you need a separate wire for both power and ground, per light socket. run one wire for each, and splice them all together with a power chord available at any hardware store or cut up an old one from a lamp nobody uses or something. pretty basic wiring. if that doesnt make any sense let me know and ill think of a better way to explain it. does that make sense im baked lo. use butt or those wingnut connectors i think i used 12 or 14 gauge stranded wire.
Just do a search in the grow forumm for 'cfl'. There's a wealth of information from people who took the time to post everything you need to know. That's how I learned. Good luck!
Some folks have no way to set up the type of heat exhaust system that all MH/HPS lights require. With CFL's you dont have to worry about heat exhaust. Everybody knows MH/HPS are the best for flowering and vegging. But they are useless without proper heat exhaut - you'll just burn your plants. when people choose CFL there are generally valid reasons for it. CFL's can bud weed. Too many people have posted pics of nice buds using nothing but CFL lighting for that to even be a debate anymore.
How many lumens do your lights produce in total? It's not the wattage that matters really, it's the lumens. I've read some posts by people who seem to be having success with CFL's that say a minimum of 10,000 lumens of CFL light will bud plants in a space no more than 2'x2' wide. Your grow box shape is great. You have no wasted space horizontally, and no height restrictions (your grow box looks tall in the picture). you should easily be able to bud with CFL's in this box. Good luck dude! Post more pics when your plants bud! Every time Every time a CFL grower posts pics of nicely budded plants it helps dispell the myth that CFL wont bud plants! If you want to see a reall CFL pro in action, check out the threads by DrBudGreenGenes here at GC, then follow him to ICMag.com to see his latest posts on the subject. He's got a degree in horticulture, and been growing inside and out for 25 years. There are plenty of nice pics in all his posts to show his great success budding with CFL's!
Nice bubble bucket! Did you build it yourself? If so, whose plan did you follow? Can yu post spomething on this? Thanx.
just wondering what size pvc you used for the frame and can i just find like one long neg n pos cord at home depot or something n just cut that up to wire the lights
good job getting all of the last of the wires connected together... im having a bitch of a time at it right now, had to take a vape break...
wow, i have been looking for a nice cheap box to build, and a way to get rid of all the wires. i'm going to have to copy your ideas if thats okay
so i ened up letting a friend borrow my 400 watt hps/mh cuz i just couldnt cool it in my box, and i have ended up using cfl's in a cab, that im about to get a sog perpetual harvest going. This will work great for my mother/clone area and will take up less space in my small cab. Gonna try making one of these today i think. might even be motivated to make two of them and use one in my flowering area just for better light distrubtion. one last question to make sure im 100% clear..... can i cut the female end off a extension cord and then wire all of the lights to that ONE single power and plug it in? i just dont want to overload a single main power cord, or should i wire each one to a separte plug and plug all of them into a power strip? +rep for the great design!!!
As shown in the following pic, all wires go to the main power wire, just one cord comes from the light and is plugged in. If i didnt do it before, +rep.... I finished mine earlier in the week and even though i got the idea from someone who got it from you, much props. My price list is as follows.... DIY Light bar 1/2"x10' PVC _____________________________________ $1.90 1/2" PVC elbows X4 @ $0.28 ________________________ $1.12 Jack chain 12' @ $0.43 per foot_____________________ $5.16 Misc wire ________________________________________ $5.72 4 Porcelain sockets @ 1.39 ________________________ $5.56 1 male plug end __________________________________ $2.19 2 double sockets @ $2.48__________________________ $4.96 1 sheet of metal for the hood ______________________ $6.51 Total $33.12
Sorry to bring up such and old post but I was still confused as to how you wired the lights and needed some further explanation. When buying the light sockets they simply have the socket by themselves. Do you need to buy wiring so that you can connect the sockets to the main power supply or do they come with cords attached ? and if you do need to buy separate wire what size ??? Wish someone had made a step by step tutorial on how to make this. If someone can explain it further and I figure out how to make one I myself wouldnt mind posting a further in depth tutorial on how to build one so noobs like myself would more easily beable to build one. My apologize on my lacking electrical experience and thanks to anyone who can help me out . !
Thanks for the ideas.. I just built a monster, it's 16 X 27 with 6 sockets. With socket splitters I now have 12 26 watt CFLs.. 312 watts... whoo hoo.. takes 5 minutes to get my vision back after going in to visit...lol Funny, I started this first grow cuz I was bored and it's really taking off.. G 1 Week Vacation
This is a nice idea! Going to rip the lights out of my mini-fridge flower box and setup one of these so I can fit 4 more. This will save me a huge headache since I won't have to embed, caulk, and 'Great Stuff' 6 different porcelean sockets in the inner walls of my box. Excellent design, and as simple as can be for wiring, a little jealous I didn't think of it first, haha.
Hey geoholl, I am trying to do the exact same setup as you have. Almost done and am quite pleased with it thus far. One question though, how in the world did you splice all the hot and neutral wires into the one lamp cord at the end. I have no idea how to do that, right now I have 6 sockets each with their own set of hot and neutral wires that all run to one central opening. So ... now do i just expose a long section of the power cord (side with plug attached) and splice all six neutrals or hots on to their respective lines and wrap it up tight as shit with electrical tape??? ... Sounds sketchy.... Or do I need to solder the wires on to their counterparts on the power cord (plugged side) and then wrap that shit tight as hell in electrical tape??? What did you do?
Respect and manners, Sorry, I realize this thread is a bit old, but if anyone can help out on how to wire multiple hot and neutral wires (coming from multiple light sockets) to one power cord (regular lamp cord/zip cord power plug rated for 300w) I would be very grateful. Do I need to solder all the connections to the main power line? or can I just wrap/twist them all and then tape? I am almost tempted to just wire all the six sockets to six separate power cords and just deal with a huge ass surge/power brick to plug in. But, I worked really hard to make thus such a clean light assembly I have to at least try first.