Help on relays

im an Organic Irish grower this is my third grow at the minute, 5 venus flytrap and 3 urban poison feminised from Nirvana, currently under some cfls which i used before but my 600 watt hps is on the way, just one question though - seeing as a 600 watt uses 5 or 6 amps and a plug can take 13 as can my timer why is it reccomended to get a relay? the start up power cant be more than double the usual amps surely? thanks in advance.
about irish street weed - youd actually be better off with legal shit 9/10 times

Don't worry about it. The standard wall outlet is rated at 15Amps. If your timer is rated for 15 amps, or even 10 amps, your 600w should be fine off of it. For an example, if you wanted to run 4 lights off of that timer, you obviously cannot run all of that power (24Amp +/-) through the 15Amp timer. Because the timer cannot handle it, and more important, the wiring in your wall won't support it. In this situation you would need a relay and it would be setup as follows:

The relay power supply is hard wired into your electrical system (probably on its own breaker, and with wire gauge size that can carry the load), then the relay "trigger" is pluged/wired into the timer. When the timer clicks on, it triggers the relay, which then draws the power from its wired source (the fuse box) to the draw (your lights).

cool seems that everyone agrees then, love this place everyones so helpful! basically for one light ill be ok is that the gist of it?

A contactor on 240V is essential mate. You will burn out your timer contacts without one , and there is a risk of the timer catching fire when that happens. My contactor was £30. The startup power of a HID is initially large, it jumps the gap between the contacts in the timer and fuses them together. It happened to me twice with a 400W HID. Never happened again now i have a contactor. IMO its the number 1 piece of equipment - run without a carbon filter and you might get caught, run without a contactor on HID and you could lose everything. Buy one, its really not the worth the risk.
Smiv

It is recommended you get a relay because it's a safer way to turn on high energy appliances. A high initial inrush of current can cause arcing (ever see a shock when you plug in or unplug an appliance when it's on?) Here in the 21st century, it is suggested that you use a light timer with solid state relays; relays with no moving parts. Not required, just good sense.


I had no idea the Irish were Organic!?!? Now that I think about it, aren't we all???

600W @ 240v = 2.5A.I really don't see the problem with not using a relay, but that's just me...

MrJones86 said:

600W @ 240v = 2.5A.I really don't see the problem with not using a relay, but that's just me...

Click to expand...

Thats the running consumption mate - the start up load is for a split second, much much higher, and thats what causes the problems with the timer contacts. Contactors arent very expensive, and i know of one unlucky fella whose timer burnt, started a fire, and destroyed half his house. Others have gone to their growroom to find timers melted.
A timer on its own that i had was rated at 3KW, and it lasted a few days.