A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

IAm5toned said:

man to be honest your really need a loadcenter to run that... get a small 60 or 100 amp panel and connect the awg#6 cables to the main lugs in it, then put a 240v plug on the other end so you can plug it in to the dryer outlet.

for the lights use awg#14, dont use 18.
in the panel just have a 15 amp breaker for each light, and put the fan on one of them... what you really need is the lighting control box like what savage has ion the above posts...

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Damn bro I'm no electrician. There any other work around beside all that...Have to have a load center to distribute the current? Cant just let it flow..

not really... you could.. but you already know what happens when shitty wiring is done.

what happens when I use a 250w mh bulb on a 250 hps ballast? it lights up the bulb, i can say that. but does it do damage to either bulb or ballast?

If it lites its probley a conversion bulb, double check the bulb, if it is your fine.

http://www.horticulturesource.com/product_info.php?products_id=1970

Hey is that what you are saying I need?

Also I think that has a European plug for the 50 amp. The one behind my stove is is the one that you kinda plug in and twist if you know what I mean?

Could I still get this and get an adapter and would that work or no?

i dont think you will need an adapter, that may be a euro plug in the pic, but the website is based in WA state so i dont think they would knowingly ship a euro configured device to the US.
it might be thats just a generic pic provided by the manufacturer for sales/ads.
im sure if you give them a call they will be happy to answer any questions you have about the controller
and it would be cheaper and safer to swap the cord out to a 4 prong 240v 50 amp stove cord instead of trying to find an adapter if the plug on it doesnt work

Yea good idea I am savy enough to do that at least. You just saved my grow. Thanks for the knowledge I'm young and in the game, ya know?

Hay there IAM5TONED, thanks for the reply I have been out of town. You asked for additional information here it is.
Ref: Help Needed HPS Light
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/296652-help-needed-hps-wiring.html

Thanks for your response, sorry it has taken a couple of days for me to get back with the additional information, I have been out of town and off line. Please see the pictures and diagram included............
The writing on the side of the Ballast states as follows:
71A8107-B Advance Transformer Co
INTERGRATED IGNITOR REACTION BALLAST
150w SSS HIGH PRESSURE SODIUM LAMP
120v 60mz 3.2a
Optional S2 or SSMFD
120v cap


….Thanks Again

Check out my cool ballast setup

250W HPS and I'm so pleased with it. The wooden board dampens the vibration and it makes no noise at all, just a whisper of a rirrrrrr.

It's resting on flame retardant material.

Cost me half the price of the assembled ballast.

looks like something i made years ago lol...
watch the wood, it will make the ballast get hot, there supposed to be mounted to metal, so that the metal acts as a heat sink.
it will work fine though, just dont run it 24/7 for longer than a few days at a time. 23/1 is perfect, gives the ballast an hour to cool down.

edit ps-

i just saw your first post, if it is a pulse start mh lamp it will work, but a probe start will not. you can tell by the ansi number on the lamp

THANKS for the quick response and

YOUR SERVICE TO THIS COMMUNITY

I neglected to qualify myself as totally literate or ignorant to items dealing with electricity, I do however know enough to have much respect for it. With that said I have one last question.(I THINK)
You said “the wire labeled lamp goes to the center pin on the lamp socket”. Which wire would that be the center pin on the socket white or black? I took the socket apart & answered this one myself the black wire goes to the center pin.. I now have 3 sets of wires, 1. white= threaded collar/common,
2. black=center pin/lamp 3. 120v/other common. Did I miss something or do I need to cap off one of the sets of wires? No I'M NOT SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER.

Thanks Again
PEACE & PROSPERITY

IAm5toned said:

looks like something i made years ago lol...
watch the wood, it will make the ballast get hot, there supposed to be mounted to metal, so that the metal acts as a heat sink.
it will work fine though, just dont run it 24/7 for longer than a few days at a time. 23/1 is perfect, gives the ballast an hour to cool down.

edit ps-

i just saw your first post, if it is a pulse start mh lamp it will work, but a probe start will not. you can tell by the ansi number on the lamp

Click to expand...

That's nice to know

Thanks for the advice on the ballast and heat, I will watch out for it.

Yeah, I ran an MH lamp for a while and finally replaced it with HPS.

Thanks IamStoned!

moveme said:

THANKS for the quick response and

YOUR SERVICE TO THIS COMMUNITY

I neglected to qualify myself as totally literate or ignorant to items dealing with electricity, I do however know enough to have much respect for it. With that said I have one last question.(I THINK)
You said “the wire labeled lamp goes to the center pin on the lamp socket”. Which wire would that be the center pin on the socket white or black? I took the socket apart & answered this one myself the black wire goes to the center pin.. I now have 3 sets of wires, 1. white= threaded collar/common,
2. black=center pin/lamp 3. 120v/other common. Did I miss something or do I need to cap off one of the sets of wires? No I'M NOT SMARTER THAN A FIFTH GRADER.

Thanks Again
PEACE & PROSPERITY

Click to expand...

you almost got it right, lol.

the 2 wires you have twisted together, labeld 120v and common... un twist those, lol... one of those goes to 120v line voltage, and the other goes to the 120v neutral (white wire)....

the white wire from the lamp is made up correctly, dont fool with it. the black from the lamp is right as well.
so the 2 wires you have left, are for the incoming power, 120v and neutral....

Hey 5toned, hope all is well. I'm off to my next room as some final touches out of my control are finished on the water cooled room.

My question: When hooking up a generator, do I simply supply the power through a breaker?

In other words, lets say my generator has 2 30 amp 220V outputs and 1 50 amp output.
I add 2 30 amp 220 V breakers, run my hots, connect the ground to the ground bar and neutral to neutral bar? Same with the 50 amp, just use a 50 amp breaker?

Another related question:
I can't seem to find a chart that cleanly states the ampicity rating of SOW cable. Can you confirm guage for 30 and 50 amp in SOW?

Thanks!

watercooled@ said:

Hey 5toned, hope all is well. I'm off to my next room as some final touches out of my control are finished on the water cooled room.

My question: When hooking up a generator, do I simply supply the power through a breaker?

In other words, lets say my generator has 2 30 amp 220V outputs and 1 50 amp output.
I add 2 30 amp 220 V breakers, run my hots, connect the ground to the ground bar and neutral to neutral bar? Same with the 50 amp, just use a 50 amp breaker?

Another related question:
I can't seem to find a chart that cleanly states the ampicity rating of SOW cable. Can you confirm guage for 30 and 50 amp in SOW?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

found a chart here-
http://www.nationalsupplyonline.com/Electrical_Wire.html



6/3 for 50 amps and 10/3 for 30 amps. those numbers are good for 300'.

and the generator should have breakers on it...
if it doesnt you can put breakers in, just remember they have to be mounted very securely to a grounded enclosure or the frame of the generator.

Thanks greatly for all your help last time; probably could've installed the additional circuits myself, but just paid an electrician instead.

Like a moron, however, I got both (20amps a piece) wired at 120V, and it's becoming increasingly clear that I really need a 240V circuit in there.

So, my question is two parts:

Firstly, how can you tell if an outlet is wired for 120 or 240? I have no idea what a 240 outlet looks like, in all honesty.

Secondly, everything I've read on the Internet states that a double pole breaker is a 240 and a single pole is a 120 - is this correct?

Asking because it would appear as though I've got 240 in the garage already if this is the case, as per the pics below:

First a pic of the overall breaker box.



Now here's the circuit(s) in question - obviously this is a double pole circuit, so shouldn't there be 240V power going to both the garage and the shed?



And since there's a bazillion outlets in the garage, I figured I'd take a pic of the outlet in the shed, as it's the only one there.




So with that evidence (although I can gather more if you need it), what is your professional opinion of what V I have running on that circuit?

Also, is there a cheap and easy way to test it?

Finally, since I'd imagine you're gonna say something along the lines of "nope, you've only got 120", how difficult (and costly) would it be to upgrade one of those new circuits to 240, or even to run a brand new one?

Thanks so much for your time, my friend.

hey bob, sorry for the late reply man, i somehow missed your post
unfortunately, your right, 'nope, you got 120v'
the good news is that IF the plug in the shed is a 'home run' or dedicated line going from the panel, to the outlet in the shed, than making it 240v will be easy.
the not so good news is that if your 240v devices require a neutral (and alot of 240v lighting/climate controllers do) than you will have to run new wire.
if they dont, then this will be relatively easy.
pic one-
the good news is, if that spare breaker in the top right is not being used for anything, than you have the space and the equipment to do what you need to do to make the outlet in the shed 240v
the bad news is your lights in the shed are being fed from the 120v outlet... so your lights will have to go bye bye, or be replaced by fixtures that will run off of 240v. and i dont mean the grow lights, i see a switch next to the outlet in the shed, and im assuming that switch feeds a light somewhere inside or outside the shed...

pic two- it appears that the circuits in question are sharing a two pole breaker, instead of two seperate single pole breakers as they should be

pic three- yep, thats a light switch being fed from the same circuit as the receptacle, as mentioned above.

pic four- that looks like a 120v 15amp GFCI outlet... could be a 20 though. but its 120v, no doubt about it.

in the shed-
the ideal thing to do would be to get rid off whatever lights are currently being fed from that switch.
get rid of that gfci and put in a 3 prong 240v outlet.
and then, in the main panel
remove the spare wire going to the attic from the 15 amp breaker on the top right.
remove the wire from the breaker feeding the garage (circuit 12)and move it to the breaker in the top right.
remove the neutral (white wire) from the neutral bus that is for the shed (circuit 14)
connect the neutral to the other pole of the 20 amp 240v breaker (circuit 12)
and that should give you 240v in the shed...

this is something you should only do if you are certain that the wire going to the shed is not sharing a neutral with another circuit. (like the one in the garage) this means that there must be a dedicated cable running from the outlet in the shed directly to the panel, and not connected to anything else in between... there is a way to test that but the test should only be performed by a qualified electrician, as there is significant risk of electrocution in performing the test. however, if you can see the cable with your eyes running to the shed, and your positive that its a dedicated line, then I could do the procedure i just explained as fast as 15 mins, and thats being ultra conservative in my time estimate.

as far as running a new cable, with a new breaker, its hard for me to estimate what it would cost, theres alot of factors to consider, how far is the run, does it have to be concealed, does it have to be buried, does it have to be in conduit or can it be direct burial cable, does your service have enough available ampacity, etc etc theres hundreds of variations that effect pricing.

Whats up Stoney. just poppin in to say high. Got the room put together bro. come check it out.

ps i went with my 110v 4now. just cause i got all the shite i need, gonna put a 220 a/c unit in for the summer months. Peace doob.

How you goin man.

First of all I'd like to thank you for giving up your time to help all of us.

I was wondering how one might wire a light bulb such as this one or any other singular lightbulb reccomended for growing plants without plugging it the roof as per usual . I dont really have any electronic expertise other than my father being an electronics technician for 20 years.



I had a purely fictional idea the other day, one that will not come into being - of growing a plant inside a tall surround sound speaker box - just so this plant would be hard to discover. This idea I had also consisted of inserting a small fan into the box (A PC fan)

I also imagined leaving the speaker fully operational as to muffle the sound of the fan. However I also did imagine taking measures to ensure the wires were fully insulated as to prevent problems with moisture etc.

How would one go about wiring this all up?

As I said, I have no real electronic expertise, but I have access to any necessary equipment and I can learn shit pretty quickly.

Is there anything one might need to be wary about?

Overloading etc. surely a light bulb and a fan will not cause this.