Thank you for doing this, sir. I'll admit I have not read all 159 pages, but I have some questions in my mind so I'm going to see if you are kind enough to answer them. I am an electrical idiot, and so far my growing is just in theory.
1. Relay idea. Is there such a thing as a relay that would be controlled by 110V current? So that you could have one timer, and certain things would come one when the others went off. For instance, one could have two 12/12 grow chambers, completely isolated from light leakage, that would be light/dark at exactly opposite times. One advantage of this would be to eliminate the security issue of power companies detecting big 12/12 cycles of current usage (I read that they do this, but I don't know if it is true).
Another possible advantage of such a system would be to rig up a complex venting system so that the heated air from the lit chamber passed through the dark chamber on it's way out. This has to do with the relatively new horticultural concept of DIF, which states that plant stretching responds to the difference in day and night temperatures. Some greenhouses (I'm not talking about marijuana growers) have created a negative DIF by actually heating their greenhouses at night to a higher temp than they are in the day. For certain plants this results in very compact growth. It would be fun to experiment with weed in that sense, and if it worked it would be helpful to have some sort of automated system with two flowering chambers on opposite schedules, each vented into the other at certain times. That way the heat of the lights would not be wasted.
2. Is there such a thing as a terminal block with all the screws on each side hooked together? It seems like this would be useful. To wire multiple lights on one circuit you'd just hook up the live black and white wires to the end screws and each light could be wired up to a screw on each side. Then you wouldn't have to mess with sticking three wires in a bunch of wirenuts (just guessing at the name of the bright colored things that you screw wires into to connect them) in order to hook up each light and have another wire running to the next light. My real question here is if I'm missing some basic concept. It seems dumb that each screw on a terminal block would just hook up to the screw across from it - you could just use a wirenut. But when I look at a terminal block that's how it appears to work.
I have other questions, but they seem like they'd be more common and I will search for the answer before bothering you.
Thanks again.
you can run 2 lamps off of one ballast but it requires some specialty parts that are not cheap. youll need a double pole single throw relay, a one-shot timer, and some type of a lighting controller or control panel to act as a logic gate. those three components are going to run you a pretty penny indeed. it also works
alot better if you use digital ballasts over magnetic, as the restrike/cooldown period is significantly shorter for a digital ballast. one of the disadvantages of running a system like this is your 12/12 is going to drift by 15-30 mins everyday, because of the cooldown period that the ballast needs. this in fact will mess up alot of people because they need there setups to come on or off at specific times for whatever reason.
here's a concept design i made a while back to run two lamps on one ballast, maybe it will give you a better idea of how its done. as you can see, its not as simple as it sounds. the reason being that running 2 lamps on one balllast is hard on the ballast, and certain steps have to be taken to ensure proper operation over the course of time, unless you want your ballast to shit the bed after 6 months for running continuously. this design is expensive, but will last years if properly applied.
as far as terminal strips, what your looking for are called 'terminal jumpers' they make as many different types and sizes of terminal jumpers, the best ones go across the middle of the terminal so that you have both top and bottom lugs to connect to.
the reason we use terminal strips is primarily vibration, which is almost nonexistant in a grow op. terminal strips are usually found in control panels, which often have transformers, vfd's, relays, contactors, all sorts of things that create mechanical movement and minute vibrations. these same vibrations turn into harmonics, and cause wirenuts to loosen over time. the terminal strip provides enough mechanical pressure to ensure that the wires do not vibrate loose from those harmonics. also they provide a cheap interface between tough field wiring and delicate expensive controls, and simplify wire and cable identification, which can be priceless in a cabinet with hundreds and sometimes thousands of individual wires.
they also make things look really neat, lol.
2 wires to me says knob and tubing....
