Wiffle Ball Field Lighting

tripleplay1882

Hi, my name is Brian and I am the owner of Bassett Woods Wiffle Ball Park and for the 2012 summer, I want to add lights! Unfortunately, my field is quite far away from the nearest electrical source (about 200'). The lights I want to use are the Craftsman portable worklights that support a 500 watt halogen light. I have two 15' poles that will hold 3 of these lights. If each light is drawing 500 watts and there are 3 lights on each pole and there are two poles (3000 watts total) what is the safest/best way to get electricity out to my field? Would some 12 guage extension cords do the trick? Or do I have to bury a cable? And if I have to bury a cable, can you give me some instruction on the best available hook ups, what to use, or schematic diagrams?

Thank you so much,
Brian

mpoulton

Is this intended to be temporary (set up and taken down each day), or permanently installed? If it's temporary you can do whatever you want - although 3000W of lights requires two 20A circuits and two 200' extension cord runs is pretty annoying. If permanent, you can't use those lights. They're portable and can't be permanently installed outdoors. You also can't use extension cords in a permanent installation. You'll be better off using metal halide fixtures since they use a fraction of the power to produce the same light output as halogen. You could bury the cable between poles (must be 18" deep) which would look best and have lowest maintenance, or run overhead wire which is easier and cheaper but not as good in the long run. Using 240V fixtures will reduce the current by 50% and allow you to use smaller and cheaper wire.

tripleplay1882

Ok well first of all, thank you very much for commenting and giving me such detailed information! Now to answer your question, the lights would not be permanent. So this would give me a large range of options including extension cords you say?

frenchelectrican

The other thing you may be aware is the glare issue if you keep the halogen luminaires there is one lens that work very well what we called painter lens which it actually a frosted lens to reduce the glare that will help a bit.

If the lumiares are not stationary ( perament ) types and how often you will use the luminaire like just once or few time a year or what ?

If more than just few time a year you may want to put a receptale island with subpanel there so you can able plug in your portable luminaires.

So that one of few suggest you can think about it.

Merci,
Marc

__________________
The answer will be based on NEC ( National Electrical code ) or CEC ( Cananda Electrical code ) or ECF ( Electrique Code France )

tripleplay1882

Ok well the lights would probably be used a couple times a week for the summer months and when not in use, would be brought in doors. If I would chose to take the extension cord route, what would be the best configuration for the cords? Can 3000 watts be drawn from a single source 200' away? Thanks again

mpoulton

A 20A 120V circuit is 2400W, and you don't want to max it out. You'll need to split the 3000W between two circuits, 12.5A load on each. A 200' run with #12 wire will have 8.3% voltage drop. This is too much for anything other than incandescent lighting. However, it's probably OK for this use - it will just make the lights very slightly dimmer than expected.

whiffleking

This is our answer to your question...a little over kill, but we have both a flag football and wiffleball league to run after dark...every Fri and Sun night in the summer and Sun night in the fall....enjoy...pictured and annotated.

http://wowwhiffleball.com/Lighting.html

sparkyjake

Would a generator work?

mpoulton

This thread is from last year. Why don't old threads auto-lock on this forum? Why isn't there at least a warning to new posters on stale threads?

__________________
I am a lawyer, but not your lawyer. And who cares anyways? We're here to talk construction. This is DIY advice, not legal advice.