electrical question (any electricians ?)

[adrianleewelch]

I am wiring a diy MH system, and have it all completed using 10g romax, 15 amp appliance timers, and 15 amp plugs, this is a 400 watt system, just waiting for bulbs to arrive ! Anyway the wiring diagram for the ballasts says that the ballasts must be grounded, obviously this is absolutely necessary for safety, however there is not a ground wire, only the 120v and common ! Would it be acceptable to either A: solder a wire to the body of the ballast and wire it to the ground terminal on the plug, B: fasten a wire to the screw that mounts the ballast to its mounting bracket and hook it to the same ground terminal in the plug, or C: drive a copper rod into the ground outside, drill a hole in the house and run a wire out to it, and solder to body of ballast ?? Anyone done this before, this is all I need to complete the wiring please help !!!

[Rick O]

B: fasten a wire to the screw that mounts the ballast to its mounting bracket and hook it to the same ground terminal in the plug

Make it a green wire.

[adrianleewelch]

Thank you so much for the quick reply, that is what I thought but I sure wanted to do it absolutely correct, my wife is already leary of 800w of MH light in a bedroom !!!! Now I can only hope the circuit will hold it !

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by adrianleewelch
Thank you so much for the quick reply, that is what I thought but I sure wanted to do it absolutely correct, my wife is already leary of 800w of MH light in a bedroom !!!! Now I can only hope the circuit will hold it !

Go ahead now and get a separate breaker for the tank, by the tme you add heaters, chiller, etc to the circuit, you'll start tripping the 15 amp breakers.

Put the lights on one, the rest of the tank on another. I have a separate 20 amp ARC breaker for each system now.

[adrianleewelch]

I am fortunate that the breaker box is in the closet in the same room, just wondering how difficult it will be to push the wire to the plug, I was gonna add 2 GFI outlets tomorrow, if I can fit in the attic, its at the very corner of the house and there is about 1 foot of clearance, hopefully I can enlist help !!

[Rick O]

You'll only need one GFCI per circuit. Install it first in the series and it will protect all of the outlets downstream of it. In many older houses the outlet box in the wall is too small to accept a GFCI outlet. If yours is you can get a GFCI breaker.

[Doug1]

I would suggest using the HD appliance timers rated for AC if you arent already, I thought the AC timers were rated higher than 15 amp

[Junkzoo]

Originally posted by Doug1
I would suggest using the HD appliance timers rated for AC if you arent already, I thought the AC timers were rated higher than 15 amp

Ditto, initial in-rush(start) current can be much higher than running current on a MH set-up,,