How far can I run a 600w with extension cords?

Hey, so I have a Sour Diesel outdoors that is resisting reveg and Id like to hit it with a couple extra hours of light with a spare 600w I have but I would have to run about 300 feet of extension cords, just wondering if thats ok cuz I really dont want to start a fire
Thx all!

Thats a long stretch if I were u I would use a heavy duty outdoor cord that as at least rated at 12/3 15 amp to prevent a fire. I bought a 100 footer last year and it ran me about 90 bucks that's a couple extra hundred bucks to get a lil extra light.. just let mother nature re-veg she will be fine just give her time still 2 more months left of veg..
[h=1][/h]hope this info helps

Yeah I have some serious cords, they arent labeled but they are the big 3 prong orange contractor ones, not some BS wal mart crap but Im not sure about the amps... I have quite a bit of experience with reveggin actually and usually just let em go but I can tell this ones resisting for sure, my other 23 are pretty much revegged and this one could be a monster too if I can get it to flip. only a week or so from the longest day of the year so im losing patience lol

That's way to far man. It's too late and I'm too tired to bust out my NEC and do the calculations, but I am almost certain the voltage drop would be so great that the light might not even kick on.

I'm going to go ahead and move this over to the grow room design forum. Think you might get better advice over there.

sonar said:

That's way to far man. It's too late and I'm too tired to bust out my NEC and do the calculations, but I am almost certain the voltage drop would be so great that the light might not even kick on.

I'm going to go ahead and move this over to the grow room design forum. Think you might get better advice over there.

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Thanks man, thought about posting there but figured the plants outside.... Was afraid of that voltage drop but im a bioligist not an electrician so idk for sure

CannabisCorps said:

Thanks man, thought about posting there but figured the plants outside.... Was afraid of that voltage drop but im a bioligist not an electrician so idk for sure

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Hey i might be an electrician, but he's maybe wrong i'm assuming you're going to have your standard 12awg ext cords i figure you could run that light and maybe a few other things. The max amount that you could use would be around 3 amps because then the voltage drop would go below 3% i bet you lights only like 1amp so if your only powering that you can go father. Try it out anyway what the worst that can happen

sonar said:

That's way to far man. It's too late and I'm too tired to bust out my NEC and do the calculations, but I am almost certain the voltage drop would be so great that the light might not even kick on.

I'm going to go ahead and move this over to the grow room design forum. Think you might get better advice over there.

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I agree. Over that distance (with extension cords), you'd get about a 5% drop, maybe more. That's a lot of waste heat.
Each and every connection with an extension cord is a power loss.

If I had to do it, I'd use a single length of 30A dryer cable (maybe even something heavier). 40m of 8/3 is about $400.00

I'd think that a small/cheap generator would be no more expensive, and a lot less work and trouble.

Dj1209 said:

Hey i might be an electrician, but he's maybe wrong i'm assuming you're going to have your standard 12awg ext cords i figure you could run that light and maybe a few other things. The max amount that you could use would be around 3 amps because then the voltage drop would go below 3% i bet you lights only like 1amp so if your only powering that you can go father. Try it out anyway what the worst that can happen

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Well considering he is running a 600w lamp, it would use 5 amps, at least. 600w / 120v = 5a

\They do make 12awg extensive cords, but they are very expensive. They aren't standard. Most extenstion cords are, believe it or not, 16awg. Those bright orange ones that everyone owns at least one of are usually listed as "heavy duty" and are only 16awg. They also make 14awg extension cords. You just have to read the package.

sonar said:

Well considering he is running a 600w lamp, it would use 5 amps, at least. 600w / 120v = 5a

\They do make 12awg extensive cords, but they are very expensive. They aren't standard. Most extenstion cords are, believe it or not, 16awg. Those bright orange ones that everyone owns at least one of are usually listed as "heavy duty" and are only 16awg. They also make 14awg extension cords. You just have to read the package.

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Well if it does draw 5amps then yes the drop would be to much but there's always 10awg Also I haven't seen an extension cord under 12awg all of mine are atleast 12 and they aren't really expensive either haha

I would assume the same length as the longest extension cord you can find....

It is a function of distance, gauge and voltage/amps. There should be a bunch of voltage drop calculators out there on the web if you search. You can figure out what gauge wire you need with one and then shit your pants when you see how much it will cost.
I've done 100'+ runs but it was with 4 gauge and cost hundreds of dollars.

Plants don't need much light to have their bud/veg cycle screwed with, a half dozen solar lights would keep something from budding.

At that distance I would be worried about hurting the ballast even if it did fired up.

But I dout it will even fire.