A power panel to keep electrics safe and neat

Bump this thread every day man. Its so ironic to me that newbies ask every question in the book except how to wire (like that is the easy part, ha). That last set up from 4:20 guy is electrical porn and I am crazy jealous that you did not have to pay for most of that, nice score man! This thread is obviously written from the stand point of someone who knows what they are talking about and cares that other people don't get hurt and end up hurting their property. Listen to this man young growers and respectfully fear the great power that is electricity.
 
All you gotta do is read the news. A couple of times a month, the fire brigade gets called out to a residential fire which has been caused by poorly installed electrics for a grow op. The grower is now both a news story and another statistic in the War on (some) Drugs.
 
I have a small room (3x6x6 = 108 cubic feet give or take a few). I have been able to get my temps down to around 75 - 85 at leaf level and 90 at the top of the room but I can not get my humidty down. It floats around 70% - 80%. Of course today it rained and was up around 85% or 90% but when its dry out I can't seem to get it down I have three fans. One at ground level (tower fan and rotates), one on the lights (6" circular stationary) and one as exaust (6" circular ducted out as exaust). I am at the end of veg as friday is two months and will start flower. From what I understand so far I need to reduce humidity to 40% to 50% during flower to avoid bud rot or mildue setting in correct? Please help with any ideas. I currently have two of the closet dehumidifiers but don't seem to be doing enough. I thought about cat litter but not sure if it would work as it won't be getting peed on.:dunce: Any ideas, besides going and buying a dehumidifer for $100 plus which I don't have! :wall:

:leaf:Thank you in advance for any :idea: and your time!:leaf:
 
In ops without aircon, you're very much at the mercy of ambient RH. The only way to lower ambient RH without aircon or a dehumidifier is to raise the temp of the ambient air you're drawing into the op. This may not be an option if the air you are drawing in is already at or above the target 24-26C range for your grow.

However, all is not lost. You can get a sulfur 'burner' (which does not burn, but rather evaporates sulfur), which will put a rapid halt to powdery mildew and bud rot (botyritis aka grey mould). Sulfur evaporators are not terribly exxy, about $80, and use powdered elemental sulfur, which you can get from any hdwe or garden shop. The S itself is very cheap, about $5 for about 250g. The evaporator uses very little S in operation. 250g may last you a year. The S evaporator is used on a timer to limit the application of S vapour as excess can burn leaves. I have one and I run it on a timer for 8 mins, 2x/day during lights-off, once 1h after lights-off and again 1h before lights-on. I run it in lights-off as the exhaust blower is not likely to be running, so the S vapour will land on the plants instead of being blown out.
 
First off Thank you for you help it is very kind and appreciated!

Second here is the full skinny on what I have going on and any help is loved!

I have 21 23w CFLs (total of 438w(12blue 9red)) over 6 12" kids and 2 8" youngins and 1 6" dwarf (she got picked on as a baby). Kids and dwarf(i felt bad for her) are in 5 gallon buckets, youngins are in 2.5 quart pots all are with in 4" of light. I have exaust fan, light bulb fan and plant fan all are prob 80cfm. Temp day 75 - 80 at plant level and 85 - 90 at roof line, night time 60 - 70. Humidity is high (70% - 80%) tryin to fix but not sure how without dehumidifer which is to costly! I am using Micircal Grow soil and either rain water or distilled water. The photos are not accurate with the number of lights I explained but the numbers are correct the photos weren't updated just to show basic setup!

My Humble Questions to the WISE MAN!

1. Is that enought red to blue for flowering (vegged for 60 days)
2. Is that enought light at all (ok should have been #1)
3. How much power am i using (from reading your post I will have to look at my bill for kw cost and mulitply with used kw (hopefully you can tell me if i am correct and how much I used with light setup I also attached photos for you eyes) for cost)
4. Ideas on lowering humidity (without spending more than 20 bucks)
5. Whats best way to switch to 12/12 (ie: over time slowly say 7 days or just do it in one day and should there be a dark period 24 or 48 dark)


--=== Any wisdom you make want to bistoe upon me would be give high karma and knowledge points. Any thing you give will be greatly appreciated! ===--

THANK YOU!!!
 

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If you want a grow that's going to do something more than disappoint you, you have some changes to make.

  • Throw away the 438W of CFLs and buy a 400HPS.
  • Install ventilation that will shift the volume of the room in 1 min, e.g. 200cu ft room gets a 200CFM blower, air is removed from the room to a place where it can not be drawn right back in
  • Install a thermostat to operate the exhaust blower
  • Switching to 12/12 requires no acclimation period, just switch it.
 
Al B. Fuct said:
If you want a grow that's going to do something more than disappoint you, you have some changes to make.

  • Throw away the 438W of CFLs and buy a 400HPS.
  • Install ventilation that will shift the volume of the room in 1 min, e.g. 200cu ft room gets a 200CFM blower, air is removed from the room to a place where it can not be drawn right back in
  • Install a thermostat to operate the exhaust blower
  • Switching to 12/12 requires no acclimation period, just switch it.
Click to expand...

Ok with you saying that I have two 150w hps that I found and thought about ordering only 20 bucks a piece but my question is I am running everthing off a bright orange extention cord would it be too much to ad the 2 - 150w hps to CFL's with the three fans I am using on one cord or would i have to another one for the HPS lights. I know I am running 438w of CFL if divided by 120v then that = 3.65 amps, correct? Is this the same calculations for the hps (2 X 150) 300w divided by 120v = 2.5 amp so in total that would be 6.15 still way under the 15 amps a 14 gauge wire can handle even with not adding the small fans i have. Am I correct in my thinking or not! All help is admired! Also how close could i get the hps lights I know clf is with in four inches! I would like to use both to maximize.
 
If you're thinking about running a pair of 150HPS, take ballast losses and luminous output into consideration.

A 150 will draw about 180W out of the AC mains, so a pair of them draws about 360W. A 400HPS draws about 465W. But here's the difference that makes a difference: a 400 makes about 50,000 lumens, a 150 makes about 15,000. Since the lumen is a measure of intensity (brightness) and no lamp gets brighter by virtue of putting one lamp next to another, the luminous intensity from a pair of 150s is still 15K lumens. As you might expect, 50K lumens will have much better foliar penetration than 15K lm. You will get markedly better intensity and thus bud density and yield from a single 400. $119 will buy you a 400HPS lamp tube, ballast and reflector from HTG.

There is a such thing as false economy. You've surely spent more on CFLs, in drips and drabbles, than you would have spent on a 400. The 438W of CFLs is also making much more heat than a 400HPS and significantly less lm/W.

Adding CFLs to HPS is like adding a model airplane engine to your 747. Waste of time. Don't bother.

14ga will carry 15A max @ 120V. However, for safety, you should limit continuous loads to 80% of the max current rating- or less. Keep in mind that an HPS will need about 25% more current on startup (for about 15sec after striking the arc) than while running.

A 400HPS without a cooltube can be spaced about 300mm from leaves. Add a cooltube and it can be 100-150mm.
 
Al B I love most of your advice. You've got me concerned with the electrical in my op--thank you, I'm taking all precautions. Anyhow, I can't agree with your model engine analogy. Throwing some CFLs, especially as much as Texas has can only help. Think of the bud sites he could reach with them that a 150-400hps couldn't hanging overhead. Now I'd never say use CFLs alone for flowering, unless you're just looking for a small stash which is always cool to.
 
fuch said:
Think of the bud sites he could reach with them that a 150-400hps couldn't hanging overhead.
Click to expand...

Tall plants are not the indoor grower's friend. If you veg before flowering, you get tall plants, which DOES put the lowermost buds out of the best coverage of the HPS lighting.

However, if you flower clones immediately after they set root- no veg time between setting root & flowering- you get short plants. We call it Sea of Green:



SoG tailors the plants to the available pattern of artificial light. No fill light required. All branching which pops up on the lower 1/3 of the mainstem is removed in wk1 & again in wk3 of flowering.



Yes, each plant is smaller in SoG- so you just grow more small plants, forming a 'sea' of plants.





Each SoG plant is nothing but a top cola, the biggest & most dense buds a plant can make. No bumfluff/popcorn buds on lower branches, which is the result you'll get from excessively tall plants- or by filling with CFLs.

Flowering with CFLs is a waste of time, money and electricity, whether using them as main or fill lighting.
 
Did some poking around in my house's breaker box and attic and found a 20 amp circuit only running to 4 bathroom outlets we never use. Was very happy to buy the cable etc and split an outlet into my small room. Not that my loads that much over 1000w for everything, but now I can divide it up and sleep better :) If I didn't stumble upon this thread... who knows...
 
I guess bathroom outlets get their own 20 amp line as your average blow dryer can get upwards of 2000 watts. There're no blow dryers in this house to worry about :)
 
fuch said:
Did some poking around in my house's breaker box and attic and found a 20 amp circuit only running to 4 bathroom outlets we never use. Was very happy to buy the cable etc and split an outlet into my small room. Not that my loads that much over 1000w for everything, but now I can divide it up and sleep better :) If I didn't stumble upon this thread... who knows...
Click to expand...

:clap: Good Work :clap:

+ rep for you
 
Sorry to bump an older thread, but there is a hidden wealth of knowledge here. Being a dope smoking electrician myself I appreciate the value of a safely wired home or grow room for that matter.
 
I am trying to run (4) 600Watt HPS in grow room... NEED HELP

What should i do if I have four 600watters that i want to run at the same time during flowering???

Electrical Wiring for panel?

PLEASE GIVE SUGGESTIONS
 
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