Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

[BigBudBalls]

Hey, i do have a question, I saw a little cooler ac unit, it runs offa 12v from the car lighter, what would I have to do to get it to plug into a regular socket 120v? Thanks Dude

What do you plan on it doing? its not going to cool a cardboard box grow room let alone a closet. Even as its intended use, it really doesn't cool items in it, but will maintain the temp And thats what 1 cubic foot max? Then you need to worry about cooling the hot side (it gets hotter then the cold side gets cold)

But to answer your Q, you will need a 12VDC power supply with enough amperage (plus an extra 10-15%) to run the cooler.

Overall, don't bother. Not going to get the results you are looking for.

 

[legalizeitcanada]

K... thanks for the reply man, i'll think of somethin else!

 

[legalizeitcanada]

So i have another already. so i have found a 100 watt hps bulb, some of them say mogul base and other say medium or standard household base, my question is can the household one be plugged into a regular socket or do you still need that balast for em? Some people are saying yes it just plugs in, some are saying I need a ballast to convert the power,

so.....do they just run on 120v or do I need a ballast, I don't wanna have a fire hazard lol

http://www.1000bulbs.com/100-Watt-Me...e-Light-Bulbs/
here is the page I was lookin at

thanks for lettin me pick your brain!

 

[harper2002]

Hi, I am planning on doing a loft grow but the only wiring I can tap into is the wiring for the lighting in the house.... is this ok to run a 400 or 600 Watt bulb +fans and pumps? Other thing is I will only have one socket so would be using a four way extension, Am I gonna burn the place down or blow myself up?

 

[IAm5toned]

more realistaclly you will simply kick the breaker because the circuit was overloaded. there's really not enough info in your question to give you an accurate answer. the 2 deciding factors that determine whether or not you can run a safe operation is this:
the size of the wire (guage) of the circuit you wish to tap into
the size of the breaker (amperage) that protects that same circuit.

if you can find that info, im sure some of us can give you a more accurate answer.

 

[purplehazin]

Orange means nothing. The final OD means nothing of the extension cords. Its all in the gauge of the wire in the cord. (granted a higher temp insulation can make up for lack of gauge, but NEC will probably frown on it, even though its valid)

Get a cord rated for 15A, even though you are only running 8A. Lengths play a part in these things with voltage drop.

Have fun with the closet grows. Heat is a major issue. Get that all proven out before starting to grow.

Alright, picked up a 25' Ridgid Cord; 15A rating with 12AWG wire. Hopefully this is safe enough. Thanks man.

 

[buster7467]

Hi guys. I have a question for you. I have two 250w hps lights. I want to run one ballast with a flip flop relay so i can set up 2 seperate rooms and just have one ballast running 24/7. Could you point me in the right direction with some links to some info or a parts list that i can get locally? I only plan on using it on the 250w hps lights so i am hoping i can build one on the cheap. I have seen a couple flip flops relays on websites and the price is too high. If you can give me any info that would be great. Thanks.

 

[whiteflour]

The concept is fairly simple you want an NO and NC relay that switches an outlet/plug set, each relay countering the others action. But if you search for "flip flop ballast" on google you'll find a few guides already available.

 

[buster7467]

Thanks for the info. I will google it and do some reading on the subject. Thanks.

 

[BigBudBalls]

So i have another already. so i have found a 100 watt hps bulb, some of them say mogul base and other say medium or standard household base, my question is can the household one be plugged into a regular socket or do you still need that balast for em? Some people are saying yes it just plugs in, some are saying I need a ballast to convert the power,

so.....do they just run on 120v or do I need a ballast, I don't wanna have a fire hazard lol

http://www.1000bulbs.com/100-Watt-Me...e-Light-Bulbs/
here is the page I was lookin at

thanks for lettin me pick your brain!

No, you need a ballast also (with a cap and iginter)

 

[BigBudBalls]

The concept is fairly simple you want an NO and NC relay that switches an outlet/plug set, each relay countering the others action. But if you search for "flip flop ballast" on google you'll find a few guides already available.

Just gotta watch that ignition spike HPS has. It will wear the contacts. Better off with 2 relays. One for the bulb and another for the ballast. Turn the ballast off, swap the bulbs, turn ballast back on.

 

[buster7467]

I just got done doing some reading and i have came to the conclusion that if i would need to set it up like bigbudballs stated, i will just use my other ballast. If you need to shut the ballast down to safely get the relay to switch properly and then start the ballast back up it would be the same as just using two ballast with there own timer. Thanks guys.

 

[BigBudBalls]

I just got done doing some reading and i have came to the conclusion that if i would need to set it up like bigbudballs stated, i will just use my other ballast. If you need to shut the ballast down to safely get the relay to switch properly and then start the ballast back up it would be the same as just using two ballast with there own timer. Thanks guys.

Could use a digital timer to just turn off the ballast for one minute to spare the second relay. (just use a properly rated timer for *inductive* loads. Inductive loads are derated from resistive loads)

Could get fancy and use a stepping relay and each time the ballast gets turned off it triggers the stepping relay.

 

[guycaballero]

I have aquired a free 1000w light used in an outdoor industrial type of seting. It is apparently set up to run 347V, (that is what is labeled on the black wire running from the ballast to the power supply)is there anything i can do to change it over? or wire my house for it? or just scavenge some parts of it and buy another 1000w ballast?
thanks

 

[harper2002]

Hi, I am planning on doing a loft grow but the only wiring I can tap into is the wiring for the lighting in the house.... is this ok to run a 400 or 600 Watt bulb +fans and pumps? Other thing is I will only have one socket so would be using a four way extension, Am I gonna burn the place down or blow myself up?

The fuse box says it has a 5 amp fuse and the wire from mains to extension is a THICK Grey wire (hard to bend due to solid copper earth I think)

Please note this is info from a question I asked a few days agow but just got round to getting the info put on.

 

[whiteflour]

5A seems kind of puny, but whats the voltage? A 600w alone at 110v is already too much, and probably borderline pushing it at 220.

 

[harper2002]

230v i believe we run. its the light wiring for the house im tapping into.

 

[IAm5toned]

Hi, I am planning on doing a loft grow but the only wiring I can tap into is the wiring for the lighting in the house.... is this ok to run a 400 or 600 Watt bulb +fans and pumps? Other thing is I will only have one socket so would be using a four way extension, Am I gonna burn the place down or blow myself up?

The fuse box says it has a 5 amp fuse and the wire from mains to extension is a THICK Grey wire (hard to bend due to solid copper earth I think)

Please note this is info from a question I asked a few days agow but just got round to getting the info put on.

you sure its not a 15 amp fuse, that the '1' is just worn off from age, or covered in dust/grime?

 

[Common0ne]

THE SECOND PARAGRAPH IS ABOUT THE ELECTRICAL BUT IF YOU CAN PLEASE ALSO GIVE ME ANY OPINIONS ABOUT MY FIRST PARAGRAPH OR ANY CHANGES I SHOULD MAKE WHICH IS ABOUT MY GROW ROOM OVERALL
I just wanted to keep everything in 1 place. Really sorry if it causes any inconvenience as I do understand that this thread is solely about Electrical.

Alright so I have been doing quite a bit of research of how to build my grow room (probably about 1 months worth and mind that I have had no previous knowledge of any of this type of work lol) and this is what I got so far..

I will be going with a EBB flow hydroponic system. The dimensions of the table is a 4x8 the reservoir is 100gallons, pump is rated at 1056 GPH, 38L/M air pump, will be going with 4"x4" rockwool cubes (will try to find 6"x6" at other local stores) and I will be going with a SOG grow. Each plant will get 1 sq/foot of space therefore 4x8 = 32 sq/foot so that is enough room for 32 plants. Obviously I cant just make the room 4x8 because getting in would be impossible so I will make the room a 5x9x8 instead so I can have some room to work with (inspecting plants and etc.) A room of that size would equal 360CFM sooo.. If I wanted to exhaust the room I would need 720CFM exhaust fan bare minimum and a carbon filter that is 133% of the exhaust fan so 1.33x720=957.6 so lets just round that to a 1000CFM carbon filter. For the inlet I will be using negative pressure to bring in fresh air (trying to save a little money there for now). Also since I will have 32 plants I want to make sure that each plant will get at least 50W light/each so if I had 2x 1000wHPS lights that would be 2000W/32 = 62.5W per plant which is fine. You are probably wondering if I will be air cooling these lights with a second exhaust fan and the answer is no..Well..initially I will see how everything turns out BUT I will be purchasing a 12,000BTU A/C /Dehumidifier so that should take care of any heat issues..Lastly for the grow room reflectance I will be using Mylar.

Alright so now for electrical.. I looked into it for a bit and I THINK I understand what I would have to do..BUT I am just making sure because I don't want to burn my building down.. Soo.. On my control panel it is a Commander 100amp (which is old as shit) but I realized that it still has 2 sockets available for additional breakers and thank god it does..I will want to purchase 2 separate 20amp breakers and install them into the control panel and then connect them with 12-3 gauge wiring all the way to the grow room. I will then install 2 outlets, each outlet will run on its own circuit so that each of them will have 20amp's of power (therefore equaling 40amp's) which is sufficient for running my grow room. There is one question I want to ask though because im already going to spend shitloads of money for this growroom so I need to go a bit cheap so I want to purchase 120V ballasts which are $150 cheaper than the 120v/240v so I would save $300 BUT I figured out that I can't run both lights on 1 20amp circuit because I have read that you can only use 80% of the breaker's total amount of amps so 0.80x20=16amp's (constant use) but since I will be using 120v ballasts I would consume 120v X 16amp's = 1920W. So if I were to use ballasts rated at 120v the 20amp circuit would only give me 1920W of power which is 80W shy of the 2000W lights so I am wondering if I can use both lights on the 1 20amp circuit using 120v or should I just put 1 1000W light on 1 20amp circuit and put the other 1000W light on the other 20 amp circuit (only reason why I am asking this is because I just want to keep everything clean..) but w/e if I have to I have to :/ Also if there is anything that sounds wrong with my grow please tell me because I want everything to be perfect before I spend 1 cent on my growing materials.

Last question if I started to consume this much power (probably 3500W) would this raise enough suspicion to get me caught.. I live in a Condominium where all the expenses are payed for including electric/hydro and it is 29 floors so it is a pretty big building. I am just wondering though would they even be able to know or realize anything because there are just soo many people living in this Condo.. Also forgot to mention that I will be using sound dampeners for the 8" ducting to minimize the noise.

If you guys have the chance just give me any more advice or anything I should change at all would be very much appreciated
Thank you!

Common0ne

 

[slantxl]

Alright, I am building a room in a garage and was going to have 1400 W worth of light and run a 620 w window mounted a/c unit through the wall. I really don't want to rewire. I have a 20 Amp dedicated line in the garage already and I figured I would be able to run the 1400 w of light off this line with an extension cord to the room. (Distance from outlet to lights is less then 15') I have an adjacent spare bedroom that hardly gets used. The only electronics in this bedroom are the florescent ceiling light, dresser lamp, small 20" LCD TV, and a DVD player. If I were to drill a hole through the bedroom and into the garage and run an extension would this be okay to run the 620W A/C unit, 5 water pumps on a timer, one in line exhaust fan, and three oscillating fans? Distance from the spare bedroom outlet to my hobby room is about 20'. My main concern is if this posses a fire hazard? If anyone has any advice that would be greatly appreciated. Not planning on adding anything to this room in the future. If I am to expand I will be expanding my hobby into the extra bedroom. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.