Connecting household LED bulbs in parallel.

[DamnItsARunt]

I’ve a low budget grow setup with a DIY light made out of a wooden board and some 12W household LED bulbs connected in series. This works fine. But I want to use the same fixture to power my seedlings and be able to remove bulbs from their sockets in order to reduce the brightness or wattage when needed.

This obviously can’t be done in a series connection as the whole light fixture would stop working if I pulled out a bulb. My question is, is it safe to wire the bulbs in parallel and connect the fixture to a 220V 6A wall socket?

What precautions / modification in circuitry would I need to take? I’m very new to the electrical stuff, so looking to err on the side of caution so I don’t end up burning my house down or trip the circuit breaker.

Any input would be helpful. Thank you.

[lophophora.ca]

Pretty sure that’s how most fixtures are wired up already.

See my bathroom fixture (excuse the dust):

Two bulbs, one bulb. No problems.

Disclaimer: I know Ohm’s law but I am not an electrician

[Mithridate]

I wouldn’t plug 220v on 12w leds.

What you could do is make say 2 banks of lights, each controlled by its own light switch. That way you can have some control over the sauce.

Removing a bulb should not shut the next bulbs

[lophophora.ca]

@DamnItsARunt

220V 6A wall socket?

Do you live in one of those countries where 220V mains voltage is used?

That might be an important detail.

[Mithridate]

Valid. I had an european coffee machine you needed an electrical engineering degree to use it in Canada

[DamnItsARunt]

Yes, India. 220v is the standard here.

[DamnItsARunt]

Why not? I’m using a maximum of 8 bulbs. I’m aiming for about 90 Watts for a single plant grow.

So that would be 8x12 = 96 watts with much more room for other appliances, right? (this is in series)

[DamnItsARunt]

Good idea. Unfortunately I’m limited by the number of sockets and space in my grow area.

[204medismoke]

i would ask this gentleman who runs similar light set up with house hold leds and gets great results look at post 32 or 33 at the pics of his lights.

Blue Star OG pheno hunt, PPK style

so, i guess a little explanation of my absence is called for. i just went through a series of medical issues that pretty much deprived me of sleep for about 4 weeks. i turned into a zombie and was physically unable to do all the little things that had to be done on time to flower at 4 weeks of veg. they were flowered at 40 days and, of course, had overgrown the space. today is 21 days of flower and about the end of the stretch. i have multi-topped and thinned heavily. i still have to do some la…

[MCR0161]

Absolutely wire them in parallel. If they’re designed for domestic use they would be on a ring main on 220v anyway.

From someone who has built many lights…

[DamnItsARunt]

Thank you for the assurance. I don’t understand what a ring main is though. Sorry.

[MCR0161]

Sorry. It’s what we call a full house’ domestic circuit in the UK.
Parallel would not only allow you to dim in the method you mentioned. It stops the whole circuit going out if one bulb dies

[MCR0161]

@lophophora.ca

Pretty sure that’s how most fixtures are wired up already.

Absolutely correct. Every single light in your house will be wired in parallel to your breakers. Otherwise turning one switch off would turn every light off in a series connection.

[DamnItsARunt]

Got it. Thanks. I’ll go ahead and change the wiring on my fixture.

[MCR0161]

Rab out of likes but you’re welcome my friend

[blowdout2269]

Hey bud, this would probably be a helpful place for a lot of your questions regarding lighting.

The Cheap and Efficent LED Lighting Thread

So i’ve been feeling that a encompassing thread about LED lights has been needed for the good last while in order to condense some topics and have a rolling thread about the current thing, deals, discussions, help, ect. What i want to encompass in this thread with the participation of the rest of you here is discussion on LED Lights From: Current Cheap Light deals and what to look for ? Continuation on DIY builds from my previous thread for those that want to go down that route. New Tech D…

There’s some great minds over here.

[Coda]

@DamnItsARunt

My question is, is it safe to wire the bulbs in parallel and connect the fixture to a 220V 6A wall socket?

Do you have a part number for the bulbs? It’s probably fine if you bought it in India and that is the standard voltage there. The driver is usually built into the bulb so you won’t have any dimming capability, but like you said, you can remove bulbs as needed for that. You can absolutely wire them in parallel, I’d just feel more comfortable knowing what the specifications are before I would say go ahead. Most of them here in the states are only rated for 120V for household use (single bulb style).

[DamnItsARunt]

@blowdout2269 thanks a lot. will check it out. How do you find such threads? When I use the search bar on this site, the results weren’t that great for this topic.

@Coda not sure where to find the part number, but these are the ones I’m planning to replace the current bulbs with:

Specifications of the LED Bulb 8718699719913 | Philips

Specifications of the LED Bulb 8718696646489 | Philips

[blowdout2269]

I’ve been following that thread. Therefore, I knew about it, but I couldn’t remember the title. So, I searched “LED Lighting” and it was the first one.

[Coda]

You’re good to go