Equipment Review and Discussion :: need electrical advice

[Starchick]

I went to home depot to pick up an outlet timer for Hercules' basking and uvb lamps, and found that they only have ones with a single plug. The woman there said she thought it would be okay to plug a splitter into the timer then run my lamps through that. Can anyone help me figure out if that's really okay? I'm using a Reptisun 5.0 and a 150W basking lamp, and I don't know enough about electrical stuff to figure out if that's going to overload the thing. I know there are special ones for reptiles but I can't afford the 40 bucks right now (I've spent over 300 in the last 2 weeks getting Hercules set up) So if anyone can help me out with this I'd appreciate it! Let me know if you need specific information from any of the appliances.

[scripta_elegans]

I"ve been using one for a MV 100, and 75 watt bulb for 6 months without any trouble.

[RunninWideOpen]

The timer will have an Amp rating on it. add up the Watts for everything you want to plug into it and divide by 120 (volts). that will tell you how many amps your using.

for example 150w heat lamp, 15w uvb lamp, 50w heater equals 215 watts. divide by 120v equals about....1.8amps (too late to do the exact math, lol). so you would need a timer rated higher than 1.8 amps. oh, and also make sure that whatever splitter you get is rated high enough also.

hope that helps!

[Starchick]

Thank you very much, that helps a lot!

[DavidY]

I use the appliance timers that have a 3-prong plug and then plug a multi-plug power strip into the timer. Most timers and power strips are rated for 15 amps, which is a standard household line rating (at least for houses built in the last 30 years, I think). Should only cost around $10. A lot less than those timers they sell for reptiles and fish.

[VelvetAlley]

Better yet is the power strip that has the timer on it. I use it and am more than happy with it!

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2004+113351

btw you can find it cheaper than what this website sells it for.

[Starchick]

Well, cheaper than petsmart anyway! I guess I'm going to have to get a power strip, I went to plug the thing in tonight and realized that because the splitter is three outlets wide and plugs horizontally into the timer, the timer can't plug into the wall. Pain in the butt! Got screwed over by something really simple... But it's not inconceivable that Michael would have an extra power strip around here somewhere.

Now here's a really really stupid question: the timer only has a slot for a 2 prong plug, not a grounded one, but under the two prongs there's a little space there the third one would go and it's sort of drawn it but it's not actually a hole. Can anyone explain to me what that's all about? I'm that's one of those simple things that you're supposed to have figured out by now but I really don't get it.

[RunninWideOpen]

Sometimes there's a slider that opens and closes those. if there's no slider, it's probably just a way the manufacturer reduced cost by making the same plastic housing for both models, and only actually punching the hole out for the grounded models.