how many 23 watt cfls is safe?

so ya how many 23 watt cfls could i wire up together for my grow box and safely have plugged into a normal wall outlet? i was thinking about wiring them into one single extension cord, kinda like a bigger version of a string of xmas lights(i was thinking 24 x 23watt cfls would give me almost 40k lumens), i dont want to deal with the expense and venting needs of MH and HPS since all this would cost me maybe 60 bucks to wire up, but i dont know if a wall outlet could handle that much

Electricity is not something to play with. Use a very good surge protector and keep a smoke detector and fire extinguisher handy.

ne1 know how many i can stick on one cord safely though? right now i have 4 4ft floros and 5 23w cfls and a fan on one extension cord and havnt had any problems at all, you think just sticking 12-15 of these 23watt cfls on one cord is ok?

I could see 8 26w cfl's on one outlet no problem.
Any more and you would probally trip a breaker.

It really boils down to the amps.
As long as you are under the circuit breaker limit you are ok.
It is usually 15 amps per circuit.

ok so to many would just trip the circuit? my growbox isnt gunna burst into flames or the cords rnt gunna melt and have live wires exposed or somethin then right?

i wired four 23w cfl's together, so it was like a 100w single light. i had five of these....

lestie

24 CFLs will be hot, possibly comparable to an HID or two.

hossfield said:

ok so to many would just trip the circuit? my growbox isnt gunna burst into flames or the cords rnt gunna melt and have live wires exposed or somethin then right?

Click to expand...

Could happen if you arn't careful . And for a grow box then you would probably be better off using 105 watt cfls' or bigger (if you can get them) to penetrate down through the leaves. Depends what area you want to cover - for 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft of floor I would use at least one 105 w coolwhite cfl which is what I'm using - check out my grow. Oh and not knowing any better I started with a 23 w warmwhite cfl and it did strange things to the leaves.

Good luck with it

88 steady with no ventilation (my grow, that is... winter too) with a 50cfm fan, it stayed 69f.

i run 4 - 50 watt CFLs with 4 48" flors and 2 big fans on full blast all through one good surge protector. If you run an extention cord from the wall outlet to the surge protector and run 8 cfls off it then run the last plugin on that surge protector and plug in one more protector to it and run your remaining lights...that should drop the amps. its what i did it the veg room i am setting up for my now 42 plant indoor crop. they are still babies and i have had to keep buying cfls for now and working on a guy for a huge HPS set up

w/v= a
w=552
v=120
552/120= 4.6
So 24 lights would draw 4.6 amps. I have read that 80% of a circuts cappacity is the max you should use while growing weed (though I dont know if that is the best number or not).I do know 4.6 amps is fine. if 80% is the number you use, then 62 is the most number of 23watt lights you should use is. Im prettty sure the math uptop is right, but not positive.

hey thanks thats pretty useful for me too...

so you think itd be be less heat if i used like half the bulbs but 2x the watts per bulb? my box is gunna be a a chest of drawers, so about 4.5 ft x 1.5ft x 2.5 ft...so about 17 cubic feet...and the nice thing about the 23 watt bulbs is i can get 24 on ebay for 30 bucks, my only concern now that i know a single wall outlet can handle those is heat, think itd get to hot in there without ventalation?

It will get over 130 degrees if not more if you have no ventilation.

I had 8 23w CFL's in my cab 2.5ft x 2.5ft x 1.5ft and the temp was 109 degrees, with a 80mm comp fan exhaust and passive 4inch fresh air intake.
Which by the way 4 CFLs runs 83 degrees for me under same conditions. I am looking into making the exhaust hole bigger and using a bigger fan.

you doing the samething as me, chest of draws lol
atm i have 4 23w cool white cf's, 2 on each extention cord to a pp
i plan on using 4 per lead when payday comes (8Total)
each cord is rated at high amps but my lead head is 15amp max and 2 lightbulbs will draw ~0.2 (use Ohm's Law Calculations With Power for future) no where near 15 amps
the bulbs get really hot, i cant touch them, and atleast use an osscolating fan inside too, will help stabilze total temp to a lower temp

Sorry to ask on your thread, but I was curious on this matter too.

1 400W HPS with ballast

(Plugged into one surge protector extension cord)
7 23W CFLs
5 Floro tubes...


So can i plug in the heavy duty timer first, then HPS directly to the timer, and the surge protector extension into the timer as well (7cfl's in this surge protector)? Basically Timer plugged into wall. HPS and extension plugged into timer. With all Cfls and floros plugged into extension.

can anybody tell me if this is ok?

cloud9 said:

Sorry to ask on your thread, but I was curious on this matter too.

1 400W HPS with ballast

(Plugged into one surge protector extension cord)
7 23W CFLs
5 Floro tubes...


So can i plug in the heavy duty timer first, then HPS directly to the timer, and the surge protector extension into the timer as well (7cfl's in this surge protector)? Basically Timer plugged into wall. HPS and extension plugged into timer. With all Cfls and floros plugged into extension.

can anybody tell me if this is ok?

Click to expand...

With a big set up it might be best to spread the load over 2 or 3 mcbs' so if there is a fault you don't loose all your light.

i jus bought 2more timers and more extension and found more outlets. Im jus gonna spread em out i guess. thnx for the input!