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Elecrical, Timer problems. Please help!

kinddiesel

kinddiesel

Well-Known Member
save money buy a timer for every light . a cheaper one like 12 bucks, who cares if you have 10 timers, as long as they are timed the same .
 
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spek9

Well-Known Member
kinddiesel said:
save money buy a timer for every light . a cheaper one like 12 bucks, who cares if you have 10 timers, as long as they are timed the same .
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You haven't read the entire thread. The OP needs a wiring solution to his mid-scale grow problem here. To boot, he's got far more lights than 10. He's also running 240v, so these won't be your typical Walmart timers you can just plug in and forget ;)

I believe Contra is best suited to give the best advice on this thread at this point...

-spek
 
Tripped circuits

Tripped circuits

Well-Known Member
Yes I'm in the states and we aren't required to have a ground comin from the pole tranny but it does come with a neutral and that is for worst case scenarios. But we have to created a seperately derived ground system ie grounding electrode to pass static charges and lightning to earth. A ground in the us is worthless unless u use the neutral to pass it back to the source. Ground rods are worthless at clearing faults. Regardless I just don't want someone to get hurt. I am not trying to argue, I'm sure we are very like minded people. And I don't like fighting. So everyone I'm gonna chime out on this one, and everyone happy Mother's Day. Now go smoke a bowl.
 
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contraptionated

New Member
Also, it doesn't matter if he's running 240v to anything in there. That would never stop anybody from using a cheap 120v Walmart timer to energize a 120v holding coil on a two or even three pole contactor.
 
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cr250cra1

Active Member
contraptionated said:
Also, what are your main panel feeder characteristics? 3 phase or split phase 220v? If you have 3 wires going into the main lug of the panel guts ( or 3 wires going into the main breaker which feeds the panel guts) then you have 3 phase power and your sub panel breaker and feeder can be sized differently than if the main panel were split phase 220v which would have 2 wires ( usually marked black and red) coming into the main lug or breaker. Are any lighting or receptacle circuits being fed from this existing panel? If so, there has to be a neutral ran with the feeder. Fat chance it isn't there.
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I have 2 hots no neutral or ground. Both hots read 120 separate, together I get 240.
 
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cr250cra1

Active Member
Well I found industrial timers for 60$ a piece that can hold 40amps so that's 10 amps extra it's gonna save me the wiring, the cost of the wire and the cost of the white Westinghouse relay. Cheapest easiest route. I still haven't decided about this ground/ neutral ordeal but at this point it isn't a problem, I do however want to tackle it before it becomes one. The only option I feel I have is to put a ground rod into the earth and run it from there.
 
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contraptionated

New Member
cr250cra1 said:
I have 2 hots no neutral or ground. Both hots read 120 separate, together I get 240.
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If you are in the USA if not disregard.If there is no neutral, you're unit is being fed by a sub-panel. To this day, there is no such thing as a 220V split phase service (main) with no neutral. Like I said before, find the MAIN panel (not the downstream sub-panel) and tap that neutral. There are only 5 different kinds of MAIN panels you will encounter (unless you run 4160 volt motors for an industrial facility) they are as follows. 120V single phase (1 hot and 1 neutral). 220V (or sometimes called 208V) single phase (sometimes called split phase) [2 hot and 1 neutral]. 220V 3-phase with or without neutral (3 hot with or without neutral). 480V 3 phase (this main never has a neutral supplied by the utility, the customer must create his own with a 277V step down transformer). Does your panel have main lugs but no main breaker? Is this panel of yours being fed from another location where the main breaker is located? If the panel in question really is the source main (and it must have a main breaker to be a main panel) and has 2 hots and no neutral it is illegal and defies all convention because one would never need a split phase service main with no neutral. A 3 phase main with no neutral, yes , for many a motor, but not split phase with no neutral as a main source. That simply wouldn't be able to supply light duty general purpose loads or heavy equipment. It would only be able to supply equipment that falls in between (and very limited mind you) and the utility doesn't do things like that. They supply in terms of small, big or gigantic. 220V with no neutral... sounds like a sub panel. Follow that pipe to the main panel.
 
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cr250cra1

Active Member
contraptionated said:
If you are in the USA if not disregard.If there is no neutral, you're unit is being fed by a sub-panel. To this day, there is no such thing as a 220V split phase service (main) with no neutral. Like I said before, find the MAIN panel (not the downstream sub-panel) and tap that neutral. There are only 5 different kinds of MAIN panels you will encounter (unless you run 4160 volt motors for an industrial facility) they are as follows. 120V single phase (1 hot and 1 neutral). 220V (or sometimes called 208V) single phase (sometimes called split phase) [2 hot and 1 neutral]. 220V 3-phase with or without neutral (3 hot with or without neutral). 480V 3 phase (this main never has a neutral supplied by the utility, the customer must create his own with a 277V step down transformer). Does your panel have main lugs but no main breaker? Is this panel of yours being fed from another location where the main breaker is located? If the panel in question really is the source main (and it must have a main breaker to be a main panel) and has 2 hots and no neutral it is illegal and defies all convention because one would never need a split phase service main with no neutral. A 3 phase main with no neutral, yes , for many a motor, but not split phase with no neutral as a main source. That simply wouldn't be able to supply light duty general purpose loads or heavy equipment. It would only be able to supply equipment that falls in between (and very limited mind you) and the utility doesn't do things like that. They supply in terms of small, big or gigantic. 220V with no neutral... sounds like a sub panel. Follow that pipe to the main panel.
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I ran the Neutral in that comes off the pole, I didn't realize what it was before. I was thinking it was just keeping tension on the two hot's so they didn't sag. It's not coated which threw me off. Since hooking it up my panel has been able to service more breakers with full power and it's been a dream. I only needed 5,60$ 40amp water heater timers because I have 5 runs of 3 outlets, 30 amp per run. Everything is peachy!
 
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