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

hey guys,

im going have a circuit board with a timer which has a bunch of 220v and 120v outlets on it. this will need to be plugged into the stove plug. now the problem is my rooms is about 30ft from the stove what is the best way to power my lights from this distance? where should my ballast go? in the room? any advice on this and suggestions are appreciated.

thanks guys!

Hi, got a newbie question for you.

I just got my lights today. I asked the lights to be wired for 220v. I've never seen a plug like this before and none of my wall jacks will fit it. Also there was a tag on the cord that says 240v.

Info that came with the light says "Plug the ballast into any household grounded outlet or appliance-duty 15 amp (or higher amperage) timer.

Can I just go to Home Depot and have them make me an extension cord with 3 of these plugs on one end so I can run three 400w ballasts, or is this european wiring or something?

I bought a cheap timer from Home Depot. I don't think the timer has a voltage rating and it's not a digital so I'm not sure if it uses any electricity for itself. Is this not a good timer to use with the lights?

I appreciate any help you can give, I really don't want to have to send the lights back if I can avoid it.

Got some more info & now have a new question.

I was told that they should work with our (U.S.) electricity but I need to make an extension cord with a female for it on one end. Home depot has the right female end, but they can only put one end on an extension cord. Since I bought 3 lights I'd have to make 3 extension cords which will run me a little over $100.

Is there any cheaper way of doing this outside of sending the lights back?

Found an alternate solution. Just bought 3 outlets with boxes & face plates, 10 ft of 10 guage wire, and a regular plug for the end. Only $50, saved $100. I plan on making 3 outlets attatched to an extension cord.

Here's the thing, when I ordered the lights the lady asked if I needed 110v and I said no, I need 220v. I thought I had a good understanding of how our electrical wiring works, I guess I still have a lot to learn.

The ballast sais "input: 120/208/240/277v 60Hz

The documentation said: "Plug the ballast into any household grounded outlet or appliance-duty 15 amp (or higher amperage) timer. Note: Ballast automatically turns on once it is plugged into a power source. If using other voltage is desired, please contact a qualified electrician to make the correct rewiring to the ballast cores multi-volt power leads. This ballast will accept 120/208/240/277v power sources, it comes prewired for 120v household voltage."

Now the last part sais it comes prewired for 120v but when I told her that I needed 220v she said they'd have to rewire it. She may have just meant the power cord or she may have meant the ballast. I'm not sure I can trust the documentation (htgsupply.com), is there any other way I can test my lights to see if it's wired for 110v or 220v? Also, the guy at Home Depot said that I'll have 2 hot wires in the 10 guage cord to wire, no ground and ignore the 3rd wire in the cord. So if each hot wire is 110v, then isn't that 220v? (sorry if that's a dumb question)

Once I know that I have the voltage right I'll post pics of everything I bought so you can tell me if I'm gonna set my place on fire, but I'm pretty sure I have a safe set up planned.

Thanks again.

Ichi said:

I think all of this stuff should be cool but I wanted to bounce it off of you guys to make sure. I have Two pole 40amp breaker that my dryer runs off of. I added a 12/2 wire and ran it to a single 240 plug. The 600w that I am hooking up only pulls 2amps and it will be the only thing that I have running on it so I figured we would be all good. Thanks.

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Man... I know its a pain in the ass but you really need to run a separate circuit for that light. The reason it just pulls 2.5 amps is bc its on a 240 plug. You have to get the right gauge of wire for the amount of voltage that will pass through the wire or it will get too hot and catch on fire. A 240 outlet would at the least need a 30 amp breaker and you would need 10/2 wire for that. Like i said i know its a pain but you really need to wire it right or you are gonia put yourself in danger. If you can change the cord to a 120v it would pull 5 amps and you could plug it in a regular outlet, which would be easier than running new circuits. Not to sound like a stick in the mud but you really shouldnt f with elelctricity...

bender420 said:

Hey guys, cannot tell you how happy I am to have found this thread. I haven't worked with electricity before, but I really didn't wanna ask anyone to add an electric outlet in my attic.

Anyhow I found an outlet on the ceiling of the garage, under the attic floor. So in the attic i took off the silver lined plywood to check it out, I am adding a picture of the back of the outlet.

Now if I want to add an outlet in the attic which wire do I tap into, the white one or the one which is covered with gray material going into the outlet.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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anyone? I would really appreciate it.

DannyGreenEyes said:

Hi, got a newbie question for you.

I just got my lights today. I asked the lights to be wired for 220v. I've never seen a plug like this before and none of my wall jacks will fit it. Also there was a tag on the cord that says 240v.

Info that came with the light says "Plug the ballast into any household grounded outlet or appliance-duty 15 amp (or higher amperage) timer.

Can I just go to Home Depot and have them make me an extension cord with 3 of these plugs on one end so I can run three 400w ballasts, or is this european wiring or something?

I bought a cheap timer from Home Depot. I don't think the timer has a voltage rating and it's not a digital so I'm not sure if it uses any electricity for itself. Is this not a good timer to use with the lights?

I appreciate any help you can give, I really don't want to have to send the lights back if I can avoid it.

Click to expand...

You asked them for a 220v and thats what you got it appears. Is that not a 220 male plug. You'll need a 220 outlet to plug that in. You know like the one your dryer is plugged in to. Try plugging it in that outlet and see if it works.

DannyGreenEyes said:

Hi, got a newbie question for you.

I just got my lights today. I asked the lights to be wired for 220v. I've never seen a plug like this before and none of my wall jacks will fit it. Also there was a tag on the cord that says 240v.

Info that came with the light says "Plug the ballast into any household grounded outlet or appliance-duty 15 amp (or higher amperage) timer.

Can I just go to Home Depot and have them make me an extension cord with 3 of these plugs on one end so I can run three 400w ballasts, or is this european wiring or something?

I bought a cheap timer from Home Depot. I don't think the timer has a voltage rating and it's not a digital so I'm not sure if it uses any electricity for itself. Is this not a good timer to use with the lights?

I appreciate any help you can give, I really don't want to have to send the lights back if I can avoid it.

Click to expand...

Dude, that is a NEMA 6-15P a 15A 250V plug, very much American.
The blade configuration is like that so you can't plug it into a 125V receptacle.
You cannot make an extension cord with an adapter for a 15A 125V receptacle.
You must either install a 15A or 20A 250V receptacle or rewire the ballasts for 125V.

travish413 said:

Man... I know its a pain in the ass but you really need to run a separate circuit for that light. The reason it just pulls 2.5 amps is bc its on a 240 plug. You have to get the right gauge of wire for the amount of voltage that will pass through the wire or it will get too hot and catch on fire. A 240 outlet would at the least need a 30 amp breaker and you would need 10/2 wire for that. Like i said i know its a pain but you really need to wire it right or you are gonia put yourself in danger. If you can change the cord to a 120v it would pull 5 amps and you could plug it in a regular outlet, which would be easier than running new circuits. Not to sound like a stick in the mud but you really shouldnt f with elelctricity...

Click to expand...

Could you please explain how you came up with this. 12/2 Romex is rated at 20amps with a max load of .8 of the total amps. I am talking about pulling 2 amps (and only 2amps) at 240 through the same wire. I usually see the amps double from 240 down to 120. Shouldn't it be near the equivalent of running 5 or 8 or even 10amps through a 120. I am not interested in an opinion just looking to understand what the danger is because this is not adding up. A technical answer please. Just spouting out the wire standard for a breaker size is not technical enough. I understand if I where ever going to utilize more electricity but this is a single line with a single purpose run a whole 15 feet.

I have a question that I hope someone can help with. I have the 240v lumitek 1000w digi's. The intructions say to wire them with Two hots and a ground. I am going to wire these to a sub panel that I am installing in my room. Problem is that my main panel on the house has all the grounds and nuetrals mounted to the same bus bar.
So, when wiring my sub panel I know that I have to mount the grounds to the ground bar ( I added a second bus bar for grounds) and the neutrals to the neutral bars. So the grounds and the neutrals will be isolated from each other at the sub panel but when they get wired into the main panel they all go to the same ground bar. Is this safe or do I need to do something different?
Thanks in advance for any help!

The plug isn't like my dryer plug but it doesn't matter. I don't have any of the 240v plugs free anyway. But I think I may have solved my problem. I just need someone who knows electronics to let me know if I'm right.

The ballast has multi-volt power leads. I think that means it can be rewired, so I opened it. Here's what I found.

Pic 1 is the diagram on the side of the ballast.

Pic 2 is just a birds eye view of the electric wiring clusterfuck.

Pic 3 is the wire labeled 120v and as you can see it's not attatched to anything.

Pic 4 is the 240v wire which is jumpered in with one of those wire connector twisty things.

There are other unattacted wires with labels for the other voltages. (208v & 277v). The only other labeled wire that's attatched to anything is labeled Com, but if I'm reading the diagram right, then that's always attatched no matter what voltage is being used. I don't see any other labled cords or any other unattached cords.

So I'm thinking that if I unattatch the 220v wire and reattatch the 110v wire to the same wire the 220v was attatched to, then that's all that needs to be done to rewire it. Am I right?

Also, if this rewires it, then all I have to do is cut the end of the power cord and put on a "normal" male plug?

Sorry, forgot the pics. Newbie mistake. Here they are

Ichi said:

Could you please explain how you came up with this. 12/2 Romex is rated at 20amps with a max load of .8 of the total amps. I am talking about pulling 2 amps (and only 2amps) at 240 through the same wire. I usually see the amps double from 240 down to 120. Shouldn't it be near the equivalent of running 5 or 8 or even 10amps through a 120. I am not interested in an opinion just looking to understand what the danger is because this is not adding up. I understand if I where ever going to utilize more electricity but this is a single line with a single purpose run a whole 15 feet.

Click to expand...

Ok... That 15 feet of 12/2 wire is rated for a 20 amp breaker. Thats what kind of wire you run off that size of breaker. The reason it is 2 amps is the voltage going thu the wire. 600 watts /240 volts = 2.5 amps... This means you need 10 gauge wire to be safe. I am just lookin out man... Sorry for the opinion but its not safe. You are totally missing the point about the wire and what its rated for.

curioushiker said:

I have a question that I hope someone can help with. I have the 240v lumitek 1000w digi's. The intructions say to wire them with Two hots and a ground. I am going to wire these to a sub panel that I am installing in my room. Problem is that my main panel on the house has all the grounds and nuetrals mounted to the same bus bar.
So, when wiring my sub panel I know that I have to mount the grounds to the ground bar ( I added a second bus bar for grounds) and the neutrals to the neutral bars. So the grounds and the neutrals will be isolated from each other at the sub panel but when they get wired into the main panel they all go to the same ground bar. Is this safe or do I need to do something different?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Click to expand...

Yes, sounds good to me. As long as they are apart at your sub panel bc you dont want equal amounts of current going through your neurtals. But this isnt my thread and i need to quit intruding... Sorry...

Ichi said:

Thanks. The math set me strait.

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No problem man. Glad you didnt try it.

Can someone give me insight on the rewiring of my balast? Do I have everything right or is there more to it?

How can I set up a 1000 watt ballast to run two 1000 watt lights on a consecutive 12/12 light cycle

Ok, I rewired my ballast, fuck it. I can't get anyone to confirm what I'm doing it right so if I screw up the light I'll just not have a veg station.

I'm rewiring the plug now.

In the new male end I have 3 screws. The ground is green and the other two are gold & silver

In the cord there are 3 wires, green, white, & black.

I was told that green goes to green, white goes to silver, and black goes to gold.

Can someone please tell me if this is right?

I'm pretty sure all you have to get right is the ground. Wich is green

White or black shouldn't matter as long as it is grounded