Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

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fourtwentychat

Well-Known Member
Simple questions: Can any residential home legally (and safely) buy as much power as they want/need? Example: Having either a 10k, 15k or even 20k watt circuit up and down the basement for use? Is there a point where adding circuits becomes impossible (ie several *large* circuits installed throughout a home for several growers?) or is it pretty much "money talks?" Finally, can said separate circuits be billed to different persons in the same home, whom may each have different power needs.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
i have personally installed 600 amp service equipment for residential customers, in several locations. also quite a few 400 amp services.

600 amp @ 240 = 115,200 watts
400 amps @ 240 = 76,800 watts
200 amps @ 240 = 38,400 watts
100 amps @ 240 = 19,200 watts

as you can see, even a small, 100 amp panel will provide enough power for most grows, and a 200, definitely. with a 200 amp panel, a grower could very easily run 25 1000w fixtures, with room to spare for hvac....

the key to having enough power, is money talks.... the combination of the proper electrical equipment and wiring, and 240v fixtures.
keep your bills paid, and dont even think about trying to 'tap' or find a way to beat the meter, and the power company doesnt give a shit what you do, all they want is $$$. for all they know you like to metal fab work and have welders out the ass in your basement, they really dont care. tho in some states, you wouldnt want to really go nuts, the rates are astronomical if the local power utillity uses a tier/usage based billing system.
however, i will caution this, serious power requires a serious investment in both time, money, material, planning, engineering, and hiring professionals to get the job done right, or to, at least, oversee your work and ensure its integrity as a system.
 
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Greenskunk

Member
I have a question. To start this is for a pc grow. I have 3 light sockets with cfl bulbs and this fan (Dayton ac axial fan 3VU63 230V 26watt) all running parallel from a 2 prong cord. I realized today that I should have the fan grounded. Can I change the 2 prong cord I have coming in with a 3 prong cord and attach the ground wire from the new cord to the fan and continue to run the fan and all 3 lights parallel? Thanks in advance.
 
thatsam

thatsam

Member
This might be weird but I have one of those things that you can screw into a light socket and it becomes a "plug-in" socket. So my question is: Can I treat this socket like an ordinary wall socket? I have a 3-way splitter running 4x 23watt cfl's, a timer and 2 random pc fans (like 60 & 80mm i think) is this alright? Do I have enough juice left over to run an oscillating fan and maybe another pc fan or more cfl's?
Thanks all...
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
i have personally installed 600 amp service equipment for residential customers, in several locations. also quite a few 400 amp services.

600 amp @ 240 = 115,200 watts
400 amps @ 240 = 76,800 watts
200 amps @ 240 = 38,400 watts
100 amps @ 240 = 19,200 watts

as you can see, even a small, 100 amp panel will provide enough power for most grows, and a 200, definitely. with a 200 amp panel, a grower could very easily run 25 1000w fixtures, with room to spare for hvac....

the key to having enough power, is money talks.... the combination of the proper electrical equipment and wiring, and 240v fixtures.
keep your bills paid, and dont even think about trying to 'tap' or find a way to beat the meter, and the power company doesnt give a shit what you do, all they want is $$$. for all they know you like to metal fab work and have welders out the ass in your basement, they really dont care. tho in some states, you wouldnt want to really go nuts, the rates are astronomical if the local power utillity uses a tier/usage based billing system.
however, i will caution this, serious power requires a serious investment in both time, money, material, planning, engineering, and hiring professionals to get the job done right, or to, at least, oversee your work and ensure its integrity as a system.
Click to expand...
and in case anyone was wondering, yes, those are the derated wattages for continuous duty operation ;)
 
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gdsense2000

Member
I'll be setting up my new grow room soon and want to be sure I have plenty of power. I intend on installing a 60 amp breaker in my main panel, and a junction box in my grow room. From that point what should I do? I'd like my 3 1000 watts to plug into one outlet so I can control them through one timer. What are the steps I need to take? Is there a converter box of some sort I can hard wire into my j-box, like a power strip? Are there timers rated for 3000+ watts? How would design the wiring layout for my situation? In my flowering room I will have 3 1000 watt HPS ballast/bulbs, a 6" CannaFan for venting, a 8" inline duct fan for exhaust, 2 box fans, 3 water pumps. :peace:
 
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Deerhunter617

Well-Known Member
Wires leaving my house to my barn my barn has a plug and a light i want the plug hot all the time and the light on a three way with My house so I can turn the light on from my house or the barn but I wanna keep the plug hot all the time what I need to do
 
tet1953

tet1953

Well-Known Member
phxfire said:
How do I wire up a seperate power box for a grow room... Running (5) 600watt HPS in room
Click to expand...
phxfire, I am not an electrician but I put in my own subpanel for my grow room. Here are a couple links I used:

http://www.electrical-online.com/subpanel-installation/
http://www.subpanel.info/

A few points I found important to remember:
Adequate breaker in main panel to feed the sub
The difference between main and sub regarding the relationship between ground and neutral. This is explained well in one of the links (Neutral Bonding Jumper).
Consider the aperage you are going to be utilizing with everything, and use adequate wire, breakers, outlets, everything. Don't scrimp and you'll sleep more soundly. I used 20 amp and 12ga for most circuits. I have a couple 15 amp circuits for fans etc.
 
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Deerhunter617

Well-Known Member
Or you can run one circuit to a 240v timeclock(like you put on a hotwater heater)with 12 ga wire and put in on a 2pole 20 in your breaker box then Run a 12ga wire from there inbetween all your lights 12-2 w/g romex would work fine. Time clock says line and load in it black and white wire go on the line side from the beaker box black and white wire leaving timeclock to your lights go on the load and that's 5 600w 240v fixtures on a time clock and it's own 240v circuit in a nutshell
 
wangyunan

wangyunan

Active Member
hey buddies, it's nice to find a electrical thread, I'm currently building up a grow tent and wanna have a humi-temp control system inside, as a new grower, I still have many thing to figure out. How can I control humi & temp? with what gadgets? say if I had a humi-temp controller (monitor) with several outlets on it, what gadgets should I wire on them? for example maybe one of them outlets leads to a exhaust fan which turns on when the humi reaches the top limit, maybe also when the temp reaches top limit, but what gadgets should I use for the lower limits? Maybe a infrared heat lamp for low temp? how about low humi?
anyway, I would like to hear any advises.
 
BeanZyBoo

BeanZyBoo

Well-Known Member
hi i have a extension lead in my room which has a bright orange power led in it, can i remove this? if so, how? any help apreciated
 
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