reg vented hoods, so i wouldnt be surprised if I lose some efficiency to them. Also I have never used a magnetic ballast, only digital in the past, so I am relatively inexperienced with this setup. I hope I can squeeze .75gpw out of it..

I will definitely get a subpanel and/or upgrade in service after this next 3-4month journey. On the bright side, I got some 14 gauge heavy duty wire rated for 15 amps.. (50ft) so I will run two lamps off this one, one lamp off the 40ft 16 gauge 13amp rated plus my water and air pumps, and two lamps on the rooms breaker (15amp). Gentlemen.. i think it can be done... Im super excited to find out.

*surge protectors; I actually might need to invest in some of those.. whenever my ac compressor kicks on, all the lights in the house dim, very briefly. The compressor has a shutoff panel next to it and comes straight off of the service line or drop or whatever, and the electrician told me that it was normal for the lights to flicker for a second. Do you think this might cause problems?

Thanks for the response.