A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

whietiger88101

whietiger88101

New Member
i have three bedroom sockets in my bedroom when i go to he switch board i turn off one 20 amp switch that powers the hole bedroom if i want to run two 400 watt M.H. lights off two of the tree sockets should i be ok as long as the amps doesnt exceed 2o amps am i correct ?
 
Slixxor

Slixxor

Well-Known Member
In other words.. no, dont exceed your breaker.

I would however suggest replacing 1 of your MH's with a HPS IMO ;)
 
Rocky Mountain High

Rocky Mountain High

Well-Known Member
Hoping you can help me out with my air conditioner. We had an electrical storm last night and a 'power bump' put our power out. This morning the air conditioner in my flowering room will not come on.

It has a test and reset on the cord. The test button works, if you press it, it trips. Hit the reset button and the green light comes on, but, there is no power to the air conditioner. Will not come on. Usually when you plug it in, there is a little 'beep'. No beep, no power?

Thanks for your time, I truly appreciate it.
 

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T

total

Active Member
Rocky Mountain High said:
Hoping you can help me out with my air conditioner. We had an electrical storm last night and a 'power bump' put our power out. This morning the air conditioner in my flowering room will not come on.

It has a test and reset on the cord. The test button works, if you press it, it trips. Hit the reset button and the green light comes on, but, there is no power to the air conditioner. Will not come on. Usually when you plug it in, there is a little 'beep'. No beep, no power?

Thanks for your time, I truly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
Maybe try and clean it from time to time?
 
gumball

gumball

Well-Known Member
well 5toned will be on later, but what I would do while i wait is this. go get your multimeter, stop here if you dont have one (sorry!). follow that cable all the way to where it connects to the AC, hopefully you can get to where it is terminated. You want to do 2 things: verify that the 120 (or whatever voltage your dealing with) is getting down the cord; next look for any fuses or circuits internally which may trip or blow. AC looked a little old, so maybe its that easy. if you dont have power down the cord, i dont have any safe suggestions to give you. i think that is a GFCI, so you NEED that of course.

We were told in college that NC State did research on tieing knots in the power cable. they say if you tie a know in the cable every few 12-18 inches, then an electrical charge wont get to the device. like the knots are enough resistance. dont know if this may help in the future, but it is only a few knots. i would think that actual plug is defective. if you can open it, try to and see if you smell any burnt electrical components. and i am sure you know, unplug it first.

on another persons electrical thread i like to make sure I tell people to be safe, so be safe
 
Rocky Mountain High

Rocky Mountain High

Well-Known Member
gumball said:
well 5toned will be on later, but what I would do while i wait is this. go get your multimeter, stop here if you dont have one (sorry!). follow that cable all the way to where it connects to the AC, hopefully you can get to where it is terminated. You want to do 2 things: verify that the 120 (or whatever voltage your dealing with) is getting down the cord; next look for any fuses or circuits internally which may trip or blow. AC looked a little old, so maybe its that easy. if you dont have power down the cord, i dont have any safe suggestions to give you. i think that is a GFCI, so you NEED that of course.

We were told in college that NC State did research on tieing knots in the power cable. they say if you tie a know in the cable every few 12-18 inches, then an electrical charge wont get to the device. like the knots are enough resistance. dont know if this may help in the future, but it is only a few knots. i would think that actual plug is defective. if you can open it, try to and see if you smell any burnt electrical components. and i am sure you know, unplug it first.

on another persons electrical thread i like to make sure I tell people to be safe, so be safe
Click to expand...
right on thanks a ton. I have a friend coming by today or tomorrow with the multi meter. Very good to know on the knots, I didn't have knots but I do have some tight spots along the way. Actually pulled it out of the window and tried to open the that plug but didn't have a specialty tool for one of the screws. Dammit. I think the problem is in there.

thanks again GB, you da man !
 
tip top toker

tip top toker

Well-Known Member
Hey iamstoned, something i've been meaning to sort out for a while but never got around to.

My grow gear is plugged into a power stick which is plugged into a wall socket. My computer, hifi and tv are plugged into a stick plugged into a socket located nearby. When my HPS turns off my tv turns off for a few seconds with that "fzzt" elctronic sound (arcing or something maybe)

Any ide what is causing this and what sould be a cheap solution, i've looked at cheap £30 3 socket contactors and such, but not sure if that is the reason behind this occurence. Don't want a broken tv, certainly can't afford to replace one of those, i can maybe afford £30 though :D ta, T
 
gumball

gumball

Well-Known Member
Rocky Mountain High said:
right on thanks a ton. I have a friend coming by today or tomorrow with the multi meter. Very good to know on the knots, I didn't have knots but I do have some tight spots along the way. Actually pulled it out of the window and tried to open the that plug but didn't have a specialty tool for one of the screws. Dammit. I think the problem is in there.

thanks again GB, you da man !
Click to expand...
no problem, i am sure 5toned will be here later and check my work, but I think i gave you some good direction without hurting anything. sucks about the specialty tools, half my tools have been modded into specialty tools, but only if i knew it would work!
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Rocky Mountain High said:
Hoping you can help me out with my air conditioner. We had an electrical storm last night and a 'power bump' put our power out. This morning the air conditioner in my flowering room will not come on.

It has a test and reset on the cord. The test button works, if you press it, it trips. Hit the reset button and the green light comes on, but, there is no power to the air conditioner. Will not come on. Usually when you plug it in, there is a little 'beep'. No beep, no power?

Thanks for your time, I truly appreciate it.
Click to expand...
that led only indicates that the line voltage is present @ the outlet, not that that same voltage is actually reaching the a/c unit. it may be that the protected cord is fried..... i would get a new male cord end, cut off that old gfi, and try the new end. testing with a multimeter will require you to take the a/c unit apart to get to the termination point of the wiring.
its pretty comon for a gfci protected outlet to go bac after a good surge. in my exp, its not the outlet the cord is plugged into that is the problem, but the cord itself.
also, check for any internal fuses or breakers on the a/c unit, often they have a resetable breaker hidden on the back side.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
tip top toker said:
Hey iamstoned, something i've been meaning to sort out for a while but never got around to.

My grow gear is plugged into a power stick which is plugged into a wall socket. My computer, hifi and tv are plugged into a stick plugged into a socket located nearby. When my HPS turns off my tv turns off for a few seconds with that "fzzt" elctronic sound (arcing or something maybe)

Any ide what is causing this and what sould be a cheap solution, i've looked at cheap £30 3 socket contactors and such, but not sure if that is the reason behind this occurence. Don't want a broken tv, certainly can't afford to replace one of those, i can maybe afford £30 though :D ta, T
Click to expand...
its called voltage drop, and it is being caused by an inruch current that is created when your lamps start up.
theres only 2 ways to fix it-
1- split the load... ie, find another circuit to run your HPS, or your tv on.
2- increase the conductor size, this involves repulling all the wire on the circuit in question to a larger gauge, like #10awg.

a wire can only carry a certain amount of amperage during any given time period. when your lights kick on, the ballast creates a very low resistance path to ground, and since electricity follows the path of least resistance to ground, all the power on that circuit tries to run through the ballast core. that is an inrush curent... the ballast is a better path to ground than the tv, and since they share the same circuit, the power that is normally running the tv tries to run through the ballast instead. the inrush will create heat in the ballast core, which in turns adds resistance, and then the inrush resolves itself as the resistance to the circuit increases. because your wire, is not big enough to handle the inrush, voltage drop occurs... voltage drop because the voltage that would be running your tv drops to zero as it redirects to the ballast......
 
tip top toker

tip top toker

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
its called voltage drop, and it is being caused by an inruch current that is created when your lamps start up.
theres only 2 ways to fix it-
1- split the load... ie, find another circuit to run your HPS, or your tv on.
2- increase the conductor size, this involves repulling all the wire on the circuit in question to a larger gauge, like #10awg.

a wire can only carry a certain amount of amperage during any given time period. when your lights kick on, the ballast creates a very low resistance path to ground, and since electricity follows the path of least resistance to ground, all the power on that circuit tries to run through the ballast core. that is an inrush curent... the ballast is a better path to ground than the tv, and since they share the same circuit, the power that is normally running the tv tries to run through the ballast instead. the inrush will create heat in the ballast core, which in turns adds resistance, and then the inrush resolves itself as the resistance to the circuit increases. because your wire, is not big enough to handle the inrush, voltage drop occurs... voltage drop because the voltage that would be running your tv drops to zero as it redirects to the ballast......
Click to expand...
This is only when the light turns off, not on :S
 
Rocky Mountain High

Rocky Mountain High

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
that led only indicates that the line voltage is present @ the outlet, not that that same voltage is actually reaching the a/c unit. it may be that the protected cord is fried..... i would get a new male cord end, cut off that old gfi, and try the new end. testing with a multimeter will require you to take the a/c unit apart to get to the termination point of the wiring.
its pretty comon for a gfci protected outlet to go bac after a good surge. in my exp, its not the outlet the cord is plugged into that is the problem, but the cord itself.
also, check for any internal fuses or breakers on the a/c unit, often they have a resetable breaker hidden on the back side.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot I truly appreciate it. I have a friend who said the same, replace the gfi cord. He's gonna do it for me. right on for the response.
 
Slixxor

Slixxor

Well-Known Member
Rocky mountain high, typically most devices have a mains fuse prior to any other component. I would suggest checking that fuse first, it fixes problems 95% of the time.

Alternatively; if the fuse is ok, I suggest looking for a square shaped component or 4 diodes wired in series back on itself, this is called a bridge rectifier (It converts AC to DC) when you find the 2 wires coming off the diode block that are NOT mains wires keep an eye out for an electrolytic cap, typically 470u - 1000u which is in parallel with the anode and cathodes. This capacitor is used for smoothing the input of the DC rail. If this capacitor looks "bulged" out then carefully remove it from the bored using some solder wick and replace it.

Short of that, get your multimeter and test everything! - keeping in mind mains is dangerous of course, I believe in the "Dont plug it in while working on it" principle, even when testing I will manually connect the mains plug only when trying something new and then disconnecting it straight after.

- Slix
 
Slixxor

Slixxor

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
its called voltage drop, and it is being caused by an inruch current that is created when your lamps start up.
theres only 2 ways to fix it-
1- split the load... ie, find another circuit to run your HPS, or your tv on.
2- increase the conductor size, this involves repulling all the wire on the circuit in question to a larger gauge, like #10awg.

a wire can only carry a certain amount of amperage during any given time period. when your lights kick on, the ballast creates a very low resistance path to ground, and since electricity follows the path of least resistance to ground, all the power on that circuit tries to run through the ballast core. that is an inrush curent... the ballast is a better path to ground than the tv, and since they share the same circuit, the power that is normally running the tv tries to run through the ballast instead. the inrush will create heat in the ballast core, which in turns adds resistance, and then the inrush resolves itself as the resistance to the circuit increases. because your wire, is not big enough to handle the inrush, voltage drop occurs... voltage drop because the voltage that would be running your tv drops to zero as it redirects to the ballast......
Click to expand...
This is very true, high wattage lights run awfully close to a dead short with only a very small resistive load on the ballast. change breakers :)
 
T

total

Active Member
IAm5toned said:
its always better to have less components. less components = less points of failure.

the real trick is figuring how to do the same job with less parts ;)
Click to expand...
that means basically im going to have a 6 socket extension lead with probably 4 or more of them plugged in (500watts or thereabouts) and all ready to go at the same time once the main (only) timer turns on?

is it not safer to have a few different timers switching on a few minutes after each other?
 
Slixxor

Slixxor

Well-Known Member
Total, that depends.

Do you need multiple timers running that switch on or off at random intervals from eachother?

Are you exceeding the maximum wattage rating of the timer?

If you answered NO to the above questions then I would suggest using the 1 timer, I know people will say "dont put all your eggs in 1 basket" in case the timer fails, honestly though I have never had this occur. Plus, as Iam5toned says, keep it simple with less room or faults, which I like as a mentallity.https://www.rollitup.org/members/iam5toned-171064.html

At the end of the day the wizzbang timer I use with all the bells and whistles only uses exactly 1 watt to run itelf so the consumption overheads of a timer are quite low.
 
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