Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

one11

Active Member
if using romex,you need 10/2 (it has 2 wires plus a ground wire) if you use extension cord wire ,you need 10/3. standard 10/2 romex will cost about $100 for a 250 roll. romex rated for direct burial will be almost double. that being said,standard romex will last for several years if buried- I buried a 12 foot piece to my gazebo about 8 yrs ago w/out problems...YET!
another option is to buy PVC pipe (under $2 for a 10 foot stick) & run the wire in that.last time I bought 10 gauge Thhn wire, a 500 foot roll was about $75.-Thhn is a single conductor that needs to be run in pipe so you would need 750 feet. $80 should cover the cost for 1/2 pvc pipe,clamps &boxes needed.romex or extension cord wire should not be run in pipe.
cheapest option would be to buy a 250 roll of 12/2 romex & use the extension cord you already have & double them up- tie both blacks together,both whites,& both grounds.this is not to code for many reasons but would be reasonable safe for several yrs & give you the power you need.I'm guessing if found, electric code violations are the least of your problems.
to review
best & to code would be PVC and Thhn wire-this would be to code & allow another circuit to be added later- a little over $200
next would be direct burial 10/2 Romex- also to code & under $200.
breaking code but safe for short term(4-5 yrs) would be 10/2 romex not rated for burial.-about $100
cheapest/dirtiest but safe for short term,12/2 romex buried w/ the 12/3 cord you already have & joined at both ends


thanks mr.madcow. when it goes into investing into something, extra bucks go a long way. u'lll probably here more questions from me in the near future.
 
I'm sure when bricktown started this thread, even he was aware how out of hand it would get. Of course there are many people on RIU with close or equivalent knowledge that would be more than glad to contribute. 5 star thread.
 

phatsexygirlz

Active Member
i gotta question if someone is still there, I'm helping my friend start up at grow room but his house is hella old and only has 2 pronged outlets, so we installed one of those adapters http://www.adorama.com/ZZAC32.html?sid=1265981739269149 but when we plug a ground tester in to it, it indicates it is an "open ground" he is just gonna be running one 1000 out of it so i assume its ok, what do you guys think, any danger?
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
it tests open ground because thats what is going on there....


is it safe? meh.... put it too you like this, it wouldnt pass an osha inspection, or any safety inspection for that matter.
will it work- sure.

ill give you a hint tho- see the little tab on the bottom of the plug adapter?
remove the screw that holds the plastic cover on the outlet.
plug in the plug adapter.
put the screw back in, passing it through the tab on the plug adapter.

if you still have an open ground after that, then you either have plastic boxes with no conduit inside your walls, or the outlets themselves are otherwise 'floating' above ground. (floating means ungrounded, but conductive)
 

Gildo

Member
Looking to wire 4-5 cpu case fans in parallel to a single dc supply. What do i need to do??? Any help would be appriciated....expecially with wiring diagrams :)
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Looking to wire 4-5 cpu case fans in parallel to a single dc supply. What do i need to do??? Any help would be appriciated....expecially with wiring diagrams :)
black to black, red to red.
ignore the rest of the wires.
do not exceed the wattage of the power supply by adding too many motors, though i doubt you will do this, lol, it would take dozens of fans.
 

Gildo

Member
black to black, red to red.
ignore the rest of the wires.
do not exceed the wattage of the power supply by adding too many motors, though i doubt you will do this, lol, it would take dozens of fans.
doesn't matter if they are 2,3 for wire? and can different fans be put together or do they need to be the same? Thanks for your speedy response!
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
lol rereadiong your original post i just realized you said single dc power supply... for some reason i thought you said single pc power supply. wandering inverted dyslexia i guess...

ok, well using a single dc power supply to run multiple fans can be done quite easily, but there some things you need to keep in mind-

1- do not exceed the rated wattage of the power supply. all power supplies will have the max wattage/amperage stamped on it somewhere.
2- do not accidentally reverse polarity when you hook up the fans. this means make sure positive is positive and negative is negative. on most of the power supplies that have cords, the white striped/marked wire is typically the positive. note i said most. ive seen quite a few where the opposite was true, and have burned them up before i learned to verify the polarity before i hooked stuff up to them.
3- make sure the output voltage of the power supply is the same as your fans. dont try to use a 3.5vdc power supply(like a typical cell phone charger) to run a 12vdc fan.

 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
its funny how many people just dont get that simple statement...

everyone wants a lb in 2 weeks but no one wants to shell out the thousands it takes to get a setup capable of it.
*just* that statement? :weed: People miss a LOT of the simple stuff. Case in point: customer buys a 1/2 - 1 million dollar machine, then tries to cheap out on crappy gas lines, regulators and gas. Seen it too many times.

Do it right or stop ya bitching about the inferior results; is my take on things. (aka: garbage in garbage out. also weakest link syndrome)

I see you still answer the same Qs time after time. I gave up. A little search will result in *thousands* of posts about wiring up a PC fan.(I also, typically, stay out of posts where the guy is totally in over his head, just safer for all involved)
 

phatsexygirlz

Active Member
it tests open ground because thats what is going on there....


ill give you a hint tho- see the little tab on the bottom of the plug adapter?
remove the screw that holds the plastic cover on the outlet.
plug in the plug adapter.
put the screw back in, passing it through the tab on the plug adapter.

if you still have an open ground after that, then you either have plastic boxes with no conduit inside your walls, or the outlets themselves are otherwise 'floating' above ground. (floating means ungrounded, but conductive)

exactly! I screwed the ground ring in and its still read "Open Ground", i thought when you screwed that in that it meant it would be grounded but oh well, we'll figure something else out.. thanks for answering !
 

mrmadcow

Well-Known Member
i don't know which wire is the + or - cpu fan.
its 115v a/c... the polarity shouldnt matter.
what does mater is that fan gets wired to a male plug to go directly to an outlet & not run to a dc powersupply

exactly! I screwed the ground ring in and its still read "Open Ground", i thought when you screwed that in that it meant it would be grounded but oh well, we'll figure something else out.. thanks for answering !
if you have an waterpipe nearby,you could run a wire from it to the metal ring on the adaptor but if the outlet is not grounded & in an old house,I would question the safety of the outlet to run any load through it.
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
if you have an waterpipe nearby,you could run a wire from it to the metal ring on the adaptor but if the outlet is not grounded & in an old house,I would question the safety of the outlet to run any load through it.
dont even try that.... just dont.
you do not ever retrofit a coldwater ground after the fact.

cold water grounds must be terminated on the pipe 6' or less from the waterpipe's point of entry into the building strucutre, not randomly throughout the building.

if you did that and a short circuit condition occured, you could kill your neighbor or someone in your house using a sink or shower.

the reason being that it has to do with the direction or circuit path of the potential fault... there are simply too many variables to take into consideration there to take the chance of doing something like that... the circumstances of it happening are slim to none, i know that, but it has happened in the past so it is possible to happen again.
 

mrmadcow

Well-Known Member
dont even try that.... just dont.
you do not ever retrofit a coldwater ground after the fact.
good catch!
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to IAm5toned again.
I always thought the reason to ground within 6 feet of entry was to prevent the pipe from being disconnected and losing ground.either by being cut out of the system or having a section replace w/ pvc.
not to argue or dispute you but seeking knowledge, are you saying that the pipe could become energized and feed though the water to the drain(and anyone in its path)?
that makes sense & in that case,please admend my advice to running a wire to the breaker panel or water meter -altho I still question the ability to run a load on that outlet.
 
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