fire safety???

bboysoccer47

bboysoccer47

Member
im looking to build a grow room out of some lumber from lowes and line it with mylar and use numerous cfl lights to grow with. I am looking to make the box 36"L x 48"h x 12"D and looking to grow about 3-4 plants...i am currently having trouble finding a fixture or plans on how to make a fixture for the cfl's but does anyone think that there might be a fire risk in building to box out of wood?
 
doobnVA

doobnVA

Well-Known Member
I don't see any problems with building it out of wood. CFLs put out very little heat, so they really aren't a fire hazard in that respect. As long as you don't overload your circuits and short anything out in the box, you should be fine.
 
bboysoccer47

bboysoccer47

Member
bewareofdogandowner said:
1500 watts per 20 amp ckt.
Click to expand...

dude im not an electrician...yes i will go to lowes and yes i will ask but for now i have found two 105w bulbs and fixtures that will plug into a wall socket and i just wanna kno if that will be little enough not to overload it...so is a regular 120v wall socket a 20 amp circuit?
 
bewareofdogandowner

bewareofdogandowner

Active Member
so your pulling 210 watts , and yes 15 or 20 amps @ 120v are your standard wall outlet. your oven ,if electric is 50 amps, 240v. and your dryer would be a 30 amp, 240v you can put 20 amps to a #12 romex, or 15 amps to a # 14 romex
you can put 1500 watts on a 20a ckt.

easy way to figure how many lights you can put on a ckt.
1. find ckt current rating ie: 15 or 20 amps
2. select voltage: 120 or 240
3. multiply
4. the answer is in WATTS
5. add up the wattage of your fixtures and presto a safe installation
 
S

Stonefish

Active Member
bboysoccer47 said:
dude im not an electrician...yes i will go to lowes and yes i will ask but for now i have found two 105w bulbs and fixtures that will plug into a wall socket and i just wanna kno if that will be little enough not to overload it...so is a regular 120v wall socket a 20 amp circuit?
Click to expand...
You're good. You will not overload a circuit with 2- 105 watt lights (less than 2 amps).....this assumes that you aren't on the same circuit as a pair of 600 watt HID's. All of my 120 outlets are on 15 amp breakers.
20 amp outlets have a different pin configuration, if I am not mistaken.
Just remember this- amps x volts = watts. I try not to exceed more than 10 amps per circuit, not to be confused with 10 amps per socket.
 
doobnVA

doobnVA

Well-Known Member
Should be fine unless you live in a really old house with crappy wiring. Even then, I don't think it would be a problem unless the wiring is really, really, really outdated or has been effed with somehow.

If you overload the circuit, it'll trip the breaker, is all. Nothing major to worry about there, just have a flashlight handy =)
 
doobnVA

doobnVA

Well-Known Member
bewareofdogandowner said:
so your pulling 210 watts , and yes 15 or 20 amps @ 120v are your standard wall outlet. your oven ,if electric is 50 amps, 240v. and your dryer would be a 30 amp, 240v you can put 20 amps to a #12 romex, or 15 amps to a # 14 romex
you can put 1500 watts on a 20a ckt.

easy way to figure how many lights you can put on a ckt.
1. find ckt current rating ie: 15 or 20 amps
2. select voltage: 120 or 240
3. multiply
4. the answer is in WATTS
5. add up the wattage of your fixtures and presto a safe installation
Click to expand...
According to this formula, your 210W of light will not be an issue unless you have a 1v circuit.

Overloading a circuit will simply cause the breaker to trip, assuming your breakers are working properly. Not really a fire hazard, I don't think.
 
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