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

[bricktown73]

Hi there fellow RIU'ers... Over and over again I continualy see new threads and posts about electrical work question and thought I would post a couple threads to help you guys the same way all of you who have done such a great job having helped me... So, Do you have a grow room question about how to wire something up, or what are the safest ways of doing things? The most important one I see alot is people running lights and fans off power chords... I have wired my own grow room and will post an example of my work.

Please, if you have any questions and are unsure of what to do or if what you are doing is safe, PLEASE! ask me first if you are even a tad bit unsure. I would hate to hear anyone have an electrical fire because they didn't quite know what they were doing when all they needed to do was to ask a couple of questions... I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

If you want to do some wiring your self, I will either let you know if your project is too complicated if your not handy with electrical, or, IF YOU ASK, I will walk you thru your project step by step.

So please, ASK AWAY!!!

You can post questions here but you may not get your question answerd on the thread, best way to go about it is PM me. You will forsure get a response back.

PS Even if you have basic around the home electrical questions, shoot em my way.

 

[here & now]

bricktown,

got a question for ya. i wanta wire up some sockets for cfls like those vanity lights in bathrooms. say four sockets in a row mounted on a 2x4.

do i wire the sockets in series or parallel?

thx,

h&n

 

[bricktown73]

bricktown,

got a question for ya. i wanta wire up some sockets for cfls like those vanity lights in bathrooms. say four sockets in a row mounted on a 2x4.

do i wire the sockets in series or parallel?

thx,

h&n

This doesn't really apply to AC current for your project. In theory you would be wiring this in series, just wire the black to the black, white to the white, and if there is a green or just naked wire: green/naked to green/naked. And that is it.

 

[dbo24242]

How many amps does it take to melt a typical wall socket?

 

[here & now]

got it, thx!

 

[Higher Education]

Hey Brick and everyone, I was wondering how to tell if an outlet is 110v or 220v? I was also wondering how to tell the amp rating of an outlet....any input would be great, thanks.

 

[Trunk5]

well standard wall sockets in your home are all 110V the ones that are 220v are the plugs for like your fridge, washer and dryer, and posibly your stove if you have electric. most wall sockets wont melt befor you trip the breaker..

 

[smoote1987]

Hi there fellow RIU'ers... Over and over again I continualy see new threads and posts about electrical work question and thought I would post a couple threads to help you guys the same way all of you who have done such a great job having helped me... So, Do you have a grow room question about how to wire something up, or what are the safest ways of doing things? The most important one I see alot is people running lights and fans off power chords... I have wired my own grow room and will post an example of my work.

Please, if you have any questions and are unsure of what to do or if what you are doing is safe, PLEASE! ask me first if you are even a tad bit unsure. I would hate to hear anyone have an electrical fire because they didn't quite know what they were doing when all they needed to do was to ask a couple of questions... I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

If you want to do some wiring your self, I will either let you know if your project is too complicated if your not handy with electrical, or, IF YOU ASK, I will walk you thru your project step by step.

So please, ASK AWAY!!!

You can post questions here but you may not get your question answerd on the thread, best way to go about it is PM me. You will forsure get a response back.

PS Even if you have basic around the home electrical questions, shoot em my way.

Hey brick,

I don't have an electric question, but i just wanted to give you props on that sweet panel you set up there. The fans and exhaust duct pulling hot air of the electronic ballasts is a very smart design, and its soooo clean and organized. do i sense a little touch of OCD. if i have a wiring question soon i know where to come.

 

[smokeh]

hi,

just a couple quick questions.

first of all, what does a surge protector do? lol. is it like an RCD unit? will that cut the power out to that plug socket if theres a short?

i have the correct equipment, 22amp relay with timer running a 600w hps and a small fan, oh and a 125w CFL. will all of this be ok on an extention cable - im not 100% what the ampage is on the cable. then run the extention cable into a plug socket. when i say extention cable, i mean the really big ones on a wheel.

anything else i need to know for safety?

 

[smoote1987]

hi,

just a couple quick questions.

first of all, what does a surge protector do? lol. is it like an RCD unit? will that cut the power out to that plug socket if theres a short?

i have the correct equipment, 22amp relay with timer running a 600w hps and a small fan, oh and a 125w CFL. will all of this be ok on an extention cable - im not 100% what the ampage is on the cable. then run the extention cable into a plug socket. when i say extention cable, i mean the really big ones on a wheel.

anything else i need to know for safety?

Not trying to step on bricks toes or anything just wanted to give a little quick feed back but i'm not trying to answer your questions smokeh just giving my experience. You should wait for bricks response to do anything.

A surge protector as i under stand it will take the hit from a large surge in the power grid before it hits your equipment. If youre looking into those i'd say go with an "ups" unit. They have a battery installed in them and will keep all your low wattage equipment that is plugged into them running if you say have a black out, ie. if you have your lights and air pumps, and whatever plugged into one and have a surge in your power grid, the ups will take the hit instead of your much more valuable equipment and then continue to supply power to your low wattage equipment but not your lights. This is great for those who run hydro and need to keep their air pumps and water pubmps running.

Oh and if i were you i would buy some lower gauge (the lower the gauge the thicker the chord, right brick?) chord and a nice high volt/watt grounded plug and make my own extension chord for all that power draw. I don't like to put my or my grows safety in equipment that i am not sure will be able to handle the wattage. I like to do over kill, when it comes to safety.

 

[bricktown73]

Not trying to step on bricks toes or anything just wanted to give a little quick feed back but i'm not trying to answer your questions smokeh just giving my experience. You should wait for bricks response to do anything.

A surge protector as i under stand it will take the hit from a large surge in the power grid before it hits your equipment. If youre looking into those i'd say go with an "ups" unit. They have a battery installed in them and will keep all your low wattage equipment that is plugged into them running if you say have a black out, ie. if you have your lights and air pumps, and whatever plugged into one and have a surge in your power grid, the ups will take the hit instead of your much more valuable equipment and then continue to supply power to your low wattage equipment but not your lights. This is great for those who run hydro and need to keep their air pumps and water pubmps running.

Oh and if i were you i would buy some lower gauge (the lower the gauge the thicker the chord, right brick?) chord and a nice high volt/watt grounded plug and make my own extension chord for all that power draw. I don't like to put my or my grows safety in equipment that i am not sure will be able to handle the wattage. I like to do over kill, when it comes to safety.

Smoote pretty much nailed it. A surge protector is pretty much a multi outlet with a small replacable fuse in it. And you should be fine with a regular 14 guage wire extension chord to run what you need. Good explaination smoote.

 

[smokeh]

ok cheers guys.

 

[smoote1987]

Smoote pretty much nailed it. A surge protector is pretty much a multi outlet with a small replacable fuse in it. And you should be fine with a regular 14 guage wire extension chord to run what you need. Good explaination smoote.

Thanks brick, i saw that you were offline and i was reading you thread anyway so i thought it couldn't hurt to post. keep up the good work i love when people offer up help as you have it is a valuable resource.

 

[communistcannabis]

nice thread brick!!

 

[stephen94]

so with that bathroom vanity fixture, if i use one and use CFL's whats the highest wattage CFL i can use. if i put a 105 W CFL in a standard socket for a 60W incandescent bulb will it only put 60 watts of light to the CFL? or does it read how many watts the bulb can take and sends that much to it? i want to have a vegetation chamber with the CFL's and was thinking of doing that. or i was gonna just get a high wattage CFL and some prewired mogul sockets for it and simply use it. either way. can i use an orange ext cord and wire the lights to the cords inside the orange cord? like just cut one end off the cord and wire the light fixture to it?

 

[zappapple]

Hey Brick-
I need to run approx. 45 ft of 220v cord....What gauge should I be looking for?
Thanks for the professional help, you're photos look awesome!

 

[zappapple]

Also Brick,
What is the best way to make a splice into a unused wash/dryer source? Those twist on wire caps?
Also, is there anything I need to know regarding single phase and 3 phase?
Thanks again.

 

[bricktown73]

so with that bathroom vanity fixture, if i use one and use CFL's whats the highest wattage CFL i can use. if i put a 105 W CFL in a standard socket for a 60W incandescent bulb will it only put 60 watts of light to the CFL? or does it read how many watts the bulb can take and sends that much to it? i want to have a vegetation chamber with the CFL's and was thinking of doing that. or i was gonna just get a high wattage CFL and some prewired mogul sockets for it and simply use it. either way. can i use an orange ext cord and wire the lights to the cords inside the orange cord? like just cut one end off the cord and wire the light fixture to it?

You can use whatever size CFL you like. And sure, you can wire your fixture to the extension chord.

Hey Brick-
I need to run approx. 45 ft of 220v cord....What gauge should I be looking for?
Thanks for the professional help, you're photos look awesome!

As long as you dont have more then a 15 amp load you should be fine with 14 guage wire. 45 feet isn't long enough for a significant voltage drop. I would recomend 12 gauge wire.

Also Brick,
What is the best way to make a splice into a unused wash/dryer source? Those twist on wire caps?
Also, is there anything I need to know regarding single phase and 3 phase?
Thanks again.

Yes, you can use "wirenuts" to spice into any source that has power. I use IDEAL tan wire nuts, but if your power source wire is larger like 10-6 gauge you will need red or blue wirenuts.

Single phase means your electrical service is providing you with 2 hot wires. 3 phase means you are recieving 3 hot wires. Some equiptment requires on or the other so watch for that.

 

[Dr.WhiteWeed]

can u explain to me step by step how to set-up a 600W hps to a ballast with an air cooler system attached. I will give mad +rep for this/

 

[Higher Education]

well standard wall sockets in your home are all 110V the ones that are 220v are the plugs for like your fridge, washer and dryer, and posibly your stove if you have electric. most wall sockets wont melt befor you trip the breaker..

Thanks, but how do I determine the ampere rating of a particular outlet?