A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
LeeroySlim said:
hey mate just 1 last question, i have 20amps allocated to my electric hot water system can i some how disconect the hot water and use that as available amps for my lights if i hired an electrican to do this for me? sorry if it seems like a stupid question i dont no much about the electric side of things.
Click to expand...

only if your lights are 240v.
a water heater does not use a neutral, which is a critical part of a 120v volt circuit.
so if your lights are 240v, your fine.
however if you hire an electrician, he should be able to get whatever you want where you want it, you just might not like his price.
 
mygirls

mygirls

Medical Marijuana (MOD)
IAm5toned said:
you can, but you shouldnt.
the reason being if you have the wrong type of MH lamp, it will explode.
if you have a probe start lamp, it will be fine (not very likely. probe start MH lamps are getting rare)
if you have a pulse start MH lamp (highly likely, there sold nationwide at lowes and home depot) your taking a risk.

i do it myself, all the time. but only because i know for a fact my lamps and ballasts are compatible.
Click to expand...
i was being a smart ass....LOL i knowi do it all the time.. i even run a 400wt mh bulb in a 1000wtt hps ballast.. ballasts don't have to be compadable either.. a ballast is a ballast.
 
Murfy

Murfy

Well-Known Member
the triplex, 0 i think is was will be an extension cord of sorts, hard wired on one end, with a plug on the other, and a receptacle at the house, i can't find a common plug that will carry 100 amps (80@120%), the thing thats killin me is the air conditioner which is 15 amp 120v on a 20a breaker, plus fans radio, green light sights, etc.

if i can't get a plug i was just going to put a disconnect out side the house and hard wire

good lookin out on the NoAlOx, anti- oxidant, i will need this

thanks again for going though, all the remedial info, it made my job!-:cool:

murf
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
the disconnect would be the cheapest option, for sure. if you have a breaker feeding the triplex coming from the panel, the disconnect doesnt even have to be fused, which will make it even cheaper
 
Murfy

Murfy

Well-Known Member
alas the service in the house is only 100a, so i will need a FUSED disconnect, which just means breakers, correct?
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
how are you going to feed the triplex? is your 100 amp panel a feedthrough type? (lugs for service conductors at both the top, and bottom of the panel)
 
Murfy

Murfy

Well-Known Member
no, it is not feed through, but at the top of the, bus? where the breakers are, there is a hole in each one, is this for an add on lug?

and i will have to carry the common as well, for my 120 circuits, it appears the common carries across the box, where there is another lug,
so it's just a matter of picking up the mains

the ground is no sweat

on the outside of the house, i have a drop that goes into the crawl space with a 90 in the conduit that has a removable cover and a short nipple into the cs, so i could tie in here, but the box would have to be "feed through" and cost is a factor(read:WAY OVER BUDGET INDUCED PISSED WIFE)

what are your recommendations?
 

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mindatlarge

mindatlarge

Member
Hi Iam5toned,

My grow room has several outlets, and the electrical breaker board says each room in the house is a 20 amp circuit. Just the other day I installed a new 1000 watt light (which to my understanding pulls about 9.1 amps) in the room, and the room shut down upon powering on everything in the room. Is the circuit overloaded? I would think that the room has a 20 am circuit, wouldn't it be able to normally handle a lot of electricity per outlet, and shouldn't have cut out? I mean, only one light was hooked up to the outlet, and another 1000 watter was near it on the wall adjacent to it...I ended up having to run the 2nd light line out of the room.....would an extension cord be a bad idea with a 400 watt MH light? I thought that if the wattage was low like in the instance of a 400 watt lamp, it wouldn't be an issue to use a 12 foot ext cord (versus using an ext cord with a 1000 watt lamp would not be recommended).

Thanks!
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Murfy said:
no, it is not feed through, but at the top of the, bus? where the breakers are, there is a hole in each one, is this for an add on lug?

and i will have to carry the common as well, for my 120 circuits, it appears the common carries across the box, where there is another lug,
so it's just a matter of picking up the mains

the ground is no sweat

on the outside of the house, i have a drop that goes into the crawl space with a 90 in the conduit that has a removable cover and a short nipple into the cs, so i could tie in here, but the box would have to be "feed through" and cost is a factor(read:WAY OVER BUDGET INDUCED PISSED WIFE)

what are your recommendations?
Click to expand...
man... you already have alot of breakers in that panel, which tells me your pulling alot in your house.
remember that equation earlier about demand factor?
it also applies to your main panel... and the service entry conductors (wires in from the street that connect to the main 100amp breaker)
residential electrical panels make use of a loophole in the code called the intermittent duty demand factor.
it means that the majority of the ampacity of the main panel is designed to be distributed to branch circuits (the receptacles and lights) throughout the house, based on the assumption that the majority of the devices will not be used for periods longer than 6 hours, and the ones that do, will be low wattage devices.
this allows electrical designers and electricians to cram many breakers into a panel, and this is the case with your panel. if you notice, if you add up the amps of all the branch circuit breakers, you will have a number much higher than the main breaker.
what this means for you, is kind of bad news.
your out of amperage... which means that even though your wanting to run a dedicated line for your grow from the main panel, the power used by the grow and the power used by your house, must still share the same wires coming in from the street.
if your wanting 80 amps for a grow... then the wires that are currently feeding your main panel, are too small. it would work just fine if the house was empty... but if your occupying the house, your going to be using power, and if your using power in the house, and using power for the grow at the same time, your going to have a problem... you following me?
the correct way to fix this would not be cheap. prolly somewhere around 1.5k. you really need to upgrade the service entry equipment. what i would recommend would be to set a main distribution panel, outside, with a new 200 amp service from the pole, and from that panel you can feed the main panel in the house, and still have your 100 amps for the grow.
sorry to be the bearer of bad news but right now, if you continue on without upgrading theose service entry conductors, your going to have major problems in the very near future.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
mindatlarge said:
Hi Iam5toned,

My grow room has several outlets, and the electrical breaker board says each room in the house is a 20 amp circuit. Just the other day I installed a new 1000 watt light (which to my understanding pulls about 9.1 amps) in the room, and the room shut down upon powering on everything in the room. Is the circuit overloaded? I would think that the room has a 20 am circuit, wouldn't it be able to normally handle a lot of electricity per outlet, and shouldn't have cut out? I mean, only one light was hooked up to the outlet, and another 1000 watter was near it on the wall adjacent to it...I ended up having to run the 2nd light line out of the room.....would an extension cord be a bad idea with a 400 watt MH light? I thought that if the wattage was low like in the instance of a 400 watt lamp, it wouldn't be an issue to use a 12 foot ext cord (versus using an ext cord with a 1000 watt lamp would not be recommended).

Thanks!
Click to expand...
more than likely whats going on here is this-
the room itself is fed from a 20 amp breaker. this means that all the receptacles in the room, and the lights in the room, share the same 20 amp breaker.
a 20 amp breaker is good for 1920 watts. if you had one 1000w lamp and ballast plugged in, and added another, in the same room, its going to trip the breaker, because the combined wattage is greater than 1920w.... this is why your using a cord fed from another room. youve managed to split the load between 2 seperate circuits.
and a 1000w light will run all day on a #14awg cord. there just more expensive. however i would caution against running a 1k light on a cord, because if the receptacle the cord is plugged into is even slightly worn out, its going to get hot and you will have a major fire hazard.
 
Murfy

Murfy

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
man... you already have alot of breakers in that panel, which tells me your pulling alot in your house.
remember that equation earlier about demand factor?
it also applies to your main panel... and the service entry conductors (wires in from the street that connect to the main 100amp breaker)
residential electrical panels make use of a loophole in the code called the intermittent duty demand factor.
it means that the majority of the ampacity of the main panel is designed to be distributed to branch circuits (the receptacles and lights) throughout the house, based on the assumption that the majority of the devices will not be used for periods longer than 6 hours, and the ones that do, will be low wattage devices.
this allows electrical designers and electricians to cram many breakers into a panel, and this is the case with your panel. if you notice, if you add up the amps of all the branch circuit breakers, you will have a number much higher than the main breaker.
what this means for you, is kind of bad news.
your out of amperage... which means that even though your wanting to run a dedicated line for your grow from the main panel, the power used by the grow and the power used by your house, must still share the same wires coming in from the street.
if your wanting 80 amps for a grow... then the wires that are currently feeding your main panel, are too small. it would work just fine if the house was empty... but if your occupying the house, your going to be using power, and if your using power in the house, and using power for the grow at the same time, your going to have a problem... you following me?
the correct way to fix this would not be cheap. prolly somewhere around 1.5k. you really need to upgrade the service entry equipment. what i would recommend would be to set a main distribution panel, outside, with a new 200 amp service from the pole, and from that panel you can feed the main panel in the house, and still have your 100 amps for the grow.
sorry to be the bearer of bad news but right now, if you continue on without upgrading theose service entry conductors, your going to have major problems in the very near future.
Click to expand...

yea-
the service is 200, splits after the meter and goes to a barn that is NEVER used anymore, not one light bulb is even good out there, so i can pick up this leg

i do not own this bullshit rig! and must figure a way for this to work without spending a fortune

p.s. this is info that many people disregard when plugging in 1000's, sticky this info!
 
T

The Big Bud

Member
Not to state the obvious but Im new I have a 430hps and I am wondering what the electricty usage would compare to ie. t.v, micro wave ect. If I run the light is that like having a T.V on?
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Murfy said:
yea-
the service is 200, splits after the meter and goes to a barn that is NEVER used anymore, not one light bulb is even good out there, so i can pick up this leg

i do not own this bullshit rig! and must figure a way for this to work without spending a fortune

p.s. this is info that many people disregard when plugging in 1000's, sticky this info!
Click to expand...
well then the thing to do then would be to hijack that line going to the barn :bigjoint:
as long as your not using anything in the barn, you can just tap the feed for the barn, as long as its big enough for your needs.
 
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