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

OMG after freakin out for the last hour or so... and being afraid to even turn anything on in my house like my toaster... I go and check out the ballast and its no longer making the sizzle noise and is doing just fine!?!? wtf!?!?

so maybe the damn thing just makes that sizzle as it warms up? which i wouldnt understand why.

and maybe the dead recepticle is a whole different situation that didnt have anything to do with it?? the recepticle is super old. im gonna have to replace it. i had an electrician in here once and he took off a recepticle to see if it was faulty. he couldnt even change the damn thing out cuz the way it was originally wired up was so jerry-rigged.

it sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, i know. thank god im almost always home.

Sounds like you might need a new service and upgraded panel. One piece of advice...don't take a chance with old wiring when it comes to such loads. It's a recipe for disaster especially if you burn down your house. ALWAYS use new wiring and receptacles/switches when it comes to these types of applications...there is too much that can go wrong. DO IT ONCE...DO IT RIGHT!

just to let anyone reading know... everything is okay atm. only thing not going right is the single recepticle. which doesnt suprise me. ballast is making zero unexpected noise now. stable at the moment. gonna knock on some damn wood!

thank you for the response. i agree. the recpticle needs to be updated. all of them in the entire house need it. theres alot of other work it needs too.


Let this be a warning to anyone with a shaky set-up in a house they choose to grow in. not fun.

You think id be safer with shelling out the dough temporarily for a digital 1000 ballast over this "switchable" magnetic one i have?? until i can fix the entire electric situation, which is going to be quite an undertaking.

Ive never had any issues like this running my 600 lumatek. it just works so much better, i figure its safer as well? is this not really the case?

im sry i sound like such a worry wart, and a newb. thx for any help i get!

EDIT: this is most likely going to be a situation where the stupid house needs to be sold in the first place. thats why im hinting at making it work in the safest way possible until either its fixed or sold. i just realized how someone may not understand that just going off what ive told so far. i mean u guys would sh!t if you saw how this place was put together. the plumbing, heat, structure, etc etc are also shot to hell.

Is there any way you can at least run a new circuit from the panel and a new plug temporarily into your grow? I wouldn't say that a digital ballast is safer regardless. I think the problem is with the line/circuit. Old wiring/receptacle...TROUBLE! If the breaker is faulty, you can overload the circuit and cause an fire behind a wall where it is not visible. Yeah you can fry the receptacle but it doesn't always go that way.

well so far it seems ive made quite a difference with plugging in the lights to two seperate areas via extension cord and all. i think it was too much to have both lights plugged into the same extension cord like a dingy. i just figured since the cord said 1625W on it that id be okay putting both the 600 and the 1000 on it. i was wrong and nearly paid dearly for it. The magnetic ballast is working just fine... no sign of any issues what so ever. i think i know where the sound was coming from now... it was the stupid extension cord. im lucky i didnt cause a fire as many have said. also the stupid recepticle turned out to be all busted up inside in the first place... it turned out it wasnt my fault it doesnt work, but i should have never used it. it was just the first time id had ever plugged any thing into it really. yesterday was just a freakin crazy day... i cant find a timer i set somewhere, and while looking for it i must have nudged something and i heard a boom bang noise, looked in my flower room and two of my damn plants had fell down and completely spilled out of their containers... and i used a ton of perlite so they REALLY spilled. omg i screamed so damn loud!!

atm, my temporary solution ive thought up is to slightly stagger the times that the lights fire on. making sure that they dont both start cold at the same time. and also make sure i have them on seperate lines.
i also had a little radiant space heater hooked up in there and im gonna have to find another way to keep the room warm when the lights go off. its nearly perfect with both lights on, a few fans, and no heat. its just the dark that gets me. i think i may have to find a more efficient little heater and put it on another timer.

How would you go about wiring 4 600watt lights? I purchased JD Lights in 600 watts plus 240v cords. My question is will I be able to able to use atleast three lights without having to build a seperate circuit breaker? Will I be able to plug the 240v cord into my regular wall outlet?

Hello I would like to try to establish contact with you before I begin a lighting setup. I would like a 3 hood x 600 watts. I need to know what kind of power source do I need to maintain that. Also does that much lighting raise red flags with the electric company?

Would this be ideal to run 4x 600watt lights?

"Basically you would add a 50-100amp 240v breaker to your existing panel. Then run a line from that breaker to a small (12-16 circuit) breaker panel. Then you would use the breakers in that new panel to feed outlets for your equipment"

Is there an easy and clean way of attaching 4-6 computer fans to one electrical plug?
Could i connect them all the a little junction strip that leads to the plug?

as far as i know your better off wiring each individual fan to its own converter. maybe dig up 4 cell prone chargers and a power strip?

you might be able to get something at radio shack too.

I just got a new 1000w ballast last night and wanted to turn it on to be sure it works. didn't want to overload the circuits that run my existing lights as they were on at the time. I used a circuit that has a GFCI receptacle and wasn't being used at all....20 amps. When I plugged it in it started to run for about a second and tripped the GFCI. The breaker didn't trip though. I reset and tried it again of course... same thing. Tried another empty circuit with a GFCI recep....same thing. So I waited until this morning and tried it on a normal circuit and it worked fine.
So here's my question: Do GFCI receptacles just get tired and need to be replaced? Or is there something about a large electronic ballast that pulls too much current too quickly for these types of circuits. I have run 1000w heating element devices on these circuits many times without a problem. Anyone know?

hey man im so glad i found your thread! im going to be running 2 1000w in a 8x4 tent and i wanted to have a designated breaker for my "garden room" or is that overkill? im basically doubling my grow space and dont want to overload the breaker. would it be as simple as getting a higher amp breaker? i dont really want to run a new line as im renting and dont want to that with this property. the breaker box is on the opposite side of the house so ya it would be a pain in the ass to run a new line (i think) im a carpenter not an electrician...lol but if it wouldnt be too much please respond as im harvesting thurs. morn. and getting my new "garden" set up on fri. i just dont want the fridge, washer dryer, vaccum, hairdryer to trip the breaker i waqnt power to that room to be for that room ONLY! and any other recommendations you have are greatly appreciated. Thanks

bricktown73 said:

Hi there fellow RIU'ers... Over and over again I continualy see new threads and posts about electrical work question and thought I would post a couple threads to help you guys the same way all of you who have done such a great job having helped me... So, Do you have a grow room question about how to wire something up, or what are the safest ways of doing things? The most important one I see alot is people running lights and fans off power chords... I have wired my own grow room and will post an example of my work.

Please, if you have any questions and are unsure of what to do or if what you are doing is safe, PLEASE! ask me first if you are even a tad bit unsure. I would hate to hear anyone have an electrical fire because they didn't quite know what they were doing when all they needed to do was to ask a couple of questions... I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

If you want to do some wiring your self, I will either let you know if your project is too complicated if your not handy with electrical, or, IF YOU ASK, I will walk you thru your project step by step.

So please, ASK AWAY!!!

You can post questions here but you may not get your question answerd on the thread, best way to go about it is PM me. You will forsure get a response back.

PS Even if you have basic around the home electrical questions, shoot em my way.

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I'm gonna be doing 4 x 600 with those exact ballasts in your pic in approx 10 by 10 space with a 8 inch out take and 6 intake with 3 oscillating fans and possibly an air on could you tell me how much electric ill be using? and btw I think your ballast set up is sick could you show me ?

dsneezy916 said:

hey man im so glad i found your thread! im going to be running 2 1000w in a 8x4 tent and i wanted to have a designated breaker for my "garden room" or is that overkill? im basically doubling my grow space and dont want to overload the breaker. would it be as simple as getting a higher amp breaker? i dont really want to run a new line as im renting and dont want to that with this property. the breaker box is on the opposite side of the house so ya it would be a pain in the ass to run a new line (i think) im a carpenter not an electrician...lol but if it wouldnt be too much please respond as im harvesting thurs. morn. and getting my new "garden" set up on fri. i just dont want the fridge, washer dryer, vaccum, hairdryer to trip the breaker i waqnt power to that room to be for that room ONLY! and any other recommendations you have are greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Definitely dont want to just add a bigger breaker. 15 amp circuits are 14 ga wire and 20 amp are 12 ga. Put a 20 amp on a 14 ga and ur going down a bad road.

supchaka said:

Definitely dont want to just add a bigger breaker. 15 amp circuits are 14 ga wire and 20 amp are 12 ga. Put a 20 amp on a 14 ga and ur going down a bad road.

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a lot of newer construction uses 12 gauge wire for wiring up the house. plenty for 30amp breaker.

Real simple question here... Will the average basement in a single family house, be able to support 4500 watts of light, plus an AC, CO2 gen and dehumidifier? Thanks....

legaleyes13 said:

Real simple question here... Will the average basement in a single family house, be able to support 4500 watts of light, plus an AC, CO2 gen and dehumidifier? Thanks....

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depends on the service you have; 100 or 200amps. go to the main breaker panel and open it up. you should have a big breaker at the top of the panel in the middle seperate from the two columns of breakers. this is called the service disconnect or main breaker. on the actual tab/switch of this breaker it will say either 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, or 225. Anything above 175 and you'll be fine. anything below and you might have some issues. just depends on the house consumption.

Hi

Would like to ask would this http://www.greenpowercontactors.co.uk/8-way-contactor-timer.asp run off a single 20Amp MCB with 2.5mm twin an earth cable to a double socket then plug both the plugs from the timer into it or would it be better to run two 20 amp MCB with 2 single sockets on 2.5mm cable?

Regards

could some please help me whit my issues here at my thread (ballast questions lol need help) i dont want to burn m,y house down. thank you