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

d'Artagnan

Member
Hi guys, I am new here.

I registered due to electrical questions that I have and my search sent me here.

Basically what I need to know is... how do I safely keep power to 3 1000w HPS and one 600w T5, 4 fans, one green bulb, and an air conditioner unit.

I want to have enough amps or volts to safely keep all of this on and also maybe have some more room to add more electricity.

As of now I am going to have a 220V "breaker" I think they're called. will this be enough to hook everything up?

Thanks in advance.

-d'Artagnan
 

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
Check you rep. to get some answer. Also you need to add up the total watts. IAm5toned is good at this so ask him where he is a Mod of a section of a forum. First off you need the w or amps of the AC and fans. It will determine what breaker you need for Amps. My guess without looking it up is 30a.
Daniels
 

dray86man

Active Member
ground and neutral aren't the same thing. dangerous advice.
Yes, in most systems they ARE the same thing. Just take a look inside your circuit breaker box. The ground bus and the neutral bus ARE the same thing. Just don't bond/join the ground and the neutral anywhere EXCEPT at the main breaker box.
 

dray86man

Active Member
Hi guys, I am new here.

I registered due to electrical questions that I have and my search sent me here.

Basically what I need to know is... how do I safely keep power to 3 1000w HPS and one 600w T5, 4 fans, one green bulb, and an air conditioner unit.

I want to have enough amps or volts to safely keep all of this on and also maybe have some more room to add more electricity.

As of now I am going to have a 220V "breaker" I think they're called. will this be enough to hook everything up?

Thanks in advance.

-d'Artagnan
Basic formula for amperage is:

WATTS = VOLTS X AMPS

You're proposing to run 3600W of lamps PLUS an AC unit PLUS a few odd 120V appliances?

And using ONE 240V circuit?

3600 watts / 240 volts = 15 amps.

You didn't mention the volts on the AC unit, so let's say it's a 120V 5000 BTU unit. They draw about 10 amps or so.

Now we're up to 25 amps being drawn...through ONE circuit. This becomes an issue with the size of the wire used. The more amps, the larger the wire needs to be.


http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm


10 AWG would be necessary from the breaker box to the outlet, however you want to run 120 AND 240 volt appliances.

Best bet here would be a sub panel.

http://www.renovation-headquarters.com/electrical-sub-panel.htm

Sub panels are a good move even for smaller grow rooms.
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I am new here.

I registered due to electrical questions that I have and my search sent me here.

Basically what I need to know is... how do I safely keep power to 3 1000w HPS and one 600w T5, 4 fans, one green bulb, and an air conditioner unit.

I want to have enough amps or volts to safely keep all of this on and also maybe have some more room to add more electricity.

As of now I am going to have a 220V "breaker" I think they're called. will this be enough to hook everything up?

Thanks in advance.

-d'Artagnan
this will depend on exactly what ballast you plan on runnin the 3600w. ? then how many t5 bulbs an we can guess on the a/c unit and fans.

an no a "220 breaker" will not be enough by itself. (unless wired correctly)
your going to need at least a 220 breaker , and 2 110 breakers.....



soil :mrgreen:
 

dray86man

Active Member
Hi guys, I am new here.

I registered due to electrical questions that I have and my search sent me here.

Basically what I need to know is... how do I safely keep power to 3 1000w HPS and one 600w T5, 4 fans, one green bulb, and an air conditioner unit.

I want to have enough amps or volts to safely keep all of this on and also maybe have some more room to add more electricity.

As of now I am going to have a 220V "breaker" I think they're called. will this be enough to hook everything up?

Thanks in advance.

-d'Artagnan
Sub-panels are the way to go.

http://tinyurl.com/3bjb8ev
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
hey whats up 5toned ? i can try to help out but could never feel your shoes!
wheres bubbles ? he run off ?


you should probably add epson salt to your sig :clap:



wyteboi :bigjoint:
 
Ok I'm wanting to upgrade from 600 watts to 1800-2400 watts I have an outlet in the room I'm using that an ac plugs into on the cord of the ac the plug reads 30a 250v its a 3 prong outlet what I'm wondering is if I go buy a light controller if I can plug it into this outlet an run my lights off the controller or am I going to need an electrian? The outlet is -.- not l.l fyi
 

Dubbz0r

Well-Known Member
Hello electricians! I have a question regarding my ballasts and timer.

My ballasts = 1000w Baddass low frequency digital ballast (x2)
My timer = Sentinel MDT-1

I would like to run both ballasts off of this timer. What I've been told is this... I will need a 240v line and a relay switch? Once I have the relay hooked into the 240 I can plug in both ballasts and run them off of the MDT-1 without a problem. The MDT-1 can only handle 1440w so is there a way to run both ballasts off of this MDT-1 and if so, how exactly? What kind of relay? Links?

Thanks in advance!
I will +rep for help!
 

dragun

Active Member
i have been using ungrounded power strips for 3 years now.no problems yet..what could go wrong? also i want to use a extension cord to power my window a/c.but the owners manual says not to.they just tryn to cover there ass?
 
Hey everyone ,
pretty new to the whole forum thing. and extremely new to the whole indoor thing. i hope you all can answer my question.
I have just purchased a 1000 watt set up. the ballast says i can run it 120 or 240 ... but i thought we only had 110 and 220 here in the states am i wrong ?
well i want to run it at 240 so the amps run a little lower. i have a sub panel already ran from the main panel.
heres my next question : should i run 3 wire where the ground and neutral share a common or run 4 ? also what gage wire might i wanna use if i'm gonna run off a 30 amp breaker ?

thanks !!
 

alphawolf.hack

New Member
i have a quetion about 240 volt does it lower the amps used or just seperate them? and is my dryer runnin 29 amps on 120 or 240? i would like to us the ciruit cuz i cant add new breakers plus they dont exist . "type p270" google it. and my main is the same type of breaker and its only rated at 100 amps
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone ,
pretty new to the whole forum thing. and extremely new to the whole indoor thing. i hope you all can answer my question.
I have just purchased a 1000 watt set up. the ballast says i can run it 120 or 240 ... but i thought we only had 110 and 220 here in the states am i wrong ?
You wont be able to run it at 240 from a residential home. The most you can get outta one single conducter is 110v unless there is some new ballast out there that will accept 2 110's instead of just one.

well i want to run it at 240 so the amps run a little lower. i have a sub panel already ran from the main panel.
heres my next question : should i run 3 wire where the ground and neutral share a common or run 4 ? also what gage wire might i wanna use if i'm gonna run off a 30 amp breaker ?

thanks !!
A 30 requires 10 guage wire. If you only have one light then you wont have to "share" any ground. One 15amp breaker with a piece of 14/2 run directly from your sub to your light/timer is what you want....... i think.

There is also little to no reason to try an run a ballast at 240 because it will only lower the amps , NOT the watts and the power company reads in kilowatts. The only good thing about runnin 240 is that you can put more lights on one single wire (so at 240 you could run 2 1000's on one piece of 14/2 and a 15 amp breaker but it would not save any money)


wyteboi :mrgreen:
 

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
Ok I'm wanting to upgrade from 600 watts to 1800-2400 watts I have an outlet in the room I'm using that an ac plugs into on the cord of the ac the plug reads 30a 250v its a 3 prong outlet what I'm wondering is if I go buy a light controller if I can plug it into this outlet an run my lights off the controller or am I going to need an electrian? The outlet is -.- not l.l fyi

You just need to know exactly whats tied in with that outlet? There are probably other outlets/lights wired on the same circuit as your outlet. Go find out witch breaker controlls that outlet an see how many amps it is ... then come back. Also what kind of controller were you considering?



wyteboi bongsmilie
 
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