EXTENSION CORD SAFETY (fyi)

Just because the first extension cord you find in your garage has the length to reach the outlet across the room, it doesn't mean it's the proper one to use for the task at hand.

If a power tool is drawing more current than an extension cord can carry, it may cause the cord and tool to overheat and create a fire.

Before using any extension cord to help power an electrical tool or appliance, the safety professionals at Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) encourages consumers to ask themselves three important questions:

* Will I use the cord indoors or outdoors?
* What is the total wattage rating of the appliances I'll use with the cord?
* How far is the nearest outlet from where I'll be working?

Extension cords are labeled with valuable information as to the use, size and wattage rating of the cord.
Cords are offered in many lengths and are marked with a size or "gauge."
The gauge is based on the American Wire Gauge (AWG) System, in which the larger the wire, the smaller the AWG number.

For example, a 12 gauge wire would be larger, and can power larger wattage appliances, than a 14 gauge wire.



Extension cords that can be used outdoors will be clearly marked "Suitable for Use with Outdoor Appliances."
Never use an indoor extension cord outdoors; it could result in an electric shock or fire hazard.
One can reduce their risk of extension cord fires by investing in heavier gauge extension cords and avoiding “bargain cords.”
"You generally get what you pay for, so If you pay more money, you're going to get a better extension cord.”

To determine what size -- or gauge -- cord you will need, you will also have to determine how long you need the cord to be.
A cord, based on its gauge, can power an appliance of a certain wattage only at specific distances.
As the cord gets longer, the current carrying capacity of the cord gets lower.
For example, a 16 gauge extension cord less than 50 feet in length can power a 1625 watt (W) appliance.
A 16 gauge cord that is longer than 50 feet in length can only power an appliance up to 1250W.

All appliances indicate how much wattage is consumed when operated; that rating can be found on the appliance itself and often within the use and care booklet that accompanies the product.
Other appliances will indicate power usage in amps, rather than watts.

Quick tip: if your appliance indicates that it uses 5 amps at 125 volts, then its wattage rating is 625W (5x125).

If you are going to use the extension cord with two or more appliances, you must add together the wattage rating for all appliances used on the cord.
The total of those wattage ratings will help you determine which gauge size you will need.


BASIC PRINCIPLES OF GOOD WIRING
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=16925

& for overall forum reference sake
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ELECTRICITY
(Simplified concepts of electricity, fyi)
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=16384


A Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter can prevent accidental electrocution. And thats a very good thing.
GFCI constantly monitors electricity flowing in a circuit, to sense any loss of current.
If the current flowing through the circuit differs by a small amount from that returning, the GFCI quickly switches off power to that circuit.
The GFCI interrupts power faster than a blink of an eye to prevent a lethal dose of electricity.
You may receive a painful shock, but you should not be electrocuted or receive a serious shock injury.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=4315

A 2010 safety thread bump...
May you grow well and be well,
IMB

Great advice.

Also see the sticky at the top of the Growroom Designs & Equipment forum:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=117867

Electrical / Fire safety should always be the number one design concern.

Peace,
-BT

I might want to add that at least in California extension cords are not allowed for permanent use. So I never have extension cords in my grow rooms period. Best advice for this, learn to run your own plugs and do away with extension cords. Good luck all.

excellent.....electrical.info..............I.M.........thanks for the BUMP......

electrical.............the arch nemesis......of most indoor guru'z............

worthy of a sticky

excellant advis . i always go with 12 or 14 depending on length. some things you shouldnt cheap out on

looks safety.

Great info!!!!! Thanks for the heads up.

crucial info! thanks, I'll study

Bump this thread.......good shit......thanks for the info......safety first.... bless

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT AN ELECTRICIAN. I have however wired a few panels and plenty of sockets, and consider myself informed well enough to over apply safety whilst growing.

Another issue with extension cords is that you are adding a length of wire to wire already in the wall coming from the main panel.

If you have a 50 foot run from the panel to the socket, then use a 50 foot extension cord, you are now pushing a 100 foot run and the gauge wiring will need to be bumped up to accommodate for voltage drop. If you use a 100' extension cable this will certainly be the case.

It becomes rather obvious that if you are trying to run 12 amps off a 15 amp socket, using a 100' extension cord, that this is going to create problems, no matter how large of gauge extension cord you run. The wiring in the wall from the panel needs to be bumped up to accommodate the longer run if you desire running a full load on that circuit.

Possibly very stupid questions, but I just want to be 100% sure.

I have this thinner extension cord, I'm guessing 16g because it says not to exceed 1,625w.
My entire (small) box is about 300w (now that I've switched to LEDs), but something feels wrong about using this extension cord, it just seems small... although I've never really paid a ton of attention to it in the past, I've always just gone with the heavy duty cords to be safe (micro grows, very low wattage) - probably overkill.

Using that cord shouldn't pose any problems right?

My plan was to use that cord to connect my veg and flower chambers, and using a lower gauge extension cord to power the whole box, but I wouldn't mind just getting 2 new higher quality extension cords at 16g (1,625w) for both jobs. The ones I have are old and I would prefer to just get nice new ones.

Quick run down for the MAX wattage my box should have (it will probably be lower because I don't plan on using 4 PC fans per chamber, but just playing it safe):

Exhaust fan - 38w

Flower chamber:
RW-75 - 75w
2x 9.5w Cree bulbs - 19w
4 PC fans - 36w (each fan is 0.75 Amps at 12v = 9w)

Veg/Clone Chamber:
10x 9w Cree bulbs - 90w (I should note here that I made a fixture composed of 2 power strips with 4 bulbs in each one. I will plug the other two into this as well, most likely)
4x PC Fans - 36w
________________

Total Watts: 294w


Although later on I may add a UVB light to flower, but that obviously won't add 1,300+ watts so I am assuming those 16g cords should be just fine?

Anyway, just wanted to triple check this before snaking the cord between veg and flower. It seems to check out for me but I would love to play it safe than be sorry later!

Thanks guys!

You are totally fine bud. 300+ watts on a light duty extension cord is not an issue. You could easily run a 600 or probably even a 1000 on that assuming the rest of the wiring is safe and you don't bundle the cord.

Something you may want to think about is buying a a male or female plug for that and cutting the extension cord to the proper length. This will increase the load carrying capacity ever so slightly, and gets rid of any loops or extra lengths hanging around, or running along the ground. That and a few of the conduit clamps keeps that extension cord out of the way and nice and tidy.

Great to see people actually thinking about safety. Cheers bud!

LSWM said:

You are totally fine bud. 300+ watts on a light duty extension cord is not an issue. You could easily run a 600 or probably even a 1000 on that assuming the rest of the wiring is safe and you don't bundle the cord.

Something you may want to think about is buying a a male or female plug for that and cutting the extension cord to the proper length. This will increase the load carrying capacity ever so slightly, and gets rid of any loops or extra lengths hanging around, or running along the ground. That and a few of the conduit clamps keeps that extension cord out of the way and nice and tidy.

Great to see people actually thinking about safety. Cheers bud!

Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks for confirming! And yeah I had planned on either finding a very short extension cord for between veg and flower or doing what you said.. no sense in having 20 feet of wire to reach about 8 inches!

Thanks again, puts my mind at ease

Ok new question. I cut the holes in my wall to snake the extension cord through to go between veg and flower... Turns out the plug is too big to fit down the walls, so I was thinking of cutting the plug off, snaking the wire down the wall and splicing the wires back together. I have those screw on caps for spliced wires as well as heat shrink tubing. I don't see why there would be any issues with this, as long as all 3 wires line up and are safely spliced, but wanted to get your opinion on that before going ahead and doing it.

Sucks, though.. it will be uglier than a nice solid extension cord, but I already cut the holes
Actually, I could probably splice the wires so the splicing mass is actually inside the wall, that could work out nicely!

Thoughts? Thanks!

Was just reading about splicing extension cords, shoulda done that before posting
Seems fine, though. I think I'm gonna twist the wires together, wrap in electrical tape/shrink tubing then shrink tube the whole bundle together.

No, do not hide any splices in the wall cavity. It is a violation of the electrical code to run a cord through the wall like that in the first place, and any splicing needs to be done inside of an enclosure (preferably a grounded one). If you have to run through the wall like that, the best way to do it would be to cut one end of the cord off at the appropriate length and simply replace the molded-on plug with a good quality one that gives access to the terminations (Hubbell, Leviton, etc).

rives said:

No, do not hide any splices in the wall cavity. It is a violation of the electrical code to run a cord through the wall like that in the first place, and any splicing needs to be done inside of an enclosure (preferably a grounded one). If you have to run through the wall like that, the best way to do it would be to cut one end of the cord off at the appropriate length and simply replace the molded-on plug with a good quality one that gives access to the terminations (Hubbell, Leviton, etc).

Click to expand...

Ahh yeah, thanks! I didn't even think of that... and this is why it's a good idea to ask questions

just for the record when I talk about a wall I don't mean a real one, I am basically using this big Sterilite cabinet, with one of the shelves being the partition between veg and flower. I could actually probably just cut a hole in the partition and pass the cord through that instead of snaking it through that "wall" - although room is very tight in there with my vents and everything, but if I do go the wall route I will be sure to just cut it to the perfect length to begin with and get a good quality plug instead of splicing the cable. The two holes in the wall are fairly close, not further than 12" apart, but I definitely see how keeping the spliced bundle INSIDE the wall would be a pretty bad idea.. I was thinking more aesthetics than safety on that one!
What I did was cut a ridge into 2x 2" neoprene inserts (for cloning machines) and cut 2x ~1 1/2" holes in the walls a few inches apart. My plan was to basically have the cable go into and out of each neoprene insert (held in place in the wall holes by the ridges I cut into them), also allowing me to take it apart if needed. I figured they would be light proof, but if I can find a spot on the shelf where I can pass the extension cord through I will do that instead, would be much easier on me as well!
And you know I thought that seemed weird, but I Googled it and there were a bunch of pages on "how to splice an extension cord" - maybe they should come read some threads over here?

EDIT: Anyway, I'm gonna pick up a Hubbell plug today at Home Depot and do that. I checked my shelf partition and there really isn't room for it there so I will have to do the "wall" snake, but I will not be splicing the wires at least. I may end up getting 3 of those plugs actually, because my light fixture uses 2 power strips with light sockets in the outlets (2 power strips, 8x 9w Cree bulbs) and the wires are way too long so I may shorten those (unless there are any problems with doing that? Only thing I can think of is stripping out all the insulation that is in the wire, but if I use quality plugs like you said that should work out alright I would assume?).

Thank you for the help! I Definitely want to do this the right safe way!

P.S. This is what I am using for my little personal grow box:


Took all the shelves out except for that one third from the top, so bottom is veg and top is flower, fully LED now. The entire box is less than 300w!

Sounds good.

There is no problem with shortening up your plugstrip cords, just make sure that you do a good job on the plug installation.