Electrical questions, post em here!

BigBudBalls said:

Pop in a 30amp breaker, and run. (or 2 15amp) just make sure you aren't over loading the main panel. Just another circuit is what you want. The 2 15s might be a better option. It will (should) balance the load better. 15 amps off each leg, instead of 30 from a single leg.
(though, I doubt to code (but works), but you can 'combine' them at the outlet to get the 220, if you need it.

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k this is my thing BBB, i have 2 thin open slots in my breaker panel(16 total with 14 used and 2 open) both at the top one either side. are these suitable for a 15 amp breaker each or even a 20 amp each? and then i want to run the 2 to my room to power either 1-1000 and 2-600 and a 400, or 3-600wt lights and a 400 wt and 5 100gph water pumps and a 400 cfm fan and 2 oscilating fans. is this sufficient and the way to do what i want? also should i use 2-600, 1-1000, and 1-400 or should i keep it to 3-600 and 1-400?

No VV. I rewired a 175 MH light to start my veg (MH flood lights I found in the attic of my house). They work real good and I ran then for a few hours with no problems. One the seedlings get bigger, I'm going to switch them to a 400 watt unit (there about 2 weeks now).

I don't want to burn them.

You can stuff almost any size breaker in that panel (amp-wise) But, the question is are you overloading the panel?
So its:
option1:
1000W
1200W (600Wx2)
400W
--------
2600W total for lighting
21.666 amps (@ 100% effeceincy)

Or
option 2
1800W (600Wx3)
400W
-----
2200W for lighting
18.333 amps (@100% effeciency)

The pumps and fans should draw that much (5 pumps??)

Check the amp draw on the the other items. You might be best splitting the load, one breaker does 1/2 the lights and pumps. The other breaker does the second /12 of the lights and fans.

Note: nothing runs at 100% efficiency. The ballasts will have a loss, figure at least 10%
The amp ratings were done at 120VAC This can vary throughout the country, and even time of day.

Get your self a Kill-A-Watt (everyone should own one) and add up the numbers and give to the electrician.

Also note on the box, Most typical boxes are 220V, ie: 2 120V, but each phase 180^ out from the other. Going down one side, two adjacent breakers will pull from both each phase respectively.
So depending on the order of those open slots, you can be pulling from a single phase. Which might or might not be an issue. Really depends on the loads and distribution in the house.

And have the electrician run one guage heavier then code. Which should be 10 (I think)

cmak40 said:

k this is my thing BBB, i have 2 thin open slots in my breaker panel(16 total with 14 used and 2 open) both at the top one either side. are these suitable for a 15 amp breaker each or even a 20 amp each? and then i want to run the 2 to my room to power either 1-1000 and 2-600 and a 400, or 3-600wt lights and a 400 wt and 5 100gph water pumps and a 400 cfm fan and 2 oscilating fans. is this sufficient and the way to do what i want? also should i use 2-600, 1-1000, and 1-400 or should i keep it to 3-600 and 1-400?

Click to expand...

Hey I'm curious if this setup would work (I'm trying to replace my flouros for veg while keeping my 400W switchable flowering all the time). 2 x 100W MH bulbs pulling off of a 100W ballast; 2 ballasts, 4 bulbs. If not, would it work with 2 x 50W MH bulbs? Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. All help is appreciated.

ACSCorp said:

No VV. I rewired a 175 MH light to start my veg (MH flood lights I found in the attic of my house). They work real good and I ran then for a few hours with no problems. One the seedlings get bigger, I'm going to switch them to a 400 watt unit (there about 2 weeks now).

I don't want to burn them.

Click to expand...

Ok, missed that somehow. The rule that would apply would be the cord size should not be larger than the circuit size. 14/3 cord to a 12/3 wire circuit should give you the best for a 20 amp breaker. VV

You want to run 2 100w bulbs from a single 100W ballast?
And then do it again?

Nope. Can't be done. The ballast(s) will overheat.
Can you get 2oz from an 1oz bag of weed?

As for the run 2 50W bulbs from a 100W ballast, word on the street is no.
My jury is still out on it. I haven't taken a meter to a ballast yet.

Best bet is to just follow whats the norm. Deviations cost a lot. buy the stuff to try, buy more stuff to make it work, the wind up buying a complete set up in the end anyways.

smartfood said:

Hey I'm curious if this setup would work (I'm trying to replace my flouros for veg while keeping my 400W switchable flowering all the time). 2 x 100W MH bulbs pulling off of a 100W ballast; 2 ballasts, 4 bulbs. If not, would it work with 2 x 50W MH bulbs? Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. All help is appreciated.

Click to expand...

BigBudBalls said:

You can stuff almost any size breaker in that panel (amp-wise) But, the question is are you overloading the panel?
So its:
option1:
1000W
1200W (600Wx2)
400W
--------
2600W total for lighting
21.666 amps (@ 100% effeceincy)

Or
option 2
1800W (600Wx3)
400W
-----
2200W for lighting
18.333 amps (@100% effeciency)

The pumps and fans should draw that much (5 pumps??)

Check the amp draw on the the other items. You might be best splitting the load, one breaker does 1/2 the lights and pumps. The other breaker does the second /12 of the lights and fans.

Note: nothing runs at 100% efficiency. The ballasts will have a loss, figure at least 10%
The amp ratings were done at 120VAC This can vary throughout the country, and even time of day.

Get your self a Kill-A-Watt (everyone should own one) and add up the numbers and give to the electrician.

Also note on the box, Most typical boxes are 220V, ie: 2 120V, but each phase 180^ out from the other. Going down one side, two adjacent breakers will pull from both each phase respectively.
So depending on the order of those open slots, you can be pulling from a single phase. Which might or might not be an issue. Really depends on the loads and distribution in the house.

And have the electrician run one guage heavier then code. Which should be 10 (I think)

Click to expand...

Nice i appreciate that. just so i know for a fact im sure tho as long as i can find a breaker of whatever amperage i want and it fits my panel i can put it in and use it?

i dont think im runnin to much power thru out the place to overload anything so should be good there. i have five flood table in dif stages of growth and dif ppm of nutes so 5 pumps. everything that i have is half an amp to an amp tho so i should be covered.

the open slots are at the top 1 on each side so the load will be split between each phase.

thanks again an electrician in a weed forum is the shit i think alot of people been waitin. when they hear you'll be workin full time gossiping...lol
appreciate that

Hey Bro it's called a mogul socket and you wire it like any other light socket. You can get them at ACE true value or maybe Home Depot. They run anywhere from 3-10 dollars.

cmak40 said:

thanks again an electrician in a weed forum is the shit i think alot of people been waitin. when they hear you'll be workin full time gossiping...lol
appreciate that

Click to expand...

Oh, I'm no electrician, just kinda know the stuff. My job kinda has me doing most every trade.
The AC I usually deal with is 480 Trip phase. DC to 25KV

If the breakers are directly across from each other then yes, they will be different phases. If one is 1 slot lower, then they will be on the same phase.

So wait what kind of air flow to a 400 watt cool tube light fixture do i need, so i could get that tube a foot or less away from my crop and enought to circulate a 3' by 18'' by 3.5'. Htgs lowest cfm blower fan is like 170. Would this work? Or do i need way more circulation?

Also how loud are those inlife fans for those of you who use them.??

Thanks in advance.

upinchronic1 said:

So wait what kind of air flow to a 400 watt cool tube light fixture do i need, so i could get that tube a foot or less away from my crop and enought to circulate a 3' by 18'' by 3.5'. Htgs lowest cfm blower fan is like 170. Would this work? Or do i need way more circulation?

Also how loud are those inlife fans for those of you who use them.??

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

I just got a 6inch inline fan Then reduced it to 4 inch for the flex/DIY cooltube. The flow kinda sucks. But its quiet.
It claims to be 160CFM. I'll give it a run and see how it does on a 150W HPS. I can measure the surface temp of the tube (thermocouple, I don't trust the IR temp meters) As well as inlet temp, outlet temp and delta. I'm 1/2 tempted to measure wetbulb too. Gimmie a day or so. (or more if I get work)

But from what I see (without any testing), 170CFM may not be enough.

BigBudBalls said:

I just got a 6inch inline fan Then reduced it to 4 inch for the flex/DIY cooltube. The flow kinda sucks. But its quiet.
It claims to be 160CFM. I'll give it a run and see how it does on a 150W HPS. I can measure the surface temp of the tube (thermocouple, I don't trust the IR temp meters) As well as inlet temp, outlet temp and delta. I'm 1/2 tempted to measure wetbulb too. Gimmie a day or so. (or more if I get work)

But from what I see (without any testing), 170CFM may not be enough.

Click to expand...

Hey cool, that would be a good thing to base a parrellel to, right on.

hey i live in a small apt and i need some ideas on how to make a homemade odor filtration system, do you guys have any suggestions.

doinwork420 said:

hey i live in a small apt and i need some ideas on how to make a homemade odor filtration system, do you guys have any suggestions.

Click to expand...

There are tons of DIY carbon filters on the net: instructions, models on Ebay, take your pick.

where can i get a timer to automatically turn lights off and on?

shinger said:

where can i get a timer to automatically turn lights off and on?

Click to expand...

Lowes??

Heavy Duty Grounded Timer

doinwork420

Good post on this site here

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/7074-easy-build-diy-carbon-filter.html

bud balls! also heyheyhey, could that thing be heard inside a quiet room? one with an osicilating fan? And big iffff but do you have a 250 too?

How can I wire a 120 VAC amp meter into a switch box?

I've been meaning to build cut-off switch boxes for my lights and pumps using double-size wall mount outlet/switch boxes. Mount a computer-style receptacle to accept power from the house circuit on one side, going through a switch to a standard GFCI outlet. Since the box will be big enough to accommodate it, I'd like to add a panel style meter that will show the load of the devices attached to the switch box.

I found this:

15A AC PANEL METER | All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components

But I'm foggy as to how it should be wired into the circuit, and if it's going to show me just the load of the devices attached to the outlet controlled by the switch, or the load of everything on the same circuit, or the available power, or what.

I'm good on switches and outlets, but after that I get confused. I used to know more, but its been a while since I've had to take an FCC exam.

Edit: also, is it possible to do this, but mount an AFCI in the box rather than a regular switch? For this configuration, I'm imagining that there would be a 'primary' outlet box that would have a power supply receptacle, a load meter, an AFCI breaker and a GFCI outlet. The boxes described above could then be connected to a strip running off of the AFCI'd outlet.

Like this:

[[Grow Room Outlet]] ---computer PSU cord-----=> [[PSU-Receptacle-->AFCI Breaker-->Load Meter--->GFCI Outlet]] --->power strip-----
---->PSU cord------=> [[receptacle-->---meter-->SPST CO/ALR switch-->GFCI outlet]]---->subsystem powerstrip

That way you'd have a meter showing the total load on the circuit from the operation with a switch and an AFCI and then switches and meters for the sub-systems (I'd imagine two per grow chamber: one for lights/fans and the other for pumps/accessories.)

Maybe an AFCI is overkill or a bad idea, but I've hand wired a lot of stuff around my grow and I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether I've done everything correctly such that any fault would result in a ground fault and trigger the GFCI's (that I do have installed.) So long as it won't trip due to HID ballasts or floros, it seems like an AFCI would be nice.

I reckon that you could just insert the meter into the live wire at any point to show load on circuit. Not a bad idea either. I'd put the ground interupt receptacle first in circuit though,so it protects all components. Good luck.