250w HPS. How do I plug it in?

[Buhdah]

I received a free 250w hps with hood today. My question is. How do I plug this bad boy in?

 

[rives]

That is a Nema 6-15 plug, which requires the matching receptacle fed with a 240v, 15 amp circuit.

 

[Buhdah]

Sorry. I'm a newb. What does that mean? Is there an adapter that I can get and just plug this into my 110? Or does it require outlet rewiring?

 

[StankyBeamer]

You need different outlets. It would be cheaper to take a trip down to the grow shop and buy a 120v power cord for your ballast, it will have normal prongs that will fit into conventional wall outlets

 

[Buhdah]

Thanks for the info. Not sure if I have a local grow shop. You wouldn't happen to have a link to what I'm looking for would you?

 

[Bud Green]

You need different outlets. It would be cheaper to take a trip down to the grow shop and buy a 120v power cord for your ballast, it will have normal prongs that will fit into conventional wall outlets

When Rives talks about electrical stuff, you guys need to listen...

You can't just change the power cord on your ballast and plug it into a 110V plug..The ballast requires 240V on a 15 amp circuit..

It's possible the ballast has an option to be re-wired for 110, but I doubt it, and YOU certainly don't want to be trying it yourself..

 

[StankyBeamer]

I don't but it should be easy to find. Any website selling grow equipment should have replacement cords for ballasts, you have the 240v power supply, you need the 120v unless you wanna buy a 240v outlet and wire it in. Pros are more efficient power delivery with less thermal waste and half the amps being taken up on your panel, cons are you need two open spots on the panel to wire an outlet at 240v. In my house it's the only option, as I have a 100amp panel and every 1000w eats up about ten amps of that. With a 240v helios light controller, I can run 8 1000w ballasts on two series both running on 2 120v timers which makes my lights turn off and on simultaneously, and the whole setup takes half the amps and I can run eight lights on two spots on my subpanel without taking up all the power supply from the rest of the house. No trouble blowing circuit breakers, no headaches trying to sync eight different timers to the same flowering time. If your only runninga 250w, 240s a waste of time, 250w/120v=2ish amps, whereas my 1000s are 8 or 9 amps at 120, only four amps at 240

 

[Buhdah]

I don't think I even have a ballast. I got a hood, 250w hps bulb screwed into bulb housing. The housing runs to the cord that has this plug on it.

 

[StankyBeamer]

When Rives talks about electrical stuff, you guys need to listen...

You can't just change the power cord on your ballast and plug it into a 110V plug..The ballast requires 240V on a 15 amp circuit..

It's possible the ballast has an option to be re-wired for 110, but I doubt it, and YOU certainly don't want to be trying it yourself..

I was assuming his ballasts run at 240 or 120. Every digital I've owned this far could be used at either voltage, and simply needed a new power supply and a 240v mogul socket, both cheap and easy to come by.

 

[Buhdah]

I don't think I even have a ballast. I got a hood, 250w hps bulb screwed into bulb housing. The housing runs to the cord that has this plug on it.

. See

 

[rives]

I was assuming his ballasts run at 240 or 120. Every digital I've owned this far could be used at either voltage, and simply needed a new power supply and a 240v mogul socket, both cheap and easy to come by.

You never want to "assume" anything regarding electrical installations.

Any ballast that someone is contemplating changing the voltage on needs to be carefully checked to make sure that it is compatible. Many electronic ballasts take a range of voltages, but there are lots that do not. The same holds true with magnetic ballasts, but they require wiring changes to change the input voltage.

Unless that hood has a ballast hiding somewhere in the shrouding, it looks like somebody just put a 6-15 plug on the end of the cord so that it could be removed from the ballast easily.

 

[Buhdah]

Sooooo... I need to...?

 

[rives]

Take the fixture apart and make sure that there is not a ballast hiding in there somewhere. If there is none, find a ballast that works for your power supply (120 or 240v), and for whatever lamp (HPS, MH, CMH, etc) you want if you want something other than the HPS lamp that you have now. If you want to change, now is the time to do it.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

you need to buy a ballast and either match it to the bulb or match it to that plug. all you have basically is a bulb, a reflector and a cord with a funny plug on the end. you can get a ballast to fit that wattage bulb and the connector on the reflector. i'm guessing you're in europe or something? or you can toss that bulb, find a new ballast at whatever wattage you want and then buy a new bulb and i'm gonna assume that all the plugs for everything in your country look like that one.

 

[Buhdah]

No. I'm in The US. No plugs look like that, that I have seen.

 

[rives]

As I said above, it is a Nema 6-15 plug. They are common on powertools like table saws, air compressors, 240v 1kw ballasts, etc. You will not find a ballast that it will plug directly into, someone adapted to the hood.

 

[Buhdah]

there isn't anything to take apart. what you see is what i got.
sounds like all i have is a hood and a bulb.
is the bulb receptacle good for any wattage HPS? (i don't even know if this bulb works)

 

[Buhdah]

i took the metal "cap" off of the cord wiring, and it looks pretty factory to me. it does not look like this wiring has been worked on at all. im guessing the unit was purchased new this way.

am i wrong in saying this unit is pretty much worthless?

 

[stihgnobevoli]

no, you have a bulb, socket and a hood. just get a ballast to match the bulb or buy your own bulb+ballast combo. take the cord out and replace it, or just cut the connector off and rewire it.

 

[StankyBeamer]

No. I'm in The US. No plugs look like that, that I have seen.

False. If you have a clothing dryer, it plugs into a 240v 30 amp circuit in your basement usually, that outlet will match those prongs but isn't wired for 15 amps. +rep to rives, I should have asked if your ballast was comparable for both voltages, come to find out you don't even have a ballast on that lol. Personally, I wouldn't run an hid mogul socket straight from the wall, I'd find something that implements a ballast, but then again I'm no electrician, plenty more qualified people than me to ask.