What's new
  • As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.

Choosing wall plugs in an apartment

hurricane

Member
Hello, I've been experiencing some flicker from my light for a half second every few minutes, along with my stanly blower audibly slowing down for that fraction of a second. I figured it must be an issue with not enough power.
I flick my breakers one at a time to figure out where they go, and i find i have what might be the issue.

Both my bedrooms, and most of the living room are on 1 20A circuit. Attached to this circuit currently: 42" HDTV, 60G Fishtank with filter & 300W water heater, Computer w/ 350W Power Supply and 22" LCD Monitor(rated 1.5A), and now a 400W HPS Ballast and Stanley Blower Fan + 2 water pumps.

I have a couple more circuits. On the oposite side of the bedroom is a 20A circuit. This is shared between 5 wall locations, 1 in the master bathroom ,one on the wall in the master bedroom, and 3 in the kitchen. The kitchen also has a second 20A circuit that runs the refrigerator, and a cpl wall plugs(more convenient ones) so i should be able to keep that circuit fairly empty except for the hair dryer in the morning(girlfriend), and the 27" TV thats already plugged into it. She only uses the hair dryer for a couple minutes though, and its only a 400W ballast.

Is it all worth it? Am i going to create some sort of fire hazard plugging my 6' cord from the ballast into a 10' extension cord going across the room? Am i following the totally wrong line of thought and its not my power supply, but the actual ballast thats dieing?

All thoughts apreciated.

Hurricane
 
Last edited:

BonsaiBud

Member
Get a heavy gauge extension cord and you use an outlet 50 feet away. 14 gauge should be fine. That sounds like a lot of load on one breaker. In a perfect world, the ballast would have a power conditioner with a physical AC motor/generator like giant industrial stuff uses. Baring that you could try one of those high end audiophile power conditioners like they use for expensive pre/power amp systems. Those don't have any moving parts except for a cool little needle gauge.
 

hurricane

Member
BonsaiBud said:
Get a heavy gauge extension cord and you use an outlet 50 feet away. 14 gauge should be fine. That sounds like a lot of load on one breaker. In a perfect world, the ballast would have a power conditioner with a physical AC motor/generator like giant industrial stuff uses. Baring that you could try one of those high end audiophile power conditioners like they use for expensive pre/power amp systems. Those don't have any moving parts except for a cool little needle gauge.

Thanks for the advice! I went to home depot and picked up a 15' 14guage extension cord. The cord has 3 plugs at the end, i pluged one into the ballast, and i plugged a portable GFCI into the other side, and plugged my stanly blower into that. The blower has 2 electrical plugs to which i attach a power bar and my small fans/water pumps and pump timer. Picked up the GFCI because i remember something in my water pumps instructions said all things in water are required to be on a GFCI circuit. Is this apropriate, or should the GFCI be pluged right into the wall, or directly to the water pumps?

For now it seems to have fixed the flickering problem, although i cant just sit there and watch the light to see :) time will tell but for now i'm going to call that problem fixed.

Thanks Again,
Hurricane
 
G

Guest

The portable GFCI, , irregardless of where IT is plugged into (providing it is a grounded outlet), will protect the circuit that is plugged INTO IT.

Sail onward,

Ty-Stik
 
Last edited:

BonsaiBud

Member
good to hear

good to hear

I just checked the bathroom in my new apartment. It doesn't have a GFCI :bashhead:
I remember, 15 years ago, when my parents had their bathrooms re-done, the guy was sure to put one in the bathroom with the tub/shower/whirlpool. I don't think they would notice if I was to just swap out the regular grounded outlet for one with a nice GFCI. It is that or build it into my box. I would feel better with it in the wall.
 

NiteTiger

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright...
Veteran
Just swapping out the outlet with a GFCI doesn't do the trick. If the previous outlet was ungrounded, then the GFCI would be ungrounded, and serve no purpose.

For instance, my board doesn't have a ground in it, extremely old house. So, installing groundable outlets does nothing, because there's no ground for them to connect to.
 

hurricane

Member
NiteTiger said:
Just swapping out the outlet with a GFCI doesn't do the trick. If the previous outlet was ungrounded, then the GFCI would be ungrounded, and serve no purpose.

For instance, my board doesn't have a ground in it, extremely old house. So, installing groundable outlets does nothing, because there's no ground for them to connect to.

By ground you simply mean the 3rd rounded prong on the electrical socket right? Just want to make sure I'm protected as possible from electricity and fire issues.
 

PharmaCan

Active member
Veteran
Take the cover off the bathroom outlet, loosen the receptacle and pull it from the box and see if there is a ground wire in there.

GFCI breakers can be a major PITA in grow ops. High humidity can trip the breaker. GFCIs are designed to protect people, not property. I don't recommend GFCI in grow ops. They are just a substitute for safe practices and good equipment.

PC :smoker:
 
Top