Blew my fuse, Harvest now?

Wubstepp

Active Member
I woke up to my lights not being on because of a blown fuse. I then went to the store and got one and when I put it in without unplugging it first like a moron it blew it right away. It is closed now. The lights have been off all day and will I will not be able to get another fuse until tomorrow morning. Should I just harvest tonight? They are close to being done with a lot of milky trichs I was just waiting to see the first amber trichs.
 

Wubstepp

Active Member
Ok, right now I just have the cfl lamps around it on the sides. Ill keep them on the timer. Did the fuse blow instantly because I tried putting it in while It was plugged in or is it because of something else?
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
I woke up to my lights not being on because of a blown fuse. I then went to the store and got one and when I put it in without unplugging it first like a moron it blew it right away. It is closed now. The lights have been off all day and will I will not be able to get another fuse until tomorrow morning. Should I just harvest tonight? They are close to being done with a lot of milky trichs I was just waiting to see the first amber trichs.
Just turn them back on. Think about it in nature. There are sometimes a few days of rain so I wouldn't freak I'd turn it back on and watch for any hermies. But you are so close you'll probably finish then before they even hormonally realize what happened.

Oh and we won't know why your fuse blew until you disconnect from electricity, exchange the fuse, re-connect and turn back on.
 

Po boy

Well-Known Member
it's like putting them in darkness before harvest. let the plants stay as they are and check the trichs in a couple of days. you're so close to harvest i don't think there's a problem. GL
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Hey guys I tried two more fuses that I found they both blew when I plugged it in. Now what?
Identify all other electrical appliances on that circuit. Did you happen to add one? Could water have been spilled on it? Is the cord patent? Also could be a bad ballast.
 

roidrage152

Active Member
I would go with the last guy, you probably have too much stuff on the circuit. I'm not an electrician but learning the amps-watts-voltage conversion is pretty important. The fuse blows because you have too much stuff drawing power on that fuse. My system is on a circuit breaker and I had misjudged a circuit and overloaded it, but like a dummy kept resetting the breaker and actually probably could have started a fire. I didn't realize a certain high amp item was sharing a breaker and I actually had some wire melt through a plastic junction box. Luckily all of this wiring was in exposed studs so I didn't burn the place down and I could see where the damage was to replace the wire.

The fuse blows because more juice than is supposed to be loaded on the wires is being put through to prevent fires. To try and keep from over complicating, say for example 14 gauge wire would melt at like 200 degrees, the fuse on that run should blow at like 150 degrees, to make sure the line doesn't overheat and cause a fire.

Most electrical items have a wattage or amperage or should anyway if you look at the labeling. Grow bulbs are usually easy because you buy them in specific wattage.

A standard house circuit is 15 amps and 110 volts in the USA and uses 14 gauge wire. You may have to do a little algebra, but the key is to not put more than like 70% load on any circle. The 30% is to account for any kind of surges. I think there is probably some exact proportion reccomended by electrical code you can follow, but I approximate around there keeping in mind higher amp items like HIDs and A/Cs fluctuate more than things like a small fan.

watts/volts = amps

or

amps x volts = watts

in any case, a standard 15 amp watt circuit should blow at about 1650 watts on a 110 circuit. So you only want to run up to 1200 watts or so of lighting on a 15 amp circuit. When a device like a fan or dehum provides an exact amperage pull, its much easier to know what you can have on a circuit. For example I have a fan that pulls like 2 amps, and an AC that pulls like 10 amps. If I put those 2 on the same circuit I have to make sure not to plug anything else on there. Most higher amp items like that will even have a warning in the manual to put them on their own circuit.

But learn from my mistake, make sure you don't over load the circuit and keep blowing it. Just because the breaker or fuse blows as a safety precaution, the line still overheats to cause this to happen and could still irreparably damage the wiring if done over and over. The electrical aspect is what burns people's homes down, so make sure you get it right. I got lucky with my stupid mistake, and now I am super paranoid every time before I plug anything substantial into an outlet.
 

Wubstepp

Active Member
The problem is the fuse is located inside the ballast in a tiny little screw in spot and it is the only thing hooked up to the circuit. I tried another circuit/receptacletoday with no luck. I am not blowing a fuse in my circuit box just the fuse inside the ballast. The fuse that came with it and inside of it is 6.3 amp 250v. I blew 6-7 tryign to replace them now.The ballast sticker input says 4 amps.
 

onefortheroad

Active Member
I'd chop why wait till amber? you might get slightly more weight but abmer means the trikes are dying? do you pick dead fruit off trees??? think about it many studies have been done thc content falls w/amber trichs....OFTR keepin it slicklike
 
Nobody has mentioned this yet, but put 1 or 2 high watt cfls in there. Any light is all you need to not fuck up the schedule.
 

Confucious

Active Member
let them go tell you see amber hairs, the thc will not degrade that much to where your not going to notice unless you let go to the point of no return.
 

Confucious

Active Member
Gorilla sam is right, I was growing for some people a couple years ago and their power was shut off, so we moved around 70 girls upstairs in front of the bay window for at day time and at night we stuck battery powered led´s around the kitchen where the girls where sittin. Took three days to get the power back on which blew, but everyone of those girls were fine.
 

Wubstepp

Active Member
20130326_142831.jpg20130327_120307.jpg20130327_120346.jpg20130327_120400.jpg The max input says 4 amps but the fuses i am uses are 6.3 amps because that's what it came with. Should I try a 4 amp fuse or is the ballast just broke?
 

PurpleBuz

Well-Known Member
Something is fucked in your ballast dude..you're shorting out somewhere, which is why the fuse keeps blowing.
Could be the ballast or it could be the light or the wiring in between the two.
If you have another lamp you can hook up to the ballast (or vice versa) try that to isolate the problem.

BUt yes something is bad and needs replacing
 
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