Question about voltage

NarrowEye said:

im an aelectrician by the trade dood, know all this formulas... all cables in my home are rated for at least 30 ampers, breakers from 5 to 30 amps, you idiot!!

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If your an electrician, then why did you tell this guy to pull out his 15 amp breaker, and try to replace it with a 30 amp breaker, and not give two shits to ask him any questions about what he has.

I just think what you did was very wrong, and could have cost someone there life and or there home.

read carefully my posts please, especially last ones..

I did....you should put that in your signature.. Read my post very carefully...

Its all fairly simple. Most newer homes are wired up with many diffrent wire size for diffrent voltages and amps. The smartest thing to do would be to note the voltage, amperage and wattage on any power strips that you might be useing. Look at the data plates on all of your equiptment your running for the amp rating. Add up all of the ratings and that will give you a general idea. You can also look at the gage of wire that the wall socket is wired up to and look on the internet for wire size amp capacity to see how many amps are safe for that ga uge buy amp meter and test the power legs on each of your componenets and add the amps up to get total load or amps. Hope this helps.

oh mr bob, reading your posts I see i didnt read mine, or you just didnt get it.. Im not gonna be quoting, wasting time, i already excused for my poor judgement and haste and advised medicalmother to get an electrician to solve it.. im sure u cant resist to post one more here, to show who is right. put it in your signature: Im right, you re an idiot

my pop is a retired electrician (IBEW) and I worked with him as an apprentice before I decided it was not for me. In my experiance I can say that in residential wiring, your 15 amp breakers will be wired with 14/2 romex for light duty household devices. Kitchens will be wired with a mix of 14/2 and 12/2 romex for kitchen appliances and have a mix of 15 and 20 amp breakers. All of which will be ran on a 120v circuit. Hot water heater will be on a dedicated 240v/30 amp circuit and is usually ran with 10/2 romex due to the extreme power usage. And the stove is usually on a dedicated 240v circuit/30amp. Other than a central air and heat unit which is on a seperate circuit that is about it.The size breaker usually matched the wire gauge that is ran on that circuit. Example....if you change out a 15 amp breaker and replace it with a 20 amp breaker, you may have increased the amp load on that circuit but you just overloaded the rating for the wire the circuit is ran on which will lead to an electrical fire in a NY second.

For all the items MedMom has to juice up, it is in her best intrest and safety to hire a licensed eletrician and run seperate dedicated circuits for all her growing electrical devices. JMO

sagensour said:

Its all fairly simple. Most newer homes are wired up with many diffrent wire size for diffrent voltages and amps. The smartest thing to do would be to note the voltage, amperage and wattage on any power strips that you might be useing. Look at the data plates on all of your equiptment your running for the amp rating. Add up all of the ratings and that will give you a general idea. You can also look at the gage of wire that the wall socket is wired up to and look on the internet for wire size amp capacity to see how many amps are safe for that ga uge buy amp meter and test the power legs on each of your componenets and add the amps up to get total load or amps. Hope this helps.

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some people live in houses built in 1923. not all wiring is the same. if you have an electrical question then you probably shouldn't be messing with electricity.

I didn't even factor that in but you are correct. Best bet is to leave it to licensed prof's. Your life and the lives of your loved ones is not worth the risk of DIY when dealing with electricity unless you know for sure what your doing.

fdd2blk said:

some people live in houses built in 1923. not all wiring is the same. if you have an electrical question then you probably shouldn't be messing with electricity.

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Thanks again for all of your replies. I just got the electric work done by a licensed electrician.. I now have two separate 20 amp circuits nice and high up on the wall. Really cool process too how the electrician did it, however, I would not recommend anyone do this sort of thing on their own. Precautions were taken that were vital, and I feel that someone who has been in the business (licensed) would only be able to ensure that the steps are done in a safe/thoughtful manner. Not a cheap feat either btw, but I know I'm safe.

Medmom... I'm glad you got a prof to handle your electrical needs. Even thoght it cost you a few or even quite a few $$$ I sure you will agree that it was worth it knowing that you will have peace of mind when you sleep at night or walk out your front door. Good luck with your grow.

medicalmother said:

Thanks again for all of your replies. I just got the electric work done by a licensed electrician.. I now have two separate 20 amp circuits nice and high up on the wall. Really cool process too how the electrician did it, however, I would not recommend anyone do this sort of thing on their own. Precautions were taken that were vital, and I feel that someone who has been in the business (licensed) would only be able to ensure that the steps are done in a safe/thoughtful manner. Not a cheap feat either btw, but I know I'm safe.

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ok, back to my original question.. Now that I have two 20 amp circuits.. will a 1000w MH light, 450w HPS light, 270cfm can-fan, 2 cfl lights (roughly 100w), co2 regulator, water pumps, a couple oscillating fans and an environmental controller be safe to split amongst those two circuits? If so, how should the split be? If not, is it because the two high aperaged lights?

fdd2blk said:

you can run the 1000w light and a fan on that circuit. that's about it.

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He is right on the money with that.

medicalmother said:

Thanks again for all of your replies. I just got the electric work done by a licensed electrician.. I now have two separate 20 amp circuits nice and high up on the wall. Really cool process too how the electrician did it, however, I would not recommend anyone do this sort of thing on their own. Precautions were taken that were vital, and I feel that someone who has been in the business (licensed) would only be able to ensure that the steps are done in a safe/thoughtful manner. Not a cheap feat either btw, but I know I'm safe.

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That is good news on the wiring. You should beable to do a lot more with that setup now.

i think so, now u can put up to 2200 watts on each of 20 Amp outlet. Im sure of it this time

medicalmother said:

ok, back to my original question.. Now that I have two 20 amp circuits.. will a 1000w MH light, 450w HPS light, 270cfm can-fan, 2 cfl lights (roughly 100w), co2 regulator, water pumps, a couple oscillating fans and an environmental controller be safe to split amongst those two circuits? If so, how should the split be? If not, is it because the two high aperaged lights?

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should be OK but hard to say w/out knowing the current draw(watts) of all the devices. each should have a plate on it giving the voltage and amps or the watts drawn.try to devide the 2 circiuts evenly and keep each under 2000 watts for a margine of safety.
if any dont list watts,voltage and amps, you can find the answer w/ simple math

watts = volts x amps

amps = watts devided by volts

if the math is too much to deal w/,the 3 lights together will draw about 1600 watts so put them on 1 circiut and everything else on the other. if its too much,it will pop a breaker but I think you will be alright.

you need to know AMPS. a 1000 watt light draws something light 9 amps(check the label). if you have a 20 amp circuit you can load it to 20 amps before the breaker trips.

1000w M/H 9.0 amps
450w HPS 4.0 amps
270cfm fan 2.25 amps

2 CFL's (x 2)
I'm assuming these are probably the 23w CFL's that give off the light of a 100w incandescent .25 amp ea

CO2 regulator .50 amp (est)

water pump (x 2)
I looked at my 220 gph pump and it showed an amp rating of .25 amp

Osc fans (x 2) 1.0 amp (est ea)

Env Controller...I don't know on this one but it cant be much maybe 1 amp

As near as I can figure it, you have around 20amps total. If it was me, I'd put the 1000w and a cpl small items like the water pumps and a fan on one circuit and the 450w and the balance of your electric items on the other circuit. Kinda splitting the load evenly between ea circuit (JMO) This way if you have to add something later on you won't inadvertently overload a circuit.

Thanks for all of the help! I'm feeling confident. So confident that I'm thinking of installing one more light.. another 400w MH. I know that won't overload my power, and the only real reason I'm contemplating this addition is because I'm nervous of the configuration that I have currently. As of now, which you know, I have a 1000w HPS and a 400w MH side by side.. and I don't want any inequality amongst my ladies. So I figured (common sense), I should even the score and install another 400w MH. The positioning would be two 400MH facing horizontal and parallel to each other and a 1000w HPS next to them but positioned vertical.

Is the more light the merrier? Does the balance of light effect me? Would the another 400w MH make sense?

I'd rather not make another 'new' topic when this has already been brought up.

If someone could answer medicalmother, for I have the same question. I too have a similar light situation, one 1000w HPS and one 400w MH. Although, I really wasn't trying to add another light to "even the score". I am worried though that it might be necessary.

Will two different watt lights (1000w & 450w side by side) show noticeably at the end of my two month flower cycle??

Not every outlet in a room has its own breaker. Most breakers will power all the outlets in 2 rooms.

If you overload the system, know what happens? The breaker trips protecting the wiring from causing a fire. It did it *job* There was *NO* fire. Now you know you are over the limit.

Popping in a higher rated breaker, allows the wire to overheat, melt, then short. Thats what causes fires (Europe is known for using a higher temp rated insulation on the wire and smaller conductor size. Since the insulation won't melt at the lower US temp, its safer for higher loads. But there is limits to this. Its only a single step up, not doubling)

Be safe. Do things right. But with the sketchy things we do, make it better then right.