Elite Nugz
Active Member
General discussion of 240v compared to 480v, when running multiple grow lights...
Ballast Voltage & Amps: 240v - 480v
- Thread starter Elite Nugz
- Start date
BOARDASFUK
New Member
u got to upgrade or get a commercial building that has 3 phase they wont run it to a house unless u have a business there and zoned for it
why not just run a bunch of 120 v lights on a seperate panel
why not just run a bunch of 120 v lights on a seperate panel
Elite Nugz
Active Member
EDIT: Removed info for security reasons.
BOARDASFUK
New Member
not if load is distributed to breakers geez
BOARDASFUK
New Member
you editted while i posting lol
if u dont exceed load of breaker it is fine
if u dont exceed load of breaker it is fine
Elite Nugz
Active Member
Wouldn't 2 Phase be good enough??Phase 3# umbre, commercial factory power!
Elite Nugz
Active Member
A 1000 watt light ran at 120v, pulls about 10 amps.
20amp breakers, are the safe area to be at. So to instal, lets say 3 lights, you'd have to run 3 separate lines in and have 3 separate breakers, if you want to stay at 120v. This is ridiculous. Running your lights at 120v is cool for the closet grower, or bedroom grower, but not so for larger scale.
The dudes that know what their doing, would simply run a 240v line in, thats coming off a 20amp breaker and be able to run all 3 lights safely off of that one line ran in.
No offense bro..... but Im looking for solid information. You recommended me staying at 120v, so Im ruling you out as far as this topic goes. Again... no offense.
Elite Nugz
Active Member
Your not supposed to exceed 75% load of the breaker. If your pushing the full load of the breaker, your gonna be resetting it 24-7, and have an insane fire hazard on your hands.
BOARDASFUK
New Member
i meant run a whole new service and panel
but really for what it would take is a comm power for that many lights
BOARDASFUK
New Member
well to bad u ruled me out as i am a degree student in this subject but others here can help u
u did mention a 100 1000 watters so unless u can buy rent a commercial building forget it
u did mention a 100 1000 watters so unless u can buy rent a commercial building forget it
phillipchristian
New Member
Most large scale commercial growers are either on generators or have the ability to have multiple 240v or 480v services wired to their operation. Also, a lot of them are doing FLIPS now. Run one flower room for 12 hours and then another flower room for 12 hours. If you are growing legally then the electric company doesn't care how many meters you want. It's more money for them. You can do 50 1000w lights on a 225amp panel. Then you have another 225amp panel that runs the rest of your stuff.
You can most definitely run larger operations on 120v. Most guys don't because they need the space in their board. But if you have a dedicated spot and your wiring is done right then you'll have no problem. I have 11,000watts of Light, 2 5ton A/C's, a 10hp Chiller, Co2 generators, fans, dehumidifiers, etc... all on a 225amp panel and all of it is wired for 120v. Works just fine. You just have to know about electricity and oversize your breakers and wiring.
You can most definitely run larger operations on 120v. Most guys don't because they need the space in their board. But if you have a dedicated spot and your wiring is done right then you'll have no problem. I have 11,000watts of Light, 2 5ton A/C's, a 10hp Chiller, Co2 generators, fans, dehumidifiers, etc... all on a 225amp panel and all of it is wired for 120v. Works just fine. You just have to know about electricity and oversize your breakers and wiring.
BOARDASFUK
New Member
u ask some ? then act like u know the answer so why did u ask ?
BOARDASFUK
New Member
thank you
i run on 120 also and if managed right on the board it is great no fires no tripped breakers
phillipchristian
New Member
Running 120v or 240v doesn't increase or decrease your chance of catching fire. If wired correctly they both are the same as far as safety. The only reason for 240v is to allow you to run twice as much electricity down the same wire. It is not safer than 120v. In reality 240v is more dangerous. If you get shocked my a 120v plug you'll get a nice zap; get shocked by a 240v plug you might not wake up. Plus, if you run 3 240v lamps to a 30 amp breaker then you can run 3 120v lights to a 40 amp breaker as well. Most big growers are running their lights through a controller and a trigger box anyway.
Elite Nugz
Active Member
How?? My lights are 9.5 amps @120v. So how would that even be possible?? 50 x 9.5 = 475amps@120v. OR 50 x 4.75 = 375.5amps@240v. You cant use more amps then what your panel is giving out.
How?? 120v leaves your ballast running at maximum amperage. It only takes 10 lights to max out a full 100amps service. And I dont consider 10 or even 20 lights being a large operation. 20 lights is about a medium sized op, when it comes to indoor growing.
Elite Nugz
Active Member
EDIT: Removed info for security reasons.
phillipchristian
New Member
I tried to give you good information but you don't want to take it. First of I am a high end real estate developer who builds multimillion dollar homes for a living. We do the entire electrical installation ourselves. They include 50kVa generators, transfer bypass switches, 18kVa UPS systems, Breaker Panel electrical grounding fences, etc... I know electricity pal.
That being said, here's a few answers to your questions...
When I said 50 lights I was talking about 240v wiring. A 240v ballast uses 4.5 amps which multiplied by 50 equals 225. It was just a basic math example. In reality you obviously would never hook up that many lights to one breaker panel as you would be at the max.
You are right about amps being what kills you. My example was assuming you we were talking about 240v circuit breakers; which in most cases are what carry high amperage services within your electrical grid. It takes 50amps to kill someone and almost 100% of all things in your house which carry or require a 50amp breaker are 240v. The main reason for 240v service is so that we are not wiring up our homes with 6 gauge wire to all of our high consumption electrical devices. Plus with larger appliances you have to worry about voltage drop. A 240v line is using a higher voltage to run the current through the lines which is more efficient because it uses less energy and emits less heat. Even so, if your wiring is done correctly and your breakers sized correctly then it is not safer than 120v. More effecient...Yes. But who cares if your electricity bill is basically the same. I sure don't care if the power running through my house is being distributed more efficiently if it doesn't mean a savings on my elctric bill.
You are wrong about 240v being safer than 120v. Go ask an electrician. Apart from the fact that most companies tell you that each ballast should be wired seperately and have it's own breaker; the reason that guys are growing with 240v is because, like you said, they wan't to put more ballasts on a single breaker or they are trying to fit a large number of ballasts on a singlebreaker panel. 120v is safer than 240v. 240v is just 2x120v lines. 240v installation are more expensive because they require more expensive receptacles, breakers, and ballast cables. 240v also does not save you any extra money on your elctricity bill. Plenty of large growers grow on 120v. Especially when they have a large commercial space. Any grower with 6 or more lights is using a light controller anyway. So sometimes they use 120v controllers and sometimes they use 240v controllers. It doesn't matter cause the controller is hard wired into the building. So since they are hard wiring the light controller into the building a lot of growers will just get 120v plugs for their ballast and a 120v controller. Go look on any of the hydro websites at the 8+ controllers. They are all available in 120v. The only reason that the controller is wired to the breaker panel in 240v is cause since you have 8+ lights going through it who the hell wants to run 2 gauge or 1/0 cable in their grow room. For the 16 light controllers you would need 2/0 or 3/0 cable. You can't even wire a breaker with 2/0 cable.
You asked how the large scale growers do it and I told you. I'm done arguing electricity with you. If you don't know about light controllers and FLIP boxes I highly doubt you've ever done a large scale grow in your life. maybe you helped your buddy set up his room so stop claiming it as your own. Commercial large scale growers are almost all on generators or have multiple meter services coming to their room. And like I said before a lot of them are on FLIP boxes and two seperate flowers on alternating light cycles. That way they use the same power continously while doing twice the plants....You want to do 100 lights but you don't have the power. If you have the power for 50 lights then all you have to do is go buy 100 lights, put 50 in one room, 50 in another room. Flower one room from noon till midnight then go flower the other room from midnight till noon. That way you are never using more than 50 lights at once.
Best of luck on your large scale grow! If you ever set something up that is even close to 50 lights i'll give you $10,000 in cash. Save this post as your evidence. I doubt you've even seen one. I saw your previous posts bro, you were growing in a tent. So in the last 30 days you've managed to either get yourself a new grow room with 20 lights or lose a grow room with 20 lights? Which is it?
That being said, here's a few answers to your questions...
When I said 50 lights I was talking about 240v wiring. A 240v ballast uses 4.5 amps which multiplied by 50 equals 225. It was just a basic math example. In reality you obviously would never hook up that many lights to one breaker panel as you would be at the max.
You are right about amps being what kills you. My example was assuming you we were talking about 240v circuit breakers; which in most cases are what carry high amperage services within your electrical grid. It takes 50amps to kill someone and almost 100% of all things in your house which carry or require a 50amp breaker are 240v. The main reason for 240v service is so that we are not wiring up our homes with 6 gauge wire to all of our high consumption electrical devices. Plus with larger appliances you have to worry about voltage drop. A 240v line is using a higher voltage to run the current through the lines which is more efficient because it uses less energy and emits less heat. Even so, if your wiring is done correctly and your breakers sized correctly then it is not safer than 120v. More effecient...Yes. But who cares if your electricity bill is basically the same. I sure don't care if the power running through my house is being distributed more efficiently if it doesn't mean a savings on my elctric bill.
You are wrong about 240v being safer than 120v. Go ask an electrician. Apart from the fact that most companies tell you that each ballast should be wired seperately and have it's own breaker; the reason that guys are growing with 240v is because, like you said, they wan't to put more ballasts on a single breaker or they are trying to fit a large number of ballasts on a singlebreaker panel. 120v is safer than 240v. 240v is just 2x120v lines. 240v installation are more expensive because they require more expensive receptacles, breakers, and ballast cables. 240v also does not save you any extra money on your elctricity bill. Plenty of large growers grow on 120v. Especially when they have a large commercial space. Any grower with 6 or more lights is using a light controller anyway. So sometimes they use 120v controllers and sometimes they use 240v controllers. It doesn't matter cause the controller is hard wired into the building. So since they are hard wiring the light controller into the building a lot of growers will just get 120v plugs for their ballast and a 120v controller. Go look on any of the hydro websites at the 8+ controllers. They are all available in 120v. The only reason that the controller is wired to the breaker panel in 240v is cause since you have 8+ lights going through it who the hell wants to run 2 gauge or 1/0 cable in their grow room. For the 16 light controllers you would need 2/0 or 3/0 cable. You can't even wire a breaker with 2/0 cable.
You asked how the large scale growers do it and I told you. I'm done arguing electricity with you. If you don't know about light controllers and FLIP boxes I highly doubt you've ever done a large scale grow in your life. maybe you helped your buddy set up his room so stop claiming it as your own. Commercial large scale growers are almost all on generators or have multiple meter services coming to their room. And like I said before a lot of them are on FLIP boxes and two seperate flowers on alternating light cycles. That way they use the same power continously while doing twice the plants....You want to do 100 lights but you don't have the power. If you have the power for 50 lights then all you have to do is go buy 100 lights, put 50 in one room, 50 in another room. Flower one room from noon till midnight then go flower the other room from midnight till noon. That way you are never using more than 50 lights at once.
Best of luck on your large scale grow! If you ever set something up that is even close to 50 lights i'll give you $10,000 in cash. Save this post as your evidence. I doubt you've even seen one. I saw your previous posts bro, you were growing in a tent. So in the last 30 days you've managed to either get yourself a new grow room with 20 lights or lose a grow room with 20 lights? Which is it?
phillipchristian
New Member
To you 20 lights is a medium operation but you still don't know how to wire them, use a light controller, or how to get electrical service for that op? Please dude. Stop wasting peoples time by fantazing about your dream grow. Or just admit it's a dream and go post it in the THC Talk section. You can go burn one and get all philosophical about it.
Elite Nugz
Active Member
EDIT: Removed pics and info for security reasons.