home made ballast

hey all. got a question for all of you pros out there, especially those of you who have constructed your own HPS ballasts. through research, i have put together/wired a mogul socket, transformer, capacitor, and ignitor. everything is ready to go, but i didnt want to take any chances on the part i am confused about. on the short side of the transformer, do i need to buy 14 gauge wire and a male plug set, or can i simply buy a heavy duty extension cord, cut off the female end, and plug it into a regular household socket?

kodiak2227 said:

hey all. got a question for all of you pros out there, especially those of you who have constructed your own HPS ballasts. through research, i have put together/wired a mogul socket, transformer, capacitor, and ignitor. everything is ready to go, but i didnt want to take any chances on the part i am confused about. on the short side of the transformer, do i need to buy 14 gauge wire and a male plug set, or can i simply buy a heavy duty extension cord, cut off the female end, and plug it into a regular household socket?

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i usually use #12awg. wire because all my power there in the op is on 20 amp breakers and i like to keep all the wires rated for 20 amps. # 14 awg. will work fine. an ext. cord will work just be sure its at least 14 awg. and has a ground.
if making the bulb remote, definetly use #12 wire to go from the ballast to the light and keep the length as short as possible. on my lights i keep it under 15 feet. some manufactures tell you max. length of wire to the bulb.
i use industrial fixtures and i started a thread on this and its still in the making. link in my sig.