Electrical question

[Renfro]

I usually see 2, three at most double pulls in a 200 amp panel... One to two on a 100 amp service.. I'm on my phone but it looks like he has 9.

Yeah electric heated floors like tile under floor heating and baseboard heaters are usually why you have a bunch of 240/15 or 240/20 feeds. Each room has it's own feed/thermostat.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

Yeah electric heated floors like tile under floor heating and baseboard heaters are usually why you have a bunch of 240/15 or 240/20 feeds. Each room has it's own feed/thermostat.

Yeah, nailed it. Electric heat. Eventually I have to change out all the line voltage thermostats to a newer white style to match everything else.

 

[PizzaBob]

Don’t use extension cords as mentioned. I had same issue and as was suggested find under utilized circuits and find a recep or j-box to make the connection up to code. And be sure the gauge wire matches the breaker.

 

[PizzaBob]

Yeah, square d panels will only except square d breaker. The buss bar is notched to accept only square d breakers. It's been a long time but i thought i remembered sonething janky about square d. The old timer that i worked with hated them lol. He was a strict GE guy

Yeah theres 2 types as well that are both contemporary. One has a little window with an orange/red dot to indicate trip. That the one where the connection on the bus is janke.

 

[JoeBlow5823]

Don’t use extension cords as mentioned

If your running a quality extension cord rated for 20a and pull 15a or less from it, its perfectly safe.

 

[Renfro]

If your running a quality extension cord rated for 20a and pull 15a or less from it, its perfectly safe.

agreed, as long as it's not coiled up in a spool so that it can't dissipate heat. We covered that in another thread not long ago. Also remember that on really long runs you can encounter voltage drop and upsizing the cable conductors is the fix, so 10 gauge instead of 12 gauge for a 20 amp line thats like 100 feet and heavily loaded.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

Based on my calculations my current equipment draws about 10A. If I tandem that breaker and get the 8A light on the other side of the breaker would that be a balanced enough load. About 10A and 8A?

I threw the breaker to find out whats on that current circuit and appears to only be my grow outlets. So I'd split that one and wire a new outlet.

Sorry to make a big deal of it. Just want to make sure it's being done safely above all else. Thanks everyone for the input! Greatly appreciated!

 

[natureboygrower]

agreed, as long as it's not coiled up in a spool so that it can't dissipate heat. We covered that in another thread not long ago. Also remember that on really long runs you can encounter voltage drop and upsizing the cable conductors is the fix, so 10 gauge instead of 12 gauge for a 20 amp line thats like 100 feet and heavily loaded.

Yup, and those heavy duty cords are expensive AF, but worth it if it prevents a fire.

 

[Renfro]

Based on my calculations my current equipment draws about 10A. If I tandem that breaker and get the 8A light on the other side of the breaker would that be a balanced enough load. About 10A and 8A?

That should be just fine, we aren't talking about a lot of power.

 

[JoeBlow5823]

agreed, as long as it's not coiled up in a spool so that it can't dissipate heat. We covered that in another thread not long ago. Also remember that on really long runs you can encounter voltage drop and upsizing the cable conductors is the fix, so 10 gauge instead of 12 gauge for a 20 amp line thats like 100 feet and heavily loaded.

Hell the cord that comes with most ballasts is like 15 foot long and only 16 or 14 gauge and generally cheap as fuck. If you have a cord that is even the least bit warm to the touch anywhere, replace it immediately.

 

[Renfro]

Hell the cord that comes with most ballasts is like 15 foot long and only 16 or 14 gauge and generally cheap as fuck. If you have a cord that is even the least bit warm to the touch anywhere, replace it immediately.

Yeah they are often 16 gauge, but even a 1000 watt ballast running at 120 volts is pulling say 9 amps, thats well within the tolerance of a 16 gauge wire (I wanna say thats 10 amps on the conservative side 13 on the high side) that is dedicated to that single load. Now with extension cords, folks tend to plug in more ballasts and there is when you get into issues. The simple way to move more power is to increase the voltage. This is why I prefer to run all my lighting loads at 240 volts, this not only drops the amperage by 50%, it balances the loads between phases, keep that current off that neutral whenever possible I say.

I remember back in the day when we would rent grow houses and run them for a cycle or two and move. We would find circuits that were only receptacles (no ceiling fans or lighting or appliances) pull those neutrals and put that circuit on a double pole breaker making all those receptacles 240 volts. When we left we just switched it back. That really saved a lot of extension cords. "Freedom boards" were big then, just a dryer cord wired into an intermatic double pole timer and some receptacles for ballasts.

 

[JoeBlow5823]

Yeah they are often 16 gauge, but even a 1000 watt ballast running at 120 volts is pulling say 9 amps, thats well within the tolerance of a 16 gauge wire

Most ballasts will do 1100 or 1150w too. Just saying if you can run a 1kw ballast on a cheap Chinese 16g cord, then running a ballast and a couple fans on a quality 20a extension cord should be just fine.