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

WeeGogs

WeeGogs

Active Member
IAm5toned said:
whats funny is im just trying to be nice and give the guy fair warning is all...
tapping a meter covertly isnt easy, and he pulled it off, without getting hurt or burning the place so that says something for his intelligence.
and being in an apt building... where maintenence can literally enter ur place at will.... and with high energy costs, landlords and property managers be trying to eleminate power loss...
some lessons you have to learn the hard way, i suppose.

oh well.
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i dont have a landlord, or a property manager i dont have anybody that runs MY flat except for me, there is a concierge service and manager service that maintains the building, cleaning etc, and helps people with any complaints. it is run by our local council as a safety gesture,. so anyone wanting in to my flat has to be invited or allowed in by me. except for the police with a search warrant of course and they dont ask they just smash your door in. what i am trying to say is if you try to steal electricity through your meter then getting caught will be inevitible, you cannot tap in to the 100 amp+ cable before your main fuse as this is live and will kill you instantly, you have to tap in between the main fuse and meter when the main fuse has been pulled, but you have to break the seal, in my case the stupid electric man never fitted the seal properly so i took full advantage, although i am still paying about £10-£15 a week for my normal electricity in my flat (i still get 3500 watts 18 hours a day for free) through a meter key you take to a shop to put power on.
if i did not pay for my normal electric usage the power company would be on my doorstep within a couple of weeks.
 
M

mrjonesez

Member
everyday.smoker said:
Have someone used thermostat as heat fuse? I have an idea to place it before my timers and lights and switch it to about 95F or something. If the temp will be lower than that thermostat will let power through but if there will be some problems with fans and temp will get too high it will switch off. Am I right?
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yes, you need one rated for 120 or 240. whichever voltage your using.
thats a great idea, keep it up.
 
M

mrjonesez

Member
WeeGogs said:
hi mr. jonesez. this is true. i live in a tower block in the uk with 18 floors, i live on the 7th, my electric meter is situated in a cupboard that has its back to a bedroom and is 100 amp+ and 240v , the guy that fitted the single main fuse inadvertently left just enough room on the crimped seal wire to pull out the fuse that disconnects my meter, so i removed the fuse before my meter and that gave me access to a screw that removes a cover that conceals the neutral wire connection plate, now i can see the the two connector plates, so i drilled straight through them both, (the disconnected from live side of course), right through the single main fuse box with a 5.5mm drillbit, i removed the main fuse box and slowly pulled it forward just enough for me to go through the 5.5mm holes behind in the wall with a 13mm spade end drill bit straight in to the bedroom, i removed a large portion of the plasterboard in the bedroom and then got my hands on some 25mm cable and stripped out 3 feet of red live and the same of black neutral, i pushed the live through the hole in the back of the fuse box which was still dead as the fuse was removed, and the same with the black, i took an earth feed from my main consumer unit above my meter through the wall too, i bought a 5 - way small consumer box with a 100 amp isolator and 2 x 32 amp mcb (miniature circuit breaker) i have connected 1 mcb to two x two gang rcd (residual current device) sockets in a ring and the other to a 2 gang rcd socket, so now i have 3 double rcd sockets, 1 separate ring from the other two. i run every thing from these 6 rcd sockets including 2 separate 16 amp immersion heater timers to run my lights all connected through 13 amp fused plugs. when i go out i am paranoid as hell. what do you think, i am only running about 3500 watts total for 18 hours from this. i then put every thing back in order in the meter cupboard and i still get charged for power for the rest of my house, and free electricity in the room with the new consumer unit, the guy that is manager of the tower block came to see me and he opened my meter cupboard as i had my kitchen rewired 2 weeks before i did this, and he didnt smell a rat. i am waiting on the meter reader who comes every six months to read it soon. i pay my electricity through a key which i take to a shop and they put the amount i pay on the key, i know they can communicate with the key and can turn your electric price up or down from any shop when you buy credit, i am also assuming that the key may have told them my meter lost power for a while. but they are doing a lot of electrical work on my block and i hope that acts as a cover.
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not sure if thats enough loss on the line to get them off their asses to come look for the loss. They get normal loss from the overhead wires being so close together on the streets. Its when they see a substantial loss they will then put their doughnuts and coffee down to investigate.
by the way, anything i say is just for educational use only.
The meter reads the power anything after the meter itself. if anything was tapped on the wires coming from the street to the meter, the meter would never see the loss.
 
M

mrjonesez

Member
WeeGogs said:
i dont have a landlord, or a property manager i dont have anybody that runs MY flat except for me, there is a concierge service and manager service that maintains the building, cleaning etc, and helps people with any complaints. it is run by our local council as a safety gesture,. so anyone wanting in to my flat has to be invited or allowed in by me. except for the police with a search warrant of course and they dont ask they just smash your door in. what i am trying to say is if you try to steal electricity through your meter then getting caught will be inevitible, you cannot tap in to the 100 amp+ cable before your main fuse as this is live and will kill you instantly, you have to tap in between the main fuse and meter when the main fuse has been pulled, but you have to break the seal, in my case the stupid electric man never fitted the seal properly so i took full advantage, although i am still paying about £10-£15 a week for my normal electricity in my flat (i still get 3500 watts 18 hours a day for free) through a meter key you take to a shop to put power on.
if i did not pay for my normal electric usage the power company would be on my doorstep within a couple of weeks.
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they dont put main fuses in where the public can access them here in the u.s. They put them in a locked transformer outside and if someone got into one they would get a jolt of about 15000 volts.
 
WeeGogs

WeeGogs

Active Member
mrjonesez said:
they dont put main fuses in where the public can access them here in the u.s. They put them in a locked transformer outside and if someone got into one they would get a jolt of about 15000 volts.
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ok we only get 400volts (amps??) enter our main fuse in our stairwell to a transformer then transformed to 240 volts approx 100 amps then fused in our meter cupboard.
and the volts dont matter its the amps that matter in the house, our powerlines are 400,000 then 132,000 then 33,000 then 11,000 then 400 then 240 volts but i dont know how many amps or amount of electric draw you could get from them what i do know is, the larger ones have melted a few arms off to the shoulder and feet off to the ankle bone, and severe melting of the body and instantaneous death, the pylons that carry the 400,000 are 500ft high and this is a no fly zone the one onn the right in the picture can be seen from 10 miles away and that is one massive stun gun LOL but you cannot beat the americans for this invention for carrying electric power these are the most fantastic power lines i have ever seen and they are in iceland.
http://www.electronicbeats.net/Lifestyle/Columns/TODAY-WE-LIKE-Land-of-Giants
.
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5

504 boy

Well-Known Member
Hey I have a question. Do I need a ballast if im just running 1 400w MH on a 18/6 or 12/12 cycle. I know it would be rated as a continuous load since it will be running more than 3 hours a a time.. This is my first grow trying to get it right.
 
5

504 boy

Well-Known Member
:leaf:Im a journeyman /w the IBEW and sorry Dnak bugging is right on this one I started out doing residential back in 99', Now I only do commercia except for side work:weed:
 
sladeofdark

sladeofdark

New Member
All the guys that come out to give me my estimates keep asking " what are you going to be running on it?" and i dont know what to tell them lol. But i keep saying i need the outlets to be able to support 3000watts continuously. is that good enough?
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
they are asking you that because they need to know whether or not what your installing is to be considered continuous duty rated or not.
continuous duty rating effects the price, because something that is rated for continuous duty is much more rugged and built better than typical intermittent duty devices that are normally installed in your house.
by definition, a device is rated @ continuous duty if it has a duty cycle of 6 hours or greater, uninterrupted.
so your lights, are continuous duty rated... because i hope you plan on running them longer than 6 hours at a time ;)

here is how to determine the correct breaker and wire sizes for continuous duty rating-

max wattage (the wattage of everything)

x 120%
__________
continuous duty wattage

now divide by the voltage, to get the amps, and round up to the nearest breaker/wire size. its simple.


example:
4 600 watt HPS fixtures and ballasts (660w x 4)

660 x 4 = 2640w (max wattage)

2640w x 120% = 3168w (continuous duty rating)

3168w / 120v = 26.4 amps (continuous duty wattage converted to continuous duty amperage, amperage is used to determine wire and breaker size)

26.4 amps rounded UP (always up, never down, unless you like the smell of burning plastic!) to the next legal breaker/wire size would be 30amps/#10awg.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
sladeofdark said:
All the guys that come out to give me my estimates keep asking " what are you going to be running on it?" and i dont know what to tell them lol. But i keep saying i need the outlets to be able to support 3000watts continuously. is that good enough?
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tell them you are opening a home business and you need power for equipment.
they dont need to know WHAT type of equipment, just what tpye of receptacle it requires...

so you should say-

'I just need some 20 amp spec grade recptacles installed here, here, and here, on a dedicated line for x amount of amps'

:bongsmilie:
 
duchieman

duchieman

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, how's things here? I have not read this thread, it is a biggie and I just can't see myself digging through it to answer my question. I'm sorry if that's offensive or not good etiquette and I apologize in advance. Anyway my question is...How can I make my 600 HPS magnetic ballast to run 2 bulbs, in separate flower rooms, on alternating cycles? I'm a handy guy and somewhat electrical literate, working in the field a bit, and being a broadband tech, so I'm not shy to tackle a DIY like this. One guy showed me a prefab box of some sort that did the job but it was like 125 buck, then all the extra material needed on top, almost added up to a whole new ballast, bulb and fixture, so that doesn't work for me. I simply want to keep power constant to the ballast and switch it afterwards between the two bulbs. Some sort of timed relay rated for my ballast etc? I just don't know how to go about asking for what I need and the electrical supply house. If the answers already in this thread, cause I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to ask this, I'd be glad to dig for it if someone can just direct me in the right direction that would be great!

:peace:Duchie
 
Danielsgb

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
duchieman said:
That is awesome man, thanks for having that so handy. After looking at it, and reading further on in the thread, and seeing your quote I think I might abandon this idea altogether. Thanks again though.
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That's not mine it's from my favorite Guru
IAm5toned.:leaf: I just happen to see it again a few days ago, and always wondered about that.
Daniels:weed:
 
Starkton44

Starkton44

Member
I was thinking about running a bike generator for my lights. I will be running 8 55 Watt CFL equivalent to 250 watts. I'm not good with the terminology and the math. But im asking How much power would those 8 cfls running 12 hours a day use? I know I need a deep cycle battery. I'm just not sure on what volt battery I should get and if this is possible.
 
Truth B Known

Truth B Known

Active Member
yo bro, check it... i want to wire in a 30amp breaker into my breaker box that leads to a 30 outlet so i can plug in a 4 light 240v light module.. i'm not too familiar with electrical but carpentry i know pretty well.. just wanna know how hard it would be to do it myself or if i should have an electrician do it? thanks brotha!!
 
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