Hello all, Ive been lurking on here now for several weeks just reading and learning and I have a question.... I have everything I need is pretty much mapped out for my 1st grow setup....I'll post another thread about it in a month or so when everything is set to go. Im trying to figure out how Im going to wire screw in mounted light sockets so I can use several CFL's. Do these usually come with some sort of wall plug or would I have to wire them all together myself? I'm not too handy with the electric. I read that CFL's dont require a ballist so I assumed the sockets would just have a power wire coming out of them...this doenst seem to be the case and Im not sure how im going to wire and power these lights without having to splice wires. Any comments or suggestions would be really appreicated. Thanks
I don't think you understand the terminology. CFLs are lightbulbs, so they don't have any wires coming out of them. They do need a ballast but it is built into the base of the bulb, so true that you don't need to worry about a separate ballast. If you want to run a bunch of CFLs you need some sort of light fixture that has multiple sockets. The kind made for bathrooms works well. Also some folks just get a cheap power strip that has 6 outlets on it and then buy a bunch of adapters that plug into an outlet on one end and have a light socket on the other. You don't wire CFLs together.
I knew that there werent cords coming out of the bulbs themselves Although that would be a nice timesaver The bathroom fixture is a good idea. Most setups Ive seen though in the hardware store though require the setup to be wired to a power and ground electric line in the house....like if I was installing overhead lights or something. I havent found anything yet that has just a power cord coming out of the fixture....unless its something like a desk lamp. I just wanted to rig several sockets together and then just plug them into a regular outlet. Is there anything like this or will I need to wire the sockets together and then into some sort of power supply? Maybe I should outline my plan before getting ahead of myself here... Im going to buy an unfinished kitchen cabinet from the hardware store for my stealth box.... I want to use the SOG method to greatly reduce my veg time so the box will only be about 3.5' tall or so. For lights I wanted to use some veg and flower CFLs I found on 1000bulbs. I wanted to rig the sockets on a wooden rectangle or something and attach a pulley to it (not sure if Ill need this with doing SOG) I have no idea how to wire this all together though as I stated above. I assumed that the sockets had actual power cords with plugs coming off them...but again I havent found any like this. I'll get a little more detailed with the setup and my plans here soon, but I wanted to plan everything out before actually buying anything.... and this lighting thing has me confused...Im also going to spend a few more weeks reading some journals of people that have used a similar setup/plan. I assume I'll butcher this 1st grow attempt am probably mis-using a lot of terms here, but Ive always wanted to do try this on a serious basis and finding this board was the motivation I needed to get started. Seems like you guys have a really cool community here. Any other suggestions you guys have would be really helpful....thanks for your input toasty.
Example.... I found this setup http://www.arcadianlighting.com/mx-4456.html that I think would work well...but theres just 2 wires coming out (power/ground) How do I plug it into the wall?
the CFL system can be, and actually is very easy to work with. You can't simply buy a fixture with a large amount of sockets that will have a power cord on it. My advice to you would be to buy a piece of plywood and figure out how to attach individual sockets to it. As far as size and how to go about mounting. You may want to drill holes for the sockets to sit in or at least for the wires. To wire something like that you have to take your power cord to be attached and wire all neg. and pos. lines to eachother and then to the correct wire from your power cord. I can't think of a simple way to exlain how to do this in an organized fashion but using octogon or square electrical boxes to connect them all in and run lines out of them to connect the boxes to the power cord. it would cut down on your wire total if you manage it properly. But if you get all that figured out you could probably build one for relatively cheap. The bulbs will most likely be the main cost
and another thing about those hardwire fixtures. You can simple connect negative to negative and positive to postive on a cord with a plug on the end. It very simple. You can buy a 5' length from a hardware store and a male plug end and voila! you'll just need to make sure you run the right lines to each other but that all you gotta do to wire up a fixture to plug into the wall. hopefully that helps you out
Yeah, the wiring on those isn't a big deal. Here's an alternative... Get a standard 6-outlet power strip like this: Add six of these: Then get 6 CFL bulbs. Or, add six of these: Then get 12 CFL bulbs. All of this can be found at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace, etc for cheap.
if getting an extension make sure its got a power surge on it as if you plug all them into the extension then right into wall socket it'll blow the fuse mate.
I thought 100 watt CFLS were 26 watts. So 2 is = to 1 regular 60 watt bulb. it shouldnt blow should it?