Wiring Multiple Fixtures Question

[Matt K]

Hey there! I'm not very electrically inclined, but I'd like to get this right the first time and would appreciate any and all help from those more experienced than I. I'm building an incubator out of and old drink cooler, and I'm looking to wire 4 fans and a light all with their own switches, and all running from the same 120VAC power source. I'd need the setup to be a parallel circuit, as obviously the fans I have are those rated for plugging directly into a wall. Would anyone here know how to accomplish this? I'm not even entirely sure where to begin, and really don't want a fire or incubator failure down the line because of shoddy wiring. If I'm running all of these things from a single switch box, would I only need one ground? I'm also very unsure where "pigtails" are needed and how to properly implement them. Thanks a lot for any help that anyone could give, it's truly appreciated!

Cheers,
-Matt

[dr del]

Hi,

Do you really need that many fans? Remember they all generate a little bit of heat and the last thing you want is an incubator that overheats even with the thermostat off.


dr del

[OhhWatALoser]

I'm an electrician and really don't know what your talking about. I think your using different terms

first if you have a 120v fan, you most likly only need 1, all the fan in an incubator needs to do is move air around and not let the heat sit at the top. 120v are usually pretty big, most people use 12v computer fans.

tho my big incubator I made out of a fridge had a 120v fan in it, so I just remounted it and used that, but again only 1 fan is needed. you might want to rethink that part.

yes you only need 1 ground...

but basically this is how it works, your going to get a power cord, fan(s), and light, they will each have a hot (black) , neutral (white) and ground (green). the grounds will tie together and neutrals will tie together. the hot from the power cord will attach to one side of every switch you have, then hot from the light and fan(s) will attach to the other side of each switch.

best I can explain with out knowning really what your asking. pigtail just means a wire sticking off of something, like a pigtail off of a switch that would tie to the power cord or fan or what not. or a grounding pigtail which screws into the back of a metal box. if you want take pictures, I'm sure I can help you out.

[Matt K]

Thanks for the info. The incubator I'm building is 78'' X 54'' X 30'', so it's quite a bit larger than the average fridge incubator, hence the four fans. Although they are 115VAC fans, they only push 27 CFM, so it won't be a wind tunnel in there. The plan is to have one fan facing down on top of each of the two 5' 11'' Flexwatt lengths, as well as one on the top left facing right, and one on the bottom right facing left. Haha, that was a mouthful. I don't think this will result in too much airflow, especially considering the size the the refrigeration unit. Any confusion with my wording is definitely because I have little to know idea what I'm talking about, I'm just going on a few things I've read online that clearly confused me a bit, haha, my apologies for that. I can take some pictures once everything arrives later this week, but it will be sometime before I'm actually wiring the thing. I'm forced to go hardcore on this project as I discovered a good deal of rust upon taking the unit apart, and it's covered in a load of dents and dings. I'm taking my angle grinder to it and stripping all the paint/cutting out all the rust, and am going to use some body filler to fill in the dings and some sheet metal to replace the rust. After that, primer and paint, and then I'll be ready to wire it all up. I probably won't be able to get to the wiring for a week or so. I just have absolutely no experience with nearly anything electrical. I was planning on using a toggle panel like this one and a box I'll make out of sheet metal to control each of the fans and the built in light fixtures. The heat tape will run off its own plug. Thanks for the help guys, I'm a bit embarrassed to be in the presence of an electrician having absolutely no electrical sense myself, but it's a great learning experience! Would you mind if I gave you a PM once everything electrical arrives? Thanks again for all the help, and any additional input would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
-Matt

[OhhWatALoser]

fell free to pm me if you got questions

and just so you know those switches are 12 volt switches, you can't use those, without relays, and thats more wiring and more money.

I think the cheapest way to go would be to go to your local hardware store, buy 5 "handy boxes", their a single gang box with tabs you can screw a switch directly into it, they look like this. then get some cheap switches and covers.

there 100 different ways you could go about it, there stackable switches, that 2 or 3 switches will fit in one of those boxes I linked. or there plastic boxes that come with 4 gangs side-by-side to each other, but I don't know how much they cost and the covers might cost more than buying 4 seperate ones. you obviously care about how it looks, so figure out what you like and shoot me a pm. I don't know what you can acually buy at hardware stores, I can order anything I want through my work so yea. lemme know.