need electrical lighting help

Ok to start. Anyone who tries to help, thank you i do appreciate it... please do not tell me to talk to an electrician as i have already an they want to wire in a sub-panel when it is not necessary an trying to make money off me since they know whats its for.

Ok i have 6 1000w ballasts that need power. Obviously they can be ran 120 or 240. All 6 ballasts are 5 feet from the panel. There is 1 open slot in the box and a 30 amp 240 outlet not being used (2 more slots).

Idea number 1 was to take the existing 240 line and put a normal 3 prong connector on it and run 5 more in series off that on the 10/3 wire... i can upgrade wire and breaker to 50amp if needed. What is sketchy is wiring all 6 in series because they will be running 24 hrs an want it to be safe.

Idea number 2 was to take the existing 240 breaker out completely and have 3 open slots in the box. Use 10/2 wire which i have already and run 3 - 30 amp 120v breakers to a 2 plug outlet. So each 30amp breaker would have 2 ballasts on it running 24hrs a day.

So no one asks, the ballasts are plugged into a switchboard to run 12 lights with only 6 ballasts thus needing to run 24 hrs.

Lol I'm not good with any of this shit but damn, 6k watts? Pre subbed to that thread.

Lol ahh, had me excited thought someone shined some insight... gotta get this done tmr. My rooms built and literally waiting for power. Plants had 9 weeks veg time now.

But yeah, its 2 exact matching rooms. Sealed with co2. 6k watt per room. Might be alittle overkill cause now on plants have only 4 week veg time but we see.

look into something like this

http://www.powerboxinc.com/12000.html

See even that. Notice the 240 plugs are different than normal 3 prong ones that ballast come with. How would you plug the ballast power cord into that box? Does the ballasts NOT come with correct cord to run 240v? The normal 3 prong plug it comes with plugs into both ther 110 and 240 outlet on the ballast so i would assume to run the ballast on 240v you use the plug they give you which would need the normal 3 prong outlet.

Also, besides all that. 800$ is not worth it to me. Its 400 for a sub-panel or free for me to use the slots i have which should work fine. Just not sure which senerio to use those 3 open slots on.

its very easy to get new cords for the ballast and change them or do like i did and change the outlets in the light controller. my current controler only runs 4000 watts and i just got a new one to rum 8 but ive gotta swap plugs out. running 12000 watts will require 60 amps or more and wiring in series is a poor choice. dont skimp now man u came this far. poor electrical decisions lead to fire hazards or worse. do it right

a goodgood electrician will be able to wire a serires of 240v contactors with 110v relay/trigger. 800 is rediculas and that box is overkill. much cheaper contactor switches exist.

Now days people dont ever wanna do whats asked lol... if i bought that job to electrician he prob ask what it for an then suggest to do something else to make more money off it... people suck.

A 30 amp 120v breaker with 10/2 wire should handle 2 lights without heating up. Im going to just do it that was and run 3 of them. The 240v thing was supposed to make this easier and use less room in box. With 6 outlets being ran off one wire regardless of the size i guess is just to sketchy for long term use.

ricky6991 said:

Now days people dont ever wanna do whats asked lol... if i bought that job to electrician he prob ask what it for an then suggest to do something else to make more money off it... people suck.

A 30 amp 120v breaker with 10/2 wire should handle 2 lights without heating up. Im going to just do it that was and run 3 of them. The 240v thing was supposed to make this easier and use less room in box. With 6 outlets being ran off one wire regardless of the size i guess is just to sketchy for long term use.

Click to expand...

im sure u can find sum reading on linking contactors. they will really help the ballast fire up properly with a simple 110v trigger. ill see what i can find for u but i know home depot sell the contactors. the guy who got me started makes them so ill see if he can do it for a good price and maybe we can do a paypal transaction.

of course i would pass any savings along. not tryn to sell anything just offer assistance if im able. ive wired hundreds of homes but the 240v lighting is kinda new to me stilll.

You're being advised on the subpanel because you need a subpanel. Keep your phone charged and ready to call 911 otherwise.

OK....Install a Subpanel, or blow your breaker, every time...
30 amp breaker will 'only' handle--> 30 X 110 vac = 3000+ watts understand, 3000 watts is your max for a 30 amp breaker...with your idea, so 1/2 the wattage you need, will not work you need 6000 watts of power/juice/load
----
If this was my house I'd:
Take out the 30 amp breaker
Run [what your electrician will do, you can do] some 6 awg 3 conductor w ground...
from open space on panel put a 60 amp two pole breaker in
from this breaker run it to your new SUB PANEL mount it next to old panel
Then out of this new SUB PANEL [make it a 16 space min] run six new circuits using 12 awg wire to each existing ballast the 12 awg wire is hooked to a new 20 amp breaker in the sub... [cost for new panel, wire, and breakers at a Box store close to $100]
Then ground everything. Panel to sub with a #6 or #8
metal boxes ground them at new wire hook up

I am not making any money on this, learn ohm's law


Watts divide by amps = volts
volts times amps = watts
watts divided by volts = amps


Ballast wattage stays the same if it is 110 or 220 vac
1000 watt divided by 220 volts, your ballast 'only' pulls [less than 5 amps] on two legs
1000 watts divided by 110 volts your ballast pulls [less than 10 amps] on one leg


Get it ? PM me if you want exact specifics...
Good luck...

Ok... first thing is an electrician came today an wired them up to 240. Next i wanna say thanks to prev. Poster, i appreciate that you would go out of your way for me for that box from your friend.

Now to sand- i had no idea sub-panel is only 100$ as i know i can wire one up easily. Thought they were 400 ish range but never looked. The second electrician actually said to do 6 gauge like you said also. Why would my breaker pop on a 50 amp 240 breaker? The 10/3 wire is working fine. Not even warm after running for few hours... he actually wired the ballast cords into one plug for the 240 outlet. I dont mind that he cut the power cords cause i intend to stay awhile lol. He is a master electrician an does big jobs like hotels ect supposidly. Tmr is a full day the lights will be on with my other power running like ac and ebb n flow.

So far everything works fine i dont think i will have any issues. I made sure he knew they be on 24hrs a day an wires cannot be hot an melt or anything like that. He said he guarentees i will have no problems. You seem to know what your talking about. You see any issue with the 6 cords being put into one 240 plug?

5 amps per ballast would be 30 amps which is less than 80% draw for the breaker and the wiring like i said did not even warm up alittle in the 3 hrs i had it on BUT tmr is the big test day for the entire room to get co2 and temps dialed in and a full 15hrs of running.

The NEC National Electric code says:
14 awg good for only 15 amps
12 awg good for 20 amps
10 awg 30 amps
etc...
10 awg will actually be fine with 40 amps constant, and the length is minimal so no voltage loss...
6 1000 watt lights, divided by 220 vac = 27+ amps, and that is constant, and exceeds my safety limit...of 80%...of the 30 amp breaker...
It should be fine, I was just telling you how to do it safe, "if it was my house" deal...
Do it any way you want...
You said: it's 5 amps... for 220...it's 5 per leg two legs almost 30 amps....

Same amps 110 or 220 it is just less volts, or more volts

1000 watt constant 110 or 220 volts
on 220 no neutral/white so load is split between legs
1000 divided by 220 = just less than 5 amps PER LEG