lights turning off on their own

[WantDaChronic]

the other night there was a pretty big storm on in my area and i turned off all my grow gear just incase there was a black out or anything. yesterday morning i went into my flowering room to reset the timer and noticed that the extension cord wasnt fitting in properly so i took it out and noticed that the timer had a burn mark and the extension cord also looked a little fried on one of the prongs. because of that damage i replaced both the timer and the extension cord, but for some reason after around 2 hours of being on my lights act like they have gone through a sudden black out, eg. they try and fire back up but sit there glowing and making a weird humming noise

 

to make matters even more interesting, my vege room lights havent had any problems at all. i even took the timer and extension cord from the vege room and put it into the flowering room, yet the vege room still has no issues while the flowering room lights are going out after a couple of hours

 

if anyone has any ideas on what could be causing this problem i'd love to know what is going on because i fear that i might have lost 2x 600w hps lights and that would be devestating for my christmas crop

[Frazz]

Hey WDC i just thought maybe its the socket in the wall that is dodgy and causing problems ??? is that possible ?

 

[WantDaChronic]

its a possibility i'll change the plugs over and see if that makes a difference, if it doesnt i'll see how the 600's run in the vege room and with any luck at the most i'll just have to change the rooms over

[Pam]

Poltergeist!

If it's not the outlet, it could be the new timer no? I've had bad timers like that...

[bufo marinus]

Hey WDC i just thought maybe its the socket in the wall that is dodgy and causing problems ??? is that possible ?

 

 

Good thinking Frazzle, could be the receptacle prongs in the power point have opened up a little too far and got hot, in which case a new power point is in order, or there is a loose screw at one of the active or neutral terminals causing a hot joint which would lead to a lower voltage and would make sense as the lights cut out after the joint has got really hot.

Turn the circuit breaker off, work out what power points have been turned off on that circuit and check each terminal connection WDC, check the connections at the switchboard as well

[nouseforaname]

hey,

It might be worth checking that your not drawing too much power on the one circuit.. When u turn the fuse off that turns those lights off check what else is off and add it all up.. the breakers size (16-32 amp usually x 240 volts = 3600 - 7200 watts) minus all the electricals and other household items.. im just guessing but is the port air con on same breaker as flo room and veg room...also electric or gas hot water?

[WantDaChronic]

i looked at all the fuses today and they all looked fine and there were only 3 of them in there, one was for all the power, one was for the lights on the roof and smoke detectors and the last one controls all the power points in the house.

 

so far i have changed the power points over which made things worse instead of turning off after a couple of hours, the lights lasted slightly over 15 mins...now i have the flowering room turned back on minus the air conditioner to see if that makes any difference, hopefully it will, but if not i'll be moving the 600's into the vege room to try them out in there and i'll setup 3x 400w hps lights up in the flowering room to give me 1200w in there again

 

here are some pics of the old timer and extension cord i was using so you can see the damage that was done to them, but since i replaced both of them and have tried using a different power point im starting to think that either the ballasts are fucked or im simply pulling too much power on the one circuit. the latter would weird me out though as i have used everything i have had running before the lights went bonkers for weeks without any troubles what so ever

[nugget]

Does it make a clicking sound with the humming too WDC? Have you tried swapping the globes, I've had a 400w HPS that did sort of the same thing, sounded like it was trying to spark the globe into working or something while making a humming sound, I wouldn't have a clue about electricity though except to not stick my hands there so got no clue what it was

 

I replaced the globe and it all worked fine

 

just a stoned thought

[nouseforaname]

hey,

When you have a chance go back out to the meter and feel the fuse if its warm... thats a fair idea if the load is high... The timer and extension cord look old so could of been a lose connection in the timer.. Are you allowing the ballasts to cool before refiring them up aswell

[sunnycoaststoner]

i tend to agree with nugget dude, change the bulb and prolly be ok. also new timers and leads would be the go, also invest in a good surge protector to run all your power off just like for a computer because it was the surge that fried everything not the outage....maybe use 15 amp stuff instead of the normal 10 amp....