Can you put 4, 600 watt lights on a 20 amp circuit?
- Thread starter tibberous
- Start date
Then why don't 4 600 watts trip a 20 amp breaker?
You know what a breaker does right? If you get a higher rated breaker, you increase your risk of fire.
theexpress
Well-Known Member
not if its another 20 amp or 2... only if you get a higher breaker then your wiring can handle
bigv1976
Well-Known Member
Ok I wont argue with you because you areobviously wayyyy smarter than me but I wouldnt (nor would 99% of growers) run 4 600s on a 20 amp circuit. Good luck Einstein.
Yeah, but then you end up with way more breakers / wires than you need. It isn't just buying a $10 breaker, you have to add a run of wire, a 20 amp relay and another set of controller lines. You also start to run out of breakers if you are doing anything decently big.
smoke and coke
Well-Known Member
(1) 600watts div. by 120 volts = 5 amps
(4) 600's would draw 20 amps but probly a little more due to the ballasts.
20 amp breaker will probly hold for a while but should trip after some time. running lights and equipement for a grow would be considered continuous load and the breaker is only rated for 16 amps. so a load above 16amps or 1920 watts running for more than an hour will trip the breaker.
may have a faulty breaker if its not tripping.
there has been cases of panels made by federal pacific with stab lock breakers where some breakers have been overloaded and do not trip causing a fire.
make the lights 220 volt and use a 2 pole 20 amp breaker. and have (6) 600's
(4) 600's would draw 20 amps but probly a little more due to the ballasts.
20 amp breaker will probly hold for a while but should trip after some time. running lights and equipement for a grow would be considered continuous load and the breaker is only rated for 16 amps. so a load above 16amps or 1920 watts running for more than an hour will trip the breaker.
may have a faulty breaker if its not tripping.
there has been cases of panels made by federal pacific with stab lock breakers where some breakers have been overloaded and do not trip causing a fire.
make the lights 220 volt and use a 2 pole 20 amp breaker. and have (6) 600's
morons! wow!
watts/volts=amps
assuming the wiring and breakers are setup correctly, dont go over the proper amperage. 600 watts is safely calculated at 7 amps, this gives you breathing room. If it is a 220 circuit then the amps are cut in half, hopefully you can do the math. Overload if you want but thats the reason you see people on the news getting busted for growing in a house. They overload a circuit, start a fire, the neighbors call, and the grower goes to jail.
Refer to the equation and overload at your own stupidity.
watts/volts=amps
assuming the wiring and breakers are setup correctly, dont go over the proper amperage. 600 watts is safely calculated at 7 amps, this gives you breathing room. If it is a 220 circuit then the amps are cut in half, hopefully you can do the math. Overload if you want but thats the reason you see people on the news getting busted for growing in a house. They overload a circuit, start a fire, the neighbors call, and the grower goes to jail.
Refer to the equation and overload at your own stupidity.
panhead
Well-Known Member
Just because something works for now does not make it right,or safe.
Volts x amps = watts,you do the math,take a 110 volt line & multiply it with the amp of the breaker which in this case is 20 amp & you get a total available wattage figure of 2,220 & thats max draw before deducting 10% for saftey margin,after that a 20 amp line can safely supply 2,020 watts safely.
With that being said a 15 amp line can safely provide 1,485 watts running 110 volts,the numbers change when running 220 but the formula to figure out max line load stays the same.
If your running 4 600 watt ballasts on a single 20 amp 110 volt line chances are that you are not feeding the ballasts enough power which will result in lost light,just because the light powers up does not mean its operating at max performance & the odds are your lights are not putting out as much light as they should be.
The way your running those lights is not safe & is screwing your plants out of lumens needed for photosynthsis but its your grow brother,all we can do is give you facts.
Volts x amps = watts,you do the math,take a 110 volt line & multiply it with the amp of the breaker which in this case is 20 amp & you get a total available wattage figure of 2,220 & thats max draw before deducting 10% for saftey margin,after that a 20 amp line can safely supply 2,020 watts safely.
With that being said a 15 amp line can safely provide 1,485 watts running 110 volts,the numbers change when running 220 but the formula to figure out max line load stays the same.
If your running 4 600 watt ballasts on a single 20 amp 110 volt line chances are that you are not feeding the ballasts enough power which will result in lost light,just because the light powers up does not mean its operating at max performance & the odds are your lights are not putting out as much light as they should be.
The way your running those lights is not safe & is screwing your plants out of lumens needed for photosynthsis but its your grow brother,all we can do is give you facts.
Maybe the best use would be 2 600's and a 1000 - that way you are pulling 18 amps on a 20 amp breaker.
You're dumb because you think replacing a 20 amp breaker with a 30 amp breaker is a good solution to this problem.
bigv1976
Well-Known Member
No a good solution to this problem would be if people would stop tainting the gene pool with meatballs like you like your parents did.
Least I know what a breaker is.
