CFL Wiring Help

Discussion in 'Growing Marijuana Indoors' started by cfltomatoes, Feb 23, 2009.

  1. Hello. I'm trying to setup a small indoor grow and I purchased this strip of lights, but I don't know much about electricity. I've read a little and grasp wiring one light, but I don't know how I would do this strip of lights. I've included two pictures. There are six wires total. Two bare, two white and two black. I would like to wire it to a plug, if this is possible.

    Help would be fantastic. Thanks.
     

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  2. Two ways to do this. First off the reason there are two of each wire is because it is wired in parallel. The way the manufacturer of that strip did it is very poor.

    So 1) Find an extension cord, chop the side with the plug off with whatever length you want.. peel back or cut off the casing to expose the wires.. They should be the same colors as those in your fixture.. remove the insulation from the wires in the extension cord. Braid the exposed copper parts of like colors together on the fixture so to make them one, and then just connect (splice) black to black, white to white, and the bare copper wire to the bare wires :) apply electrical tape to each connection and then the entire exposed part where the wires are spliced together.

    2) Go to home depot, in the electrical section there are heavy-duty "plugs" that are really handy. In this case you will need some extra length of wire so explain to the guy what you are doing and he will get you your shit. Also if you go this route pick up some wire nuts so you can do it right. The base of the "plugs" twist open, and then you use a screwdriver to secure the wires inside the plug. Using the wire nuts, splice the like wires together and viola :)

    hope this helped :)
     
  3. thanks. sharpshooter.

    cheers.
     
  4. Yup,what he said!
     

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