amortized across the life of the equipment, yeah, you may save a few cents a week running 240v equipment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ganjagoddess  basically you can run more 1000 watt lights from one breaker... |
you dont understand how 240v works, because it actually is 2 breakers, so you lose 2 spaces in your breaker box, and the device draws half of its power from each of the 2 hot leads.
really, it may save a few cents a week to run 10K watts of 240v ballast vs 120v ballasts.
not saying it isnt a good idea to use them, or to have a tutorial on them, just that you really don't save much of anything one you consider the costs or running some 6 or 8 awg and a sub panel than you will running multiple 14 or 12 awg 120v lines.
the only reason to run 240 is if you are running a sub panel anyways either due to distance from the meter ( you are setting up a 3000+ watt grow far from the main box), or insufficient breaker slots to run the 120v's you need in your main panel. or you know what you are doing electrically and decided that that is the way you want to do it... not because its "cheaper"
and yes, I do use 240v ballasts, and installed a 50 amp sub panel in my location, not because its cheaper, but because its 85' from the main, which had only 2 open slots.