# electronic timers



## Denver (Jun 17, 2015)

I am not the most technical person and know next to nothing about electronics and I want to make sure I don't burn my house down. I have been using one of these timers for some LEDs from Ray and it has worked great.
https://www.hydrofarm.com/p/TM01015D

I finally got my grow area reorganized and added more LEDs from Ray including both his custom ones and one of the Philips GreenPower and now I have more lights than I do timers. Since that timer has a grounded outlet and is supposed to be able to handle a rather large wattage, does anyone know if it would be safe to have the timer plugged into the wall and merely plug a power strip into the timer so that I can have pretty much all of the lights on the one timer? Or would that be something that I should avoid as a possible fire hazard?

Thanks in advance if anyone has experience with this or just general electrical knowledge.


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## Ray (Jun 17, 2015)

As long as the total loading plugged into the strip doesn't exceed the rating of the timer - and your wiring - I don't see it as being an issue.


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## mSummers (Jun 18, 2015)

To add to what Ray said, you should make sure the total load doesn't exceed the rating of the power strip too. The timer is probably the limiting factor, but I've seen cheap power strips with relatively low ratings. 

Also you should never load any device or circuit at 100% of its rated capacity.


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## Dandrobium (Jun 20, 2015)

I agree with the last two posters. Most breaker/contact ratings are only good upto 85% of rated load. Also, its good that you're using a mechanical timer. I've heard problems from some people using T5 fixtures that used a solid state output based timer. You've got LEDs so I don't know if those problems would still apply, but the mechanical timers are foolproof for the most part.


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## Marco (Jun 20, 2015)

Im going away for a week to hike a portion of the AT. I picked up one that home depot sells.


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