Just a question about my set up

Hey all,


I'd like to start off by saying how great these forums and the helpful people who post are. I've been doing my research on this site for just about a year now, and have found so much helpful and useful information. I have done several outdoor grows and am about to start off my first indoor.(hense all the research into lighting, hydro and what not, if you're going to do something, might as well do it right.) I just started building a stealth box today, going to go with CFL's and soil as soil is what I know best and a good place to start. What I was wondering is, has anyone ran all of their equipment off of one surge bar plugged into a single 110 outlet, and not burned their babies and house to the ground? I am hoping to run 15-20 23W CFL's (wired in a series in groups of four or five fixtures) my exhaust fan and ventilation fan. This plug is wired to its own breaker, and I plan to use a good surge protector also equiped with its own breaker. Any advice or tips on how to try to set this up on one plug would be greatly appreciated.

murpeys law.

"What could go wrong, will go wrong" Yeah I hear ya man. The only problem is, I just had this house built this year and unfortunately theres only one outlet in my basement... yeah one outlet, ridiculous I know but my own fault probably. So I am just wondering if anyone has run their own set up in this fasion.

i wouldnt risk, it may burn your house down . 460 most, that seems a lot for one plug, even 250 hps have a ballast, i may be wrong.
lots of the guys here, grow with flo's. maybe one of them will be able to help you?.

ohms law will help you figure this one out...

an average household 120v outlet is rated to draw a max of 15 amps before the wiring is undersized and the breaker trips...

(20) 23w cfls makes a total of 460w

to find amp draw you divide the total wattage (460) and supply voltage (120v) will tell you the light setup is going to draw 3.8 amps, round to 4 amps, so....

you subtract the 4 amps you are drawing on the circuit now you have 11 amps to spare before you have problems...

the namplate on the back of your ventilation fans will give you a max amp draw number, you will need to subtract that number from your remaining 11 amps, i have 2 fans and they both draw 4 amps max combined, you will need to figure out whether you are going to run 1,2,3 fans etc.. and combine the total amp draw of the fan, so lets say you were using 2 fans that draw a max of 3 amps each then subtract 6 more amps from your 11 amps you have left until the breaker trips....

now you are drawing a total of 10 amps (avg. vacuum cleaner) it would work fine only if you use that one circuit for your plants and only your plants, it will leave a 5 amp breathing room for your lights, if you try to plug something onto the same breaker circuit then it will trip possibly a fire if the wiring is in bad/old shape

That pretty well sums it up I guess. You couldn't have explained that clearer. Thanks a lot for the great info. I feel much better. I am no electrician but, it seems (by what numbers I see) that my cfl set up will draw the same amount if not more juice as a 400w HPS ballast, hence noticebly increasing my bill. An increase in my bill is sort of what I am hoping to avoid by using energy efficient bulbs. Perhaps I should use less, but this would be just be adequate for 3-5 plants which is my target garden. should I just buy a 400W set up?

use the cfls if you want but i think you will be much happier with hps

first ... yea that guy above is right... but hes to smart for me... so ima say it like this... you can run a 400w hps on one plug so why not 400 w worth of cfls... i'd also like to say that you should get an hps... it will give you the same amount of lumens for half the watts and will prolly be cheaper in the long run... you can get hps of ebay or something for less then 150... ..and all the people on this forum who post to help people are assholes