A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

whathits14 · Oct 7, 2009

IAm5toned said:
NEVER rate devices by amperage... always wattage. ALWAYS. amperage has nothing to do with the amount of power being used.

since your used to using amperage ill do the math and convert the numbers over

a single 600 w lamp and ballast will use approximately 5.41 amps of current.. so you have 2 of them.. which is 10.82 amps.
10.82 amps = 1298 watts... a 15amp breaker will want to trip at 1440w.
so thats one breaker.

the 1000w lamp and ballst will pull 8.83 amps.. and the 400w will pull so 3.58 amps. thats another 15 amp breaker.

using that we can say tht your total load for the grow op, (plus an addditional 150w for fans and timers and pumps and stuff) will be: 2938 watts

2938 watts @ 120vac= 24.48 amps

2938 watts @ 240vac= 12.24 amps

the ideal solution would be to have 240v ballasts, so that the larger portion of the load could easily be run off of one 15amp breaker, and then have one 15 or 20amp 120v circuit for normal plugs so you can plug in the pumps/timers etc etc.

now back to the subpanel.. like i said before, it has to go. no ifs ands or buts about it. you said your running a stove, and a washer/dryer on it. i will assume that if your using the stove, and doing some laundry, and the lights are all on you will be using-
68.40 amps or 16,418 w (16kw/h) the closest size electrical panel that will fit is a 100amp panel. they dont make a 75amp panel, and a 60amp is nowhere near big enough.

so you can see how you would be pulling almost 70amps to that subpanel, which means the wire that feeds it must also be good for 70amps.. which will be #4 awg copper. i seriously doubt that there is #4 wire feeding that subpanel right now. maybe #8 (which is twice as small)at best...

your main panel is a 125 amp intermittant duty panel that can be rated for 100amps of continous duty... this means your main breaker will want to trip at 100amps. this means that if your using close to 70amps to run the subpanel, you only have 30 amps to run the rest of the house! so as soon as the water heater turns on bam! main breaker just kicked. so the main service must be upgraded to accomodate the load of the lights you want to add.. its a real bitch but its going to have to happen if you plan on living in the house at the same time.

Again, awesome for the info. We do have switchable ballasts, so we would be running 240 on the lights. The stove/oven is gas, but IDK if it needs electric too? We will upgrade the shit out of that box b4 we try to run anything. Thanks again man.

i8urbabi · Oct 7, 2009

IAm5toned said:
im honestly not sure... i think you have two main problems though- the headlights will pull a shitload of 12vdc... like 25-30 amps worth for a single pair of lamps. a 25-30 amp dc power supply is going to run you around 200$... then theres the issue of cooling them.. im not sure how you would, and since the lamps will not fit in any standard socket that a house lamp will, your going to have to invent a fixture that is fire proof to hold them in place. interesting idea though, it might be viable for pc cabs or other stealthy setups, but for the price your gonna pay to power them up and the time it will take rigging a fixture and figuring a way to cool it, i would just spend the cash on a nice remote ballast from ebay and grab a socket and reflector hood or cooltube while i was at it... just my opinion though. im also not sure the lamps would give the proper spread of light to make them effective, as the lamps really get there brilliance from the reflector lense in the headlight assembly... woul be fun to experiment if you had the parts lying around, but as for myself i just dont see myself spending that much when i could get top of the line for the same price with no aggravation

touche sir

Bob Smith · Oct 7, 2009

IAm5toned said:
your going to make me blush

what will determine the answer to what your asking is how big is the wire going to the garage from the panel? it maybe possible to squeeze some more power through it to the garage... but it then again it might not be! and is there another small panel in the garage?

another question im asking is are you sure that the unlabeled breakers are not being used, and just not labeled?

ps- the blank spot at the top left corner in the panel is the only 'empty' or spare slot i see

*Long-ass post to follow, my apologies

Again, thanks so much for even entertaining my post - so, the answers to your questions are as follows:

1) Not sure how large the wire is - it's yellow and has the number 14 on it, but there's a few different wires coming in and out of the insulation, so I need to do some more homework on that end - there's at least two wires going in there, and more likely 3+. No, there's no panel in the garage.

2) No, not positive that they're not being used right now, and most likely they are - had an electrician here a couple of months ago to wire a ceiling fan, and he needed to install a new breaker (top right corner, which is newer than all the others).

So, at least we know that I have one empty slot, so that's a good thing :mrgreen:

So, assuming that the wire gauge to the garage is thick enough to handle 60ish amps, is it something that an electrician can handle without access to the garage?

I'm basically trying to figure out if the solution is going to entail him needing to get into my garage, which is an obvious deal breaker, as I'm very private about my tomatoes.

Truthfully, I'm not even sure I'll need more power, and think I would PROBABLY be okay with the 40 amps I have right now, but it'll be tight, especially in the summer time.

Veg tent - 400 watt light, two inlines fans, all the fixins - call it 650 watts all-in.

Two flower tents - both 1000 watts with three inlines, atmosphere controllers, CO2, air pumps, etc. - call them both 1300 watts when running full bore, but they're going to be on alternate 12/12 schedules, so the lights will never be on at the same time.

Doing the math, that's 650 running 24/0, plus another 600 between the two flower rooms of things that have to always be on (fans and air pumps, pond pumps), and then always at least one 1000 light on.

Doing my math, that's 2250 that's always going to be on in the garage, and then in the summertime, I wanna add a large portable AC unit, like this guy:

http://www.portableairshop.com/AP14000W-EdgeStar-Extreme-Cool-14000-BTU-Dual-Hose-Portable-Air-Conditioner/AP14000W,default,pd.html?cgid=Residential_Portable_Air_Conditioners

So, in total that'd be 3450 watts running at any one time on 40 amps, which only comes out to 28.75 amps.

Am I missing something, or am I really fine and don't need to do anything for the electric?

Would love to be able to add a water chiller or two if possible, and they're 250 watts a piece.

Holy shit is this a long post, sorry bout that.

IAm5toned · Oct 7, 2009

Bob Smith said:
*Long-ass post to follow, my apologies

Again, thanks so much for even entertaining my post - so, the answers to your questions are as follows:

1) Not sure how large the wire is - it's yellow and has the number 14 on it, but there's a few different wires coming in and out of the insulation, so I need to do some more homework on that end - there's at least two wires going in there, and more likely 3+. No, there's no panel in the garage.

2) No, not positive that they're not being used right now, and most likely they are - had an electrician here a couple of months ago to wire a ceiling fan, and he needed to install a new breaker (top right corner, which is newer than all the others).

So, at least we know that I have one empty slot, so that's a good thing

So, assuming that the wire gauge to the garage is thick enough to handle 60ish amps, is it something that an electrician can handle without access to the garage?

I'm basically trying to figure out if the solution is going to entail him needing to get into my garage, which is an obvious deal breaker, as I'm very private about my tomatoes.

Truthfully, I'm not even sure I'll need more power, and think I would PROBABLY be okay with the 40 amps I have right now, but it'll be tight, especially in the summer time.

Veg tent - 400 watt light, two inlines fans, all the fixins - call it 650 watts all-in.

Two flower tents - both 1000 watts with three inlines, atmosphere controllers, CO2, air pumps, etc. - call them both 1300 watts when running full bore, but they're going to be on alternate 12/12 schedules, so the lights will never be on at the same time.

Doing the math, that's 650 running 24/0, plus another 600 between the two flower rooms of things that have to always be on (fans and air pumps, pond pumps), and then always at least one 1000 light on.

Doing my math, that's 2250 that's always going to be on in the garage, and then in the summertime, I wanna add a large portable AC unit, like this guy:

http://www.portableairshop.com/AP14000W-EdgeStar-Extreme-Cool-14000-BTU-Dual-Hose-Portable-Air-Conditioner/AP14000W,default,pd.html?cgid=Residential_Portable_Air_Conditioners

So, in total that'd be 3450 watts running at any one time on 40 amps, which only comes out to 28.75 amps.

Am I missing something, or am I really fine and don't need to do anything for the electric?

Would love to be able to add a water chiller or two if possible, and they're 250 watts a piece.

Holy shit is this a long post, sorry bout that.

nah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.

well the math works out... you should be fine running all that epuipment with a 40 amp supply. ill bet you have some nice tomatoes

(lol no pun intended)
are you currently running all the equipment you mentioned besides the a/c? i ask this cuz a red flag just went off... i noticed how in your panel, the breaker for the shed/ garage is a tandem breaker (the handles are connected) and that makes me wonder if one circuit is dedicated for the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed.
if this is the case you might have some problems when you go to add the air conditioner, as it really needs to be on a circuit that is only using, say 400-600 watts, or else your going to get nuisance tripping when the air conditioner starts to run.
to me it is strange to have a tandem breaker feeding two different circuits, usually they, and legally, they are used to run a single 240v circuit... theres nothing dangerous about using a tandem breaker, its just that if one circuit trips it will also trip the other which is just plain annoying. it might be worth your while to replace the tandem breaker with 2 seperate 20 amp breakers... id hate to see an accident happen and put all of your tomatoes in darkness.. no one likes early flowering or light stress issues.

is there any way you could be brave and maybe takes some pictures for me with the cover off on that panel? (dont do it if you feel uncomfortable)
and im going to go out on a limb here and ask this- but has your house also been remodeled recently? and if it has, did the water heater used to be in the garage?

NOWitall · Oct 7, 2009

ok not to step on any toes.

but he says his wire has a number 14 on it, implying 14 ga wire.

if he sends 30amps down that line it will fry it, much less the 40-60 hes wanting.

also you cannot buy a 60amp single pole breaker at just any electrical supply house, and it will deff have to be special ordered.

and there shouldnt be ANY breaker higher than 15 amps connected to a 14ga wire.

you want to send 60 amps farther than 15 feet your gonna need at least 8ga, maybe 6 depending on the distance

IAm5toned · Oct 7, 2009

NOWitall said:
ok not to step on any toes.

but he says his wire has a number 14 on it, implying 14 ga wire.

if he sends 30amps down that line it will fry it, much less the 40-60 hes wanting.

also you cannot buy a 60amp single pole breaker at just any electrical supply house, and it will deff have to be special ordered.

and there shouldnt be ANY breaker higher than 15 amps connected to a 14ga wire.

you dont know for sure thats a 14 gauge wire. he also said the jacket was yellow. if it was a 14 and he was pulling 18 amps continous duty through it, the wire would get hot enough at the connection point on the breaker to cause the thermal element to trip*........ sorry man, but this isnt my first rodeo either

and if you can make 30 amps go through a 20 amp breaker, ill shake your hand and call you tom edison

*ever wonder why the connection point is always aluminum, or aluminum coated copper, or other highly heat conductive alloys? so the heat from the wire is transfered to the breaker, and makes the breaker trip in instances of long term over amperage

Bob Smith · Oct 7, 2009

IAm5toned said:
nah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.

well the math works out... you should be fine running all that epuipment with a 40 amp supply. ill bet you have some nice tomatoes (lol no pun intended)
are you currently running all the equipment you mentioned besides the a/c? i ask this cuz a red flag just went off... i noticed how in your panel, the breaker for the shed/ garage is a tandem breaker (the handles are connected) and that makes me wonder if one circuit is dedicated for the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed.
if this is the case you might have some problems when you go to add the air conditioner, as it really needs to be on a circuit that is only using, say 400-600 watts, or else your going to get nuisance tripping when the air conditioner starts to run.
to me it is strange to have a tandem breaker feeding two different circuits, usually they, and legally, they are used to run a single 240v circuit... theres nothing dangerous about using a tandem breaker, its just that if one circuit trips it will also trip the other which is just plain annoying. it might be worth your while to replace the tandem breaker with 2 seperate 20 amp breakers... id hate to see an accident happen and put all of your tomatoes in darkness.. no one likes early flowering or light stress issues.

is there any way you could be brave and maybe takes some pictures for me with the cover off on that panel? (dont do it if you feel uncomfortable)
and im going to go out on a limb here and ask this- but has your house also been remodeled recently? and if it has, did the water heater used to be in the garage?

The house was indeed remodeled before my girlfriend bought it about four years ago - there was an addition that added a bathroom and enlarged the kitchen, and I believe that they did something to the garage, but my girl's sleeping so I'll have to ask her tomorrow.

As far as your "tandem breaker" question, would that mean that I would have to make sure to use the correct outlet in the garage (as there's probably four different outlets to plug into in there, and there's certainly a couple of different color wires coming from the house going to the different outlets), or would it mean that there's only 20 amps of power going to the garage and 20 amps going to the shed, and there's just a universal 40 amp breaker for the two of them?

Cuz if it's the latter that would fugging suck...............as far as running the equipment at once, I've not to this point, as my first flower tent is still being setup and some pieces of equipment (like the AC) I don't even have yet.

I guess when I set my flower tent up tomorrow and give it a test run that we'll figure out pretty quickly if there's 20 or 40 amps going into there, huh? :blsmoke:

Also, there's never any power ever used in the shed, in case that was an issue. Like never, not in years, so that draws 0 watts.

So you're basically saying that, if the nuisance breaker is in full effect, that I'll basically have to figure out how to divvy up my power usage between the two circuits 50/50? If that's the case it's not a big deal, just means doing some math and some more extension cords and surge protectors.

Also, would be more than happy to take pictures - I assume it's as simple as unscrewing something to take the panel off, no? I'll do some Googling for how to do it without getting electrocuted, and I'll have some pics up first thing tomorrow morning.

Again, I really can't thank you enough for your help with this, you're really going above and beyond with this thread.

Bob Smith · Oct 7, 2009

NOWitall said:
ok not to step on any toes.

but he says his wire has a number 14 on it, implying 14 ga wire.

if he sends 30amps down that line it will fry it, much less the 40-60 hes wanting.

also you cannot buy a 60amp single pole breaker at just any electrical supply house, and it will deff have to be special ordered.

and there shouldnt be ANY breaker higher than 15 amps connected to a 14ga wire.

you want to send 60 amps farther than 15 feet your gonna need at least 8ga, maybe 6 depending on the distance

I appreciate the help, but truthfully the wire said a lot of numbers on it, there were like 3036 and 14 and all kinds of other things - I tried to take a couple of pics but the camera's not good enough - I'll go write down and do a serious wire inventory tomorrow morning and see how many, what color, and what numbers they have written on them that are coming from the house into the garage tomorrow morning.

Thanks to both of you for your help.

IAm5toned · Oct 7, 2009

Bob Smith said:
The house was indeed remodeled before my girlfriend bought it about four years ago - there was an addition that added a bathroom and enlarged the kitchen, and I believe that they did something to the garage, but my girl's sleeping so I'll have to ask her tomorrow.

As far as your "tandem breaker" question, would that mean that I would have to make sure to use the correct outlet in the garage (as there's probably four different outlets to plug into in there, and there's certainly a couple of different color wires coming from the house going to the different outlets), or would it mean that there's only 20 amps of power going to the garage and 20 amps going to the shed, and there's just a universal 40 amp breaker for the two of them?

Cuz if it's the latter that would fugging suck...............as far as running the equipment at once, I've not to this point, as my first flower tent is still being setup and some pieces of equipment (like the AC) I don't even have yet.

I guess when I set my flower tent up tomorrow and give it a test run that we'll figure out pretty quickly if there's 20 or 40 amps going into there, huh?

Also, there's never any power ever used in the shed, in case that was an issue. Like never, not in years, so that draws 0 watts.

So you're basically saying that, if the nuisance breaker is in full effect, that I'll basically have to figure out how to divvy up my power usage between the two circuits 50/50? If that's the case it's not a big deal, just means doing some math and some more extension cords and surge protectors.

Also, would be more than happy to take pictures - I assume it's as simple as unscrewing something to take the panel off, no? I'll do some Googling for how to do it without getting electrocuted, and I'll have some pics up first thing tomorrow morning.

Again, I really can't thank you enough for your help with this, you're really going above and beyond with this thread.

oh there is definitely only going to be 20 amps there. im almost certain that there is two seperate circuits being controlled by the tandem breaker, but what im curious about is how is it split up? thats why i asked if the house was remoldeled... cuz my theory was that the circuits in the garage and shed are being fed from an old 220v circuit for a water heater or maybe the previous owner had some shop tools in the garage. if thats the case, it maybe that one circuit goes to the garage, and another goes to the shed, OR and more likely, is that there are two circuits in the garage, one of them ends in the garage and is feeding some plugs or a light, and the other may feed a light, or a garage door opener, or a plug or two, then go outside to the shed. if thats the case, it would be ideal... because you would have two 20 amp circuits in the garage itself, and it would be a matter of plugging one setup into one and the other on the second.
if its the case where one circuit is dedicated to the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed, it may become nessecary to find out where the 'homerun' for the shed is... does the wire go straight from the electrical panel to the shed, or does it run with the same wire that goes to the garage outlets? that would be better because then you could find where the wire comes from the panel, and goes to the first outlet in the garage... if your lucky you will find a splice behind this outlet in the outlet box between the wire feeding the shed, and the wire coming from the main panel... following me? get that wire isolated and then you can add perhaps a surface mounted plug or a cut in receptacle to have the 2nd circuit in the garage... by abandoning the wire going out to the shed and directing that circuit into the garage. what does suck about that scenario is having work going on in the garage.. very minor work though.
hopefully im making sense to you

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

"oh there is definitely only going to be 20 amps there. im almost certain that there is two seperate circuits being controlled by the tandem breaker"

Well that's not what I was looking for :cry:

"OR and more likely, is that there are two circuits in the garage, one of them ends in the garage and is feeding some plugs or a light, and the other may feed a light, or a garage door opener, or a plug or two, then go outside to the shed. if thats the case, it would be ideal"

Now you're starting to talk my language - still can't seem to figure it out entirely, but what I do know is that there's about four or five different outlets in the garage, and there's one in the shed - the shed is also much closer to the garage than the breaker panel, so if I was a betting man, I'd have to wager that the latter idea is correct and at least one or two of the outlets in the garage are running off of the shed's circuit (although my judgment is probably clouded by my hope right now).

"does the wire go straight from the electrical panel to the shed, or does it run with the same wire that goes to the garage outlets?"

The wire goes underground instantly from the shed, and fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, it looks like it goes straight from the fucking breaker box to the fucking shed fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Okay, so that fucking blows, let's talk solutions - the wire from the breaker box to the shed is definitely visible above ground (the electrician actually pointed this out before), so is that some wiring that I could do?

Also, and perhaps the better move, is that I haven't started flowering yet, and it wouldn't take me very long at all to get both the tents broken down and allow an electrician into there - any idea how extensive that work would be and how much he would charge me for it? Since I have that extra "slot", he could just run an additional 20 (better yet a 30 or 40, is that feasible?) amp circuit to the garage, and I'm guaranteed 40+ amps in there.

The more I think about it, unless you tell me it's really easy and I definitely won't die, I think I might just bite the bullet and call an electrician.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

doitinthewoods · Oct 8, 2009

my room is in a house that's around 4400 sq ft. The power bill is already around 190 a month. I was just wondering how much I could use without raising red flags. I was thinking 1000w is pushing it, but around 600 is fine. What do you think?

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

doitinthewoods said:
my room is in a house that's around 4400 sq ft. The power bill is already around 190 a month. I was just wondering how much I could use without raising red flags. I was thinking 1000w is pushing it, but around 600 is fine. What do you think?

You could run five 1000's with all the fixin's with no problem.

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

IAm5toned said:
nah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.

well the math works out... you should be fine running all that epuipment with a 40 amp supply. ill bet you have some nice tomatoes (lol no pun intended)
are you currently running all the equipment you mentioned besides the a/c? i ask this cuz a red flag just went off... i noticed how in your panel, the breaker for the shed/ garage is a tandem breaker (the handles are connected) and that makes me wonder if one circuit is dedicated for the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed.
if this is the case you might have some problems when you go to add the air conditioner, as it really needs to be on a circuit that is only using, say 400-600 watts, or else your going to get nuisance tripping when the air conditioner starts to run.
to me it is strange to have a tandem breaker feeding two different circuits, usually they, and legally, they are used to run a single 240v circuit... theres nothing dangerous about using a tandem breaker, its just that if one circuit trips it will also trip the other which is just plain annoying. it might be worth your while to replace the tandem breaker with 2 seperate 20 amp breakers... id hate to see an accident happen and put all of your tomatoes in darkness.. no one likes early flowering or light stress issues.

is there any way you could be brave and maybe takes some pictures for me with the cover off on that panel? (dont do it if you feel uncomfortable)
and im going to go out on a limb here and ask this- but has your house also been remodeled recently? and if it has, did the water heater used to be in the garage?

Here's some pics of the breaker box sans cover, although it seems like a pointless exercise right now, already looking up electricians to call :cry:

Anyhow, pics are below, but I'm not sure what you're going to be able to tell from them.

So, I know I'm jumping the gun here, and you might have some good news for me, like wiring up the 20 amps myself is a piece of cake, but I'm guessing that's not the case, so I'm already onto thinking of excuses to tell the electrician of why we need more power to the garage - thinking I'm going to say that it's getting turned into a man cave with its own beer fridge, a TV or two, and also might have a heater plugged into it when it gets cold - that should about cover all bases in terms of him trying to convince me to go smaller amperage, no? Also, he'd have to make sure ATLEAST 40 amps were running in there to be safe, no? Preferably I'd like 50 or 60 amps, but can get by with 40.

Why oh why does electrical have to suck my damn balls? (no offense)

Anyways, thanks so much again for your time and help, because even though this may seem like it sucks right now, this would REALLY suck if I hadn't thought of it until a couple of months down the line when I have three tents in there with two of them flowering on alternating 12/12 schedules - talk about a fugging headache.

The thought of how shitty that would be almost makes me not feel bad about only having to break down one veg tent and one half put together flowering tent.

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

Holy fucksticks.

So I just called and spoke with my first electrician, and the conversation went as follows:

Me: Hi, I currently have a twenty amp circuit going to my garage and was looking to have at least 40 or preferably 60 amps going into there, which is about thirty feet from the breaker box - I'm going to turn it into a man cave with a beer fridge, heater, and a big screen TV, and I know you can't give me an exact price, but could you at least give me a guesstimate? Are we talking a couple of hundred dollars or a thousand dollars plus? (obviously I was hoping for the "couple hundred dollars")

Assclown: Well, you're talking about running two circuits to a garage, and a lot depends on the current setup you already have, yada yada, but definitely ATLEAST (he said this like a prick, BTW) several hundred and possibly even a thousand.

Am I getting ass-raped here or is that what's it's gonna cost? This was the first guy I called (and not a "guy" so much as a corporate electrician service, so their prices are probably more than I'd pay some random electrician to do it). Anyways, if anyone could tell me if that's a reasonable fee or not for what I need, that'd be great.

I do know that if I'm dropping a stack+ on this that I'm getting at least 60 amps in there and maybe even 80.

Turn that garage into my own little greenhouse.

rollingrock · Oct 8, 2009

hi
how could i connect a thermostat to a heater wether it be a oil radiator or any other heater for that matter
thanks

IAm5toned · Oct 8, 2009

Bob Smith said:
Holy fucksticks.

So I just called and spoke with my first electrician, and the conversation went as follows:

Me: Hi, I currently have a twenty amp circuit going to my garage and was looking to have at least 40 or preferably 60 amps going into there, which is about thirty feet from the breaker box - I'm going to turn it into a man cave with a beer fridge, heater, and a big screen TV, and I know you can't give me an exact price, but could you at least give me a guesstimate? Are we talking a couple of hundred dollars or a thousand dollars plus? (obviously I was hoping for the "couple hundred dollars")

Assclown: Well, you're talking about running two circuits to a garage, and a lot depends on the current setup you already have, yada yada, but definitely ATLEAST (he said this like a prick, BTW) several hundred and possibly even a thousand.

Am I getting ass-raped here or is that what's it's gonna cost? This was the first guy I called (and not a "guy" so much as a corporate electrician service, so their prices are probably more than I'd pay some random electrician to do it). Anyways, if anyone could tell me if that's a reasonable fee or not for what I need, that'd be great.

I do know that if I'm dropping a stack+ on this that I'm getting at least 60 amps in there and maybe even 80.

Turn that garage into my own little greenhouse.

assclown= retarded idiot that doesnt want business. im kinda shocked he said it could cost a thousand dollars to add 1 or 2 20amp circuits. perhaps i need to move to your area so i can make a killing, lol, it would be better than sitting here waiting for callbacks :lol:

i will walk u through the easiest way to get what you want. it may involve a trip or 3 to home depot but im quite confident you can do this without any major problems or issues.

ok- on your panel, note how the wires connected to the tandem breaker, one is black, the other is red... it appears (but i cant see the very bottom of the wire)
to me that that particular cable is what we call a 12/3 or a 10/3 romex. the first number being the guage of the wire, the second being the amount of current carrying conductors. it lets you run either a 240v circuit, or two 120v circuit, on a single cable. Your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to locate the other end of that red wire. it might require pulling some of the plugs in the garage out of there boxes to see what wire is behind the plugs. if this is not an option, or you cant find the other end of the red wire, lets try plan b- and intercept the visible wire going to the shed. take a pic of where its visible above the ground, and we will go from there. It would be optimum if it was visible on one of the exterior walls of the garage. keep in mind that plan a is less labor intensive than plan b, but requires more thought.

im having some issues with my 'highspeed' internet that is running like dialup today so bear with me if it takes me a few hours to get back to this thread...

IAm5toned · Oct 8, 2009

rollingrock said:
hi
how could i connect a thermostat to a heater wether it be a oil radiator or any other heater for that matter
thanks

you buy a line voltage thermostat and run the hot leg of the circuit through the thermostat. or you could buy something like this, click it for info....

thermocube

IAm5toned · Oct 8, 2009

Bob Smith said:
You could run five 1000's with all the fixin's with no problem.

agreed. you dont have to worry about wattage unless your running more than 4-6kilowatts an hour 24/7.... in other words, if your bill is less than 400$ and you pay it every time, u have no worries. horror stories you hear about people getting busted from the power company usually involves some illegal wiring, that gets spotted by a meter reader, then yo know what happens next. you should be fine

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

IAm5toned said:
assclown= retarded idiot that doesnt want business. im kinda shocked he said it could cost a thousand dollars to add 1 or 2 20amp circuits. perhaps i need to move to your area so i can make a killing, lol, it would be better than sitting here waiting for callbacks

i will walk u through the easiest way to get what you want. it may involve a trip or 3 to home depot but im quite confident you can do this without any major problems or issues.

ok- on your panel, note how the wires connected to the tandem breaker, one is black, the other is red... it appears (but i cant see the very bottom of the wire)
to me that that particular cable is what we call a 12/3 or a 10/3 romex. the first number being the guage of the wire, the second being the amount of current carrying conductors. it lets you run either a 240v circuit, or two 120v circuit, on a single cable. Your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to locate the other end of that red wire. it might require pulling some of the plugs in the garage out of there boxes to see what wire is behind the plugs. if this is not an option, or you cant find the other end of the red wire, lets try plan b- and intercept the visible wire going to the shed. take a pic of where its visible above the ground, and we will go from there. It would be optimum if it was visible on one of the exterior walls of the garage. keep in mind that plan a is less labor intensive than plan b, but requires more thought.

im having some issues with my 'highspeed' internet that is running like dialup today so bear with me if it takes me a few hours to get back to this thread...

Hell, where ya at? If this guy's gonna charge me $500 to do it, maybe I'll just fly you out here and then give you the balance of the remaining money from the $500 (and I'd even get you high - eating tomatoes, of course).

So, you're saying that I should go take off the faceplates of the outlets in the garage and figure out what color wire is behind them, either a red or a black wire? So basically, take off all the outlet covers in the garage and see which ones have a red wire behind them, correct?

I'm assuming that this is the case, so I'll do that now, but I have one or two questions first.

#1, based on what you've seen from my pics and from what I've explained to you, is getting 60 amps in there feasible? Based on what you've said from my pics, I only have one free circuit left in my box, so would that mean that the most I could get into the garage would be 40, without "stealing" the 20 amps from the shed? Or is there another way to get 40 more amps into there?

#2, the "guesstimate" I got wasn't a hard and fast estimate, he just said several hundred up to more than a thousand - truth be told, if it's <$400 (from the guy who's coming over tomorrow, just a solo electrician who I'd imagine is gonna want my business and give me a reasonable rate), I'm kind of inclined to just let him handle it, as long as he can get me 60 amps. If he can't and can only get me 40, than I'm more inclined to try to do it myself and risk possible electrocution.

And just as a rule of thumb, I consider myself lazy but smart, so I'll always choose more thought and less labor intensive :mrgreen:

Again, thanks for all you're help, I really don't know how to thank you enough.

I'm gonna go take some outlet covers off, back in a little.

Bob Smith · Oct 8, 2009

Mr. Stoned, thanks again for that PM - I think I'm gonna leave this one to the professional for a couple of reasons:

1) I don't wanna die this young
2) A few hundred bucks isn't gonna kill me
3) I'd like his professional eye looking at the current wiring, just as a safety measure to make sure that garage can handle what I want done

Now it's just a matter of getting my 60 amps, which I'll hopefully have by this time tomorrow.

A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Attachments

Well-Known Member

Active Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member