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lighting Any Aussie growers grow under lights?

Somatic

Somatic

I want to get my seedlings under lights as soon as they sprout to get a head start on my grow, but I'm struggling to find any info from Aussie growers.
I'm eyeing off a twin t8 bulb light fixture which needs to be hard wired to the power supply, but I want to plug it in to a wall socket via extension cord in my garage.
 
My question is does anyone know if this can be rigged to splice in to an extension cord so that it can plug in to a wall socket?
I can only find info that relates to the American electrical wiring system.
 
If anyone has any opinions on a better idea, please let me know.
 
My aim is to get a head start on some seedlings, the strongest of which will eventually be moved out to containers on my balcony.
Not looking to grow adult plants indoors under these lights.
 
 
I'm not an electrician but be careful my man if you splice into a wire that plugs into a wall....electricity scares me...⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
 
YES it can be wired to plug into the wall, but you need to know which is hot and which is not, hot meaning the live wire.   first off what colour are the 2 wires you have, here in canada we have 2 prongs on a plug to go into the wall, and usually one side is slightly bigger then the other, i know every country is different with the style of plugs, so what does yours look like and which side is hot 
 
I don't actually have the light yet, they had run out at the shop.
And our plugs have 3 prongs, which is why the instructions that I've seen online that talk about 2 prongs are confusing me
 
north american have 3 prong as well, but some times we dont use the 3rd prong, i looked up the Australian prongs and got this picture, i think its right
 
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and this is the north american 
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they are pretty much the same, just different shape, and like i said some cords do not have the ground prong on it
 
edit: in canada and the u.s.a  there is usually 3 wires in a cord, white, black, and bare copper, the white goes to the active or positive, the black goes to the neutral or negative, and the bare copper goes to the ground or earth.  some light ballasts have a white and red wire, some have a black and red, and ive seen some with two white wires and a black stripe down one of them.
essentially you would need to know what wires you have, what colour is what and go from there. i can help you if you need when you get the light
 
Somatic said:
I'm eyeing off a twin t8 bulb light fixture which needs to be hard wired to the power supply, but I want to plug it in to a wall socket via extension cord in my garage.
 
My question is does anyone know if this can be rigged to splice in to an extension cord so that it can plug in to a wall socket?
I can only find info that relates to the American electrical wiring system.
 
If anyone has any opinions on a better idea, please let me know.
 
Click to expand...
 
Hey mate, yeah the light can be wired up with a plug instead of hard wired but that fact that you are asking for help on how to do it (now I don't wanna sound too harsh here) tells me that you shouldn't attempt it! 240v @ 10 Amps (Aussie single phase circuit) can KILL, if you get a decent whack, off it!
 
You don't wanna mess with electricity if you don't know what you are doing!!!
 
Since you haven't already bought the light why don't you just buy one that already has a plug on it? Any 1/2 decent light shop would sell one and they're not that expensive.
 
nuclearDays said:
Hey mate, yeah the light can be wired up with a plug instead of hard wired but that fact that you are asking for help on how to do it (now I don't wanna sound too harsh here) tells me that you shouldn't attempt it! 240v @ 10 Amps (Aussie single phase circuit) can KILL, if you get a decent whack, off it!
 
You don't wanna mess with electricity if you don't know what you are doing!!!
 
Since you haven't already bought the light why don't you just buy one that already has a plug on it? Any 1/2 decent light shop would sell one and they're not that expensive.
Click to expand...
+1 on not measing with electricity. I'm a machinist as a profession and one thing I never do is mess with harnesses or electric motors. T5 lights are a little pricey but put off decent heat for a low cost in energy. ..could probably find a decent one somewhere
 
I reckon you're right about not messing with electric wiring.
Just trying to do it on the cheap, and I was only looking at Bunnings.
Maybe I should get to a lighting shop.
 
I wanted the 2 ft 18w version, which the bloke at bunnings said was hard wired. And they were our of stock. As were the stores in the 3 closest suburbs...
I've since seen a propagation light with 2 t5 globes from a hydro shop for only a little more money so I think I'll get that
 
Somatic said:
I wanted the 2 ft 18w version, which the bloke at bunnings said was hard wired. And they were our of stock. As were the stores in the 3 closest suburbs...
I've since seen a propagation light with 2 t5 globes from a hydro shop for only a little more money so I think I'll get that
Click to expand...
 
I got a 2 x 55W T5 set-up from a hydro store.  I have 4 chillies and a heap of Thai basil under the lights at the minute and its going well so far.
 
I was also looking at rigging a T8 set-up fro Bunnings, but the wiring put me off too... this thread mirrors by thoughts about 6 weeks ago!
 
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