Building New Growroom

Mitus

Well-Known Member
I don't plan to alert anyone about my project... I do however plan to have a professional look over my work afterwards and I may even have one do the work if it gets too intimidating.

You mentioned I'd need to "ground the sub," does that mean the sub-panel? and if so, how do I go about doing that?

As far as puting the new 60amp breaker in the main panel... can you tell from the pictures I posted where is a good place to put it? 2ndly... if i'm removing 2 breakers from the main to add this one in, then what happens to the outlets in the house that were connected to those breakers previously?

-Mitus
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
I do however plan to have a professional look over my work afterwards
Awesome Idea.

You mentioned I'd need to "ground the sub," does that mean the sub-panel? and if so, how do I go about doing that?
Yes... you need to ground the subpanel. By the instructions, you will just run a ground wire of the apporpriate size right along with the feed wires. The ground wire will get connected to the mains ground bar.

As far as puting the new 60amp breaker in the main panel... can you tell from the pictures I posted where is a good place to put it? 2ndly... if i'm removing 2 breakers from the main to add this one in, then what happens to the outlets in the house that were connected to those breakers previously?
Well... one work around this is to add double breakers where there are single breakers. So I saw a couple 10A breakers on your existing main. You can add a double 10A breaker... only takes one slot but gives you two circuits.

You can also just combine circuits into one breaker. I think this is bad, but I'm not sure why.... I just wouldn't do it. Ask the home depot guy if you can just put two wires into one breaker. He might say that's fine... he also might look at you like you are crazy. I'm pretty sure it's a no-no.

Why not open that panel on up and we'll have a look. You are going to be working in there soon enough.
 

Mitus

Well-Known Member
looks like u guys have a handle on it!
A slight handle yes... I'm getting there slowly

We're about to put together the sub-panel/power center and run a few outlets. Then if budget permits me today I'll go pick up the sub-line and get crackin.

-Mitus
 

Mitus

Well-Known Member
Awesome Idea.



Yes... you need to ground the subpanel. By the instructions, you will just run a ground wire of the apporpriate size right along with the feed wires. The ground wire will get connected to the mains ground bar.



Well... one work around this is to add double breakers where there are single breakers. So I saw a couple 10A breakers on your existing main. You can add a double 10A breaker... only takes one slot but gives you two circuits.

You can also just combine circuits into one breaker. I think this is bad, but I'm not sure why.... I just wouldn't do it. Ask the home depot guy if you can just put two wires into one breaker. He might say that's fine... he also might look at you like you are crazy. I'm pretty sure it's a no-no.

Why not open that panel on up and we'll have a look. You are going to be working in there soon enough.

Ok, so if I pop out 2 more of the 20's in the main panel and replace them with dual 20's... i'd need to move up the wires from the two that were in the spots the 60 is going and attach them to the dual 20's with the other two that I pop out... does that sound right? i'm baked and motivated... lets do this

-Mitus
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Ok, so if I pop out 2 more of the 20's in the main panel and replace them with dual 20's... i'd need to move up the wires from the two that were in the spots the 60 is going and attach them to the dual 20's with the other two that I pop out... does that sound right? i'm baked and motivated... lets do this

-Mitus
It sounds completely confusing... but I'm sure you are thinking right.

You will end up with 4 old junk 20A breakers... and you will have 4 open slots in the main panel. 2 of those slots you will put the dual 20A breakers. The other 2 slots you will put the 60A breaker.

I know I keep saying it... but it's serious. Don't forget to cut the power to the main before opening up the panel. Just deal with the fact your clocks will be messed up the next couple days.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
One more thing... don't short sell the distance for the sub-feed.

I mean if you measure twice and get 80 feet. Get 85 feet of wire.

If you mess up and they are a foot too short... you are assed out all that money. You gotta get new wire. So spend a litle extra for insurance. They don't let you return cut wire... and splicing a feed wire is completely not allowed.
 

1mikej

Well-Known Member
hi, i think i have some advise for you.. i have built 2 sealed rooms and i have helped my friends with theirs. a sealed room is the best but not as easy to deal with as 1 may think. heat is the biggest problem and most of it comes from the lights. so cooling the lights is the most important thing to do. remember, the closer the light to the plant the better it grows. you loose more than have the lumes every 6in or so. with that in mind you need the coolest supply of air to cool the lights you can find. you said you where going to use air from another room. if you run that air through the lights and back into that room you will heat that room. if you heat the room even a few degrees you will see the same increase at you lights. which means you might have to raise your lights a few inches. if you send the air from the room through the lights then outside, you would be venting out your house by creating negative air pressure in that room. which means your central air or heat will run more running up your electric bill. the solution is to pull air in from outside and return it to outside. i run my hose in my attic. i put them right at the suffet vents at opposite ends of the house. that air never touches the air in room so there is no sent to worry about. you want as much cfm as you can muster. that means long sweeping bend in tubes as much as it means big fans. straight as possible. now cooling the air in the grow room. this should not be hard if you are cooling the lights enough, mine are 85f degrees 1ft from 1khps. your portable ac will work fine if its a duels hose. if not you need to get a role of duct tape and convert it to one. this is real important because a single hose unit is not efficient enough and it vent your room out causing it cool new hot air instead of recooling the air it just cooled like a duel hose does. an ac guy probably explain the next part better but i try. your ac has 2 air inputs and 2 air outputs. the output that is cooled goes into room you want cooled. the output that is hot goes outside. its hot because it just cooled the condenser in your ac. thats the heat that was in your growroom. the feon carries it to the condenser. it needs to leave it there so it can go get more. if it can't get more your ac wont work. my point, is the same as the one for the lights. use the coolest air available to cool the ac dont run the lights and ac together. that would be biggest waste of electric. if done right you wont need a filter. the only time smell gets out is when you open door. if your running co2 this way is the best hands down. if your ac is single hose it will remove your co2 by venting out the room like i said earlier. you would be wasting your time with co2. i learned all this because i tried and tried till i got it all to work. wasted alot of time and money. i hope i save you some headaches.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
i hope i save you some headaches.
Bro... I know it's not me asking the questions... but I would love to read your response, only it gives me a headache.

If you wouldn't mind could you throw in a couple line breaks... and maybe a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence?

It really does make things easier to read and comprehend. It would be a shame for all that typing to go to waste.

I'm like Jerry MacGwire... I'm trying to help you help people, haha.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
lol. sorry i type with 1 hand and 1 fingure
LOL... that's funny shit bro. We'll forgive you.

I'll tell you what. I'm glad as hell my dad MADE me take typing in high school. I didn't want to but he seriously forced me. I'm so stoked on that.

He also made me take drafting. I'm glad of that too.

Oh... sorry Mitus. Back to your room.
 

Mitus

Well-Known Member
Just mounted the sub-panel. Sent my buddy back to home depot to pick up a few things.

We're going to run four 240v outlets from the box for my ballasts and four 120v outlets for my other stuff... as of now i think that should cover it, but that my slowly change as we get farther along here. I chose to go with pvc conduit rather than metal because this is a temp project that I will have to tear down eventually. Only thing left to purchase now is the #6 wire, which we'll be picking up tomorrow after we get everything set up.
 

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Mitus

Well-Known Member
hi, i think i have some advise for you.. i have built 2 sealed rooms and i have helped my friends with theirs. a sealed room is the best but not as easy to deal with as 1 may think. heat is the biggest problem and most of it comes from the lights. so cooling the lights is the most important thing to do. remember, the closer the light to the plant the better it grows. you loose more than have the lumes every 6in or so. with that in mind you need the coolest supply of air to cool the lights you can find. you said you where going to use air from another room. if you run that air through the lights and back into that room you will heat that room. if you heat the room even a few degrees you will see the same increase at you lights. which means you might have to raise your lights a few inches. if you send the air from the room through the lights then outside, you would be venting out your house by creating negative air pressure in that room. which means your central air or heat will run more running up your electric bill. the solution is to pull air in from outside and return it to outside. i run my hose in my attic. i put them right at the suffet vents at opposite ends of the house. that air never touches the air in room so there is no sent to worry about. you want as much cfm as you can muster. that means long sweeping bend in tubes as much as it means big fans. straight as possible. now cooling the air in the grow room. this should not be hard if you are cooling the lights enough, mine are 85f degrees 1ft from 1khps. your portable ac will work fine if its a duels hose. if not you need to get a role of duct tape and convert it to one. this is real important because a single hose unit is not efficient enough and it vent your room out causing it cool new hot air instead of recooling the air it just cooled like a duel hose does. an ac guy probably explain the next part better but i try. your ac has 2 air inputs and 2 air outputs. the output that is cooled goes into room you want cooled. the output that is hot goes outside. its hot because it just cooled the condenser in your ac. thats the heat that was in your growroom. the feon carries it to the condenser. it needs to leave it there so it can go get more. if it can't get more your ac wont work. my point, is the same as the one for the lights. use the coolest air available to cool the ac dont run the lights and ac together. that would be biggest waste of electric. if done right you wont need a filter. the only time smell gets out is when you open door. if your running co2 this way is the best hands down. if your ac is single hose it will remove your co2 by venting out the room like i said earlier. you would be wasting your time with co2. i learned all this because i tried and tried till i got it all to work. wasted alot of time and money. i hope i save you some headaches.
Well I do get what you're saying as far as what source of air I use to cool my lights. My original plan was to pull the air from outside, through the lights, then out into the attic which vents to the outside again. That would work for a few months maybe while its cool outside, but when the hot season comes back I'll be shit outta luck...

Since I'm pulling the air from the room outside the grow room, i'll have negative pressure as you mentioned... I'm currently in the process of finding out how to account for the negative pressure... or just going with a different air source for cooling the lights.

Thanks a lot for the input guys! keep it comming!

-Mitus
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Just mounted the sub-panel. Sent my buddy back to home depot to pick up a few things.

We're going to run four 240v outlets from the box for my ballasts and four 120v outlets for my other stuff... as of now i think that should cover it, but that my slowly change as we get farther along here. I chose to go with pvc conduit rather than metal because this is a temp project that I will have to tear down eventually. Only thing left to purchase now is the #6 wire, which we'll be picking up tomorrow after we get everything set up.
To make a 240 circuit you will need another double pole breaker. Now... I don't mean one of those double 20a you got. I mean like the 60A one you put in the man.

You will need probably a 30A double pole breaker for the 240v. I don't think they have 20A double poles. Anyways... you need this double pole deal to do 240v properly.

Ask home depot man. And bring in the breakers you bought already... you may need to exchange them.
 

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Ok, so to run the 240v, i'll need a double 30A in the sub-panel?
Yes... a double XXA. It can be 20. But a double... that's how you get both phases to make it 240.

Home depot will know about it if you ask.

Your sub panel will have to use two slots for that double. Then you can fill the other two with the dual 20A. That way you can have 5 circuits. 1 - 240v, 4 - 120v.
 

Mitus

Well-Known Member
Gotcha. Right now we're running the pvc conduit for the sub-line. Once we get to running wire and connecting stuff, i'll post some more photo's and show you whats up. I'm hesitant to have a conversation about 240v stuff with the home depot guy. I had to bullshit out of my ass for 30 min before he stoped looking at me like I was a criminal... As of now he is convinced that I'm building a "reptile & fish room" at home... :)

-Mitus
 
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