Wiring a PSU to Grow cupboard. Help needed.

smil3y

smil3y

Active Member
Hey Guys,

Im doing a stealth grow in my cupboard and havent much of an idea about connecting up power.

I have a 700w Artic Power PSU ATX12V v2.2 compliant spare and was hoping to use this for powering a bathroom Extractor fan (220-240V -AC 50hz 17 Watts IPX4) and 4 x PC fans for cooling.

I intend to have a ballast with 4 T5 80w tubes and possibly an additional 2 CFL's on the side for an added kick (check out my other post for pics)

Problem i'm having is Im unsure how I am going to connect this all up, I assume the ballast for the lights will be wired directly to a socket but for the fans is 700w PSU overkill? I have other PSU's lying about from old PC's I could use them but as I have no idea about hooking PSU's upto anything other than a PC I really dont have any idea what my best option is or how I go about wiring it all up, If anyone with the knowledge could help me out I'd be very grateful :)

Regards,
 
bird mcbride

bird mcbride

Well-Known Member
you can use any 2amp 12vdc power supply to run your pc fans. ATX power supplies require the motherboard to turn them on and off, no ram, no processor, no cards, just the mother board. My power supply burn't out in my led tv and I noticed it is 12vdc so I hooked an ATX power supply with motherboard and its worked for over a year like this. The fans should have plugins that plug into the power supply. I use speaker wire to lengthen 12vdc computer fan cords and electrical tape.
 
9

9867mike777

Well-Known Member
Just because your computer power supply says 700 watts, doesn't mean it is using a lot of power. I used a spare ATX power supply to run all my computer fans in the grow room. It works fine and doesn't use much power. If you short two of the pins on the ATX power cord that goes the motherboard, the power supply will stay on all the time. Google to find out which pins to short. i shorted them with a paperclip, which I taped over with duct tape. The biggest hassle is extending the power cords to the fans. I use some speaker wire.
 
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