Blown fuse/wiring mishap prevention

Hey guys. I'm setting up my grow closet at the moment and have an electric question. The fire hazard aspect of growing scares the crap out of me.

I'm going to have two plants growing in an aerogarden, using the aerogarden lights during veg, then I'm detaching the light hood from the aero and hanging my 150w hps above the chamber for flowering.

I would be plugging in: aerogarden, 150w hps, small carbon filter with attached fan, and a second stand-alone fan. I'll probably end up getting a second aerogarden for clones soon. The only other thing in the house on this fuse is a bedroom light.

My question is whether I can plug everything into ONE multi-socket cord, which I would run out of my closet and into an outlet on the wall.I would have a GFCI receptacle on that outlet.


Is this method ok?

Also, can I attach one of those plastic mounted fire alarms and a thermometer in the grow room?

Thank you so much in advance for helping a newbie out.

-A

You should be plenty safe. Though if your house is really old its hard to tell. I currently run 9 to 11 CFLs, 4 PC fans, 3 normal fans, and a timer all hooked up through power strips going into 1 outlet. Not to mention its on the same circuit as my room (PC, lights, TV, xbox, etc.) Oh yea...and its all plugged into a cheapy extension cord which then plugs into the wall. Doesn't even get warm

Ah, thanks for the response. My house actually IS quite old, but it has central AC so I'm assuming that all of the electrical wiring is newish...

Would the worst case scenario, with a GFSI, just be a blown fuse?

newb19547 said:

You should be plenty safe. Though if your house is really old its hard to tell. I currently run 9 to 11 CFLs, 4 PC fans, 3 normal fans, and a timer all hooked up through power strips going into 1 outlet. Not to mention its on the same circuit as my room (PC, lights, TV, xbox, etc.) Oh yea...and its all plugged into a cheapy extension cord which then plugs into the wall. Doesn't even get warm

Click to expand...

with a GFCI, you won't have a blown fuse but a tripped outlet. GCFI's trip right there at the outlet, before even reaching back to the circuit breaker.

i'm going to assume that your bedroom is on its own circuit, which is probably a 15 amp circuit breaker. just be careful with what you are plugging in and adding to the room, be it grow-related or just regular bedroom stuff. 20 amp would be more sufficient, but you would have to make sure the wire gauge is adequate for a 20 amp circuit breaker (you can't just simply replace the 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp).

15 amp circuit breaker = #14 AWG (american wire gauge)

20 amp circuit breaker = #12 AWG

the smaller the # gauge, the thicker the wire, which can carry more amps.

I have no idea what you mean by own circuit, that's how bad I am at electrical knowledge.

Is a circuit represented by a switch in a fuse box? The grow room has its own switch..

harryCHRONICjr said:

with a GFCI, you won't have a blown fuse but a tripped outlet. GCFI's trip right there at the outlet, before even reaching back to the circuit breaker.

i'm going to assume that your bedroom is on its own circuit, which is probably a 15 amp circuit breaker. just be careful with what you are plugging in and adding to the room, be it grow-related or just regular bedroom stuff. 20 amp would be more sufficient, but you would have to make sure the wire gauge is adequate for a 20 amp circuit breaker (you can't just simply replace the 15 amp breaker with a 20 amp).

15 amp circuit breaker = #14 AWG (american wire gauge)

20 amp circuit breaker = #12 AWG

the smaller the # gauge, the thicker the wire, which can carry more amps.

Click to expand...

if your plugging into a gfci you should be okay where im from the codes say that you have to put them on there own circuit. You should make sure that your extension cord is rated for how many watts your using on it. You can burn up an extension cord with to much on it. you can figure the watss out by looking on the back of the fans and everything else