A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Not growing in a basement, it is a spare room on the 3rd floor of my house.
When you say 2944 watts is that the maximum load for the 2 sockets in that room only or is it the max load for that floor or say 2 rooms?
I ask this because if it is the latter then we might have a problem. My main bedroom is beside the growroom. We have 2 outlets (4 sockets) on the same wall. The 2 sockets in the grow room are on this wall also so im guessing they are on the same circuit.
We have 2 laptops, a 42inch tv, a 23 inch TV 2 xbox 360s,modems and various other small appliances plugged into these sockets, most of which are switched on constantly or for a good chunk of the day. would this be a problem if running all of the other equipment in the growroom? Is there anything I can do/check to figure out exactly how much the circuit can take? sorry if I sound like a retard, i just dont want to go spending lots of money on grow equipment if Im gonna have to give up everything else to allow it to run lol!
yeah you might want to scale down your op to a single 600w...lol.. because all that stuff already on the circuit will give you problems.
 

Sadista

Member
yeah you might want to scale down your op to a single 600w...lol.. because all that stuff already on the circuit will give you problems.
I was afraid you were gonna say that...:sad:

before I decide thats its impossible to run a 2 x 1000w flower room would it perhaps be better to run the 2 lights at night from say 10pm - 10am when power consumption is lower, and have the fans on low during the day and crank them up at night also?
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
I was afraid you were gonna say that...:sad:

before I decide thats its impossible to run a 2 x 1000w flower room would it perhaps be better to run the 2 lights at night from say 10pm - 10am when power consumption is lower, and have the fans on low during the day and crank them up at night also?
you could definitly try it..... i would say you might even be able to pull a single 1000w with it on.. maybe.
 

watercooled@

Active Member
Hey 5toned, hope all is well. I've put up a new thread in the design section showing a potential vertical grow I'll be building. Your opinion is valued, so check it out. I plan on running lifelines from a breaker box which will allow the owner to hook the trailer, unplug the lifeline and move if he needs to... :-) this one should be fun! I was thinking of running an extra ground rod and attaching it to the trailer just in case, but that would be something else to unhook if the trailer needs to be moved. We'll see.
 

aTTicRaT

Well-Known Member
I hope you can give me a good suggestion Stoned. I'm trying to exhaust a very small box.

OK so I purchased two of these tiny squirrel cage case fans and wired them to the black universal AC adapter (3-12v 1300ma) and since they both say 2.1a on the label I was not surprised when they came on but were not very fast at all.

I then spent way to much money on the white universal AC adapter (6-12v 2.5a) hoping that uping the amperage 2 times would gimme some positive results but received the same speed/RPMs. Luckily I was able to use the adapter without cutting it and returned it later.

I know you can't see the fans in action but I I don't think they're working up to their there rated speed of 3500 RPMs and they are definitely not 50~ dba loud like they say.

Is there a way to utilize the white cord as a speed control or can I even go with maybe a larger 12v 5a adapter for a laptop or would that draw way to much?? or am I not on the right track at all??bongsmilie Thanks in advance your thread has been a plethora of information to me already.
 

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IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
I hope you can give me a good suggestion Stoned. I'm trying to exhaust a very small box.

OK so I purchased two of these tiny squirrel cage case fans and wired them to the black universal AC adapter (3-12v 1300ma) and since they both say 2.1a on the label I was not surprised when they came on but were not very fast at all.

I then spent way to much money on the white universal AC adapter (6-12v 2.5a) hoping that uping the amperage 2 times would gimme some positive results but received the same speed/RPMs. Luckily I was able to use the adapter without cutting it and returned it later.

I know you can't see the fans in action but I I don't think they're working up to their there rated speed of 3500 RPMs and they are definitely not 50~ dba loud like they say.

Is there a way to utilize the white cord as a speed control or can I even go with maybe a larger 12v 5a adapter for a laptop or would that draw way to much?? or am I not on the right track at all??bongsmilie Thanks in advance your thread has been a plethora of information to me already.
beleive it or not, you actually need a 6 amp power supply for those fans. unfortuntly, the fan motors may be damaged permamently from undervoltage/underamperage (not having enough power)

when rating electrical equipment for a grow op, it has to be rated for continuous duty.
this means, it must be sized 125% of the actual full load amperage.
sounds complicated, but its not-
you have 2 fans drawing 2.1 amps a peice.

2.1 x 2= 4.2
4.2 x 125% = 5.25

your power requirements for the fan motors is 5.25 amps. since you NEVER round down when dealing with power, you must round up. so a 6 amp power supply.bongsmilie

edit/ps-

also, some advice.... use both fans to exhaust... dont try using one fan to push, and the other to pull, it wont work right.... have them both exhausting hot air from the top of the box, and have passive intakes on the bottom of the box (fancy word for vent holes) that way, the fans remove hot air and force cooler air into the box, instead of fighting each other over pressure differentials....
 

aTTicRaT

Well-Known Member
Thanks so much I didn't think the 2.1 was actually what they draw from the circuit just the max amperage IDK. I have however planned everything like you said but instead of a passive intake I'm going to add one 80mm variable speed fan set to low blowing into the intake hole just to keep things moving. Can you recommend anything to supply power to these squirrel cage fans?? Thanks again.
 

oregon024

Active Member
Hey guy I wired my lights up to my dryer plug.Just ran the hots and ground.From plug to 2 other plugs then I plug my lights in.Been working fine now for over a week.Is this safe.They sell adapters to do this and kinda did it myself.Thanks Oregon024
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
seriously, i wouldnt put a fan on the intake side of it...

it will make both fans noisy, and very inefficient. ever hear of cavitation?
cavitation occurs when there is a difference in pressure between a blades base and tip.
cavitation occurs because of backpressure
back pressure occurs when you are trying to push more air/liquid than can easily be moved.
fans hate back pressure.
air expands as it heats up. this expanding air increases the air pressure in your cab. you cannot prevent it from happening.
by forcing cool intake air into the cab, against this expanding air, you cause your fans to cavitate. the blades start vibrating like a mofo, get real noisy, and there ability to move air is greatly reduced.
the only way you can over come cavitation is to run pressurized ducts on a sealed venting system, or use series-start synchronized motors on the fans, and thats just rediculously expensive.
by having passive intakes, you eliminate cavitation from back pressure (unless your ducting is to small on the exhaust)

as far as my advice for the fans, try a model train speed controller ;)
is a transformer with a speed control switch built in. make sure it is one with the 'pulse' option of running ;)
trust me.
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Hey guy I wired my lights up to my dryer plug.Just ran the hots and ground.From plug to 2 other plugs then I plug my lights in.Been working fine now for over a week.Is this safe.They sell adapters to do this and kinda did it myself.Thanks Oregon024
as long as your comfortable with it, and its not heating up or in any danger from being physically damaged, it should be fine.
 

grower001

Well-Known Member
hey man can you help me with my bill. im using 300 watts for my lights. so thats .3 killowatts per hour right?? my county charges $.05 per kwh so how much money do i use every hour in my grow lights??? i hope you could understand this
 

shoemaker

Well-Known Member
sorry if u already answered i didn't want to look thru 51 pages, can i make my fans run in reverse, an ordinary house fan??

Thanks, The Shoe!!
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
its more of a pain in the ass to do than its worth, but it is possible.
it would be easier to buy a fan that has a reversable motor, or, even easier, turn the fan 180 deg. a/c motors are a pain in the ass to reverse....

im not tpying up how to do it, lol... it takes too long.
here's a link to a step by step on how to do it, and you will see how much of a royal pain it is....

http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/elec-mtr/elec-mtr.html
 
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