Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

jberry

jberry

Well-Known Member
nellyatcha said:
yes they do if you use over a certain amount and if you steal it as well thne you screwed lol, they will investigate it first to see whats going on and they ,meter it first and see the increase if its over a certain about of hours and watts kwh
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dont like the sound of that!!
do you think they bother reporting/ investigating in in states that give out medical marijuana growers certificates?
if they investigated and found that the occupant was a med. marijuana patient i wonder what they would do?

i would never try to steal power and im within my legal limits but my bill is so big that i know that i must be over that "certain amount" that you spoke of and im about to be using even more... hmmm u got me little worried.

could you throw a # out there??
how high do you think your bill has to be before they rat? $500? $2000? $3000?
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
As long as you pay your bills you are just another good customer. If the police are investigating things and ask the power company what your usage is they have to tell them, but they are not going to rat you out to the cops just because you started using lots of their electricity and paying for it all, if they did that then people who run workshops in their garages, and perfectly legal horticulturalists such as yourself would be getting knocks on the door all the time.
There are far too many households using widely varying amounts of electricity for them to have somebody monitoring the consumption of every single person they supply power to, the only way you will raise suspicion is if you don't pay for it.
If you're legal anyway, what are you worried about?
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
jus10pa2 said:
i have a question....how many 25W (100W equal) CFLs can run from one 15 amp circut breaker.... my current set up is 3 clamp reflecters with spliters in each so 4 25W daylight CFL and 2 25W warm light cfl. i have about 3.5 ft2. Im sure i need more but i was just wundering how much could i put on that one circut without burning my place down.
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Lots. Power (W) is equal to voltage (V) multiplied by current (A). You have a 15 amp circuit, I'm assuming 110v, so 1650w available. Bear in mind thought that for continuous use you should stay below 80% of the breakers rated load, or 12a, meaning you have 1320w to play with, or 52 25w cfls.
Just make sure all the extensions, plugs, sockets etc. are rated for 15amp and your golden.
 
jberry

jberry

Well-Known Member
Hairy Bob said:
As long as you pay your bills you are just another good customer. If the police are investigating things and ask the power company what your usage is they have to tell them, but they are not going to rat you out to the cops just because you started using lots of their electricity and paying for it all, if they did that then people who run workshops in their garages, and perfectly legal horticulturalists such as yourself would be getting knocks on the door all the time.
There are far too many households using widely varying amounts of electricity for them to have somebody monitoring the consumption of every single person they supply power to, the only way you will raise suspicion is if you don't pay for it.
If you're legal anyway, what are you worried about?
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yeah your right, just paranoid i guess.
thanks for talking me down hahaha
i would +rep you for that, but i dont know how... i'll still do it if i figure it out .
thanks bud.
 
iloveit

iloveit

Well-Known Member
How can find out the maximum load without plugging in the lights & electrical equipment first (in case it blows)?

Im guessing check the circuit breakers load capacity & in that partion/section of the house calculate the amp of the fuses of the electrical equipment Ill use. Is this correct or am I missing something? Just preparing for my next grow op.
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
All electrical equipment should have a label on it with the wattage, add the wattage of everything together and divide it by the voltage to get the current in amps.
As long as you are below 80% of the breakers rated load you are fine.
 
project23

project23

Active Member
i have a great apt with a good sized walk in closet and a landlord that lives out of town- ive seen him once in the 2 1/2 years ive been here and he has no intrest in the apartment as long as i pay rent on time(in other words he minds his own damn business- gotta love that) anyway im going to start a small scrog set up with 2-3 plants flowering and 3-4 bonasi mothers, but my breaker is only rated at 10. so my question is can i simply buy a new 15 amp breaker and swap them or does the wiring have to be changed all together?
 
Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
You should be OK to do that, you will have to check the size wire coming off that breaker. I believe that a wire able to carry 10 amps will be able to handle 15. Just check the gauge wire to the breaker. Found this chart that should help

Suggested Gauge vs. Breaker Amp
For Copper branch circuits and feeders.
Gauge Breaker Amps 14 15 12 20 10 30 8 40 6 55 4 70 2 95 1/0 150 2/0 175 3/0 200​
 
Boulderheads

Boulderheads

Well-Known Member
let me reformat that

Gauge Breaker
14 15amp
12 20amp
10 30amp
8 40amp
6 55amp
4 70amp
2 95amp



NOTE: A heavier wire may be used than the size required, a lighter gauge can never be used. Extension cord wire, lamp wire or wire less than 14 gauge can not be used for any wiring.
 
project23

project23

Active Member
Boulderheads said:
let me reformat that

Gauge Breaker
14 15amp
12 20amp
10 30amp
8 40amp
6 55amp
4 70amp
2 95amp



NOTE: A heavier wire may be used than the size required, a lighter gauge can never be used. Extension cord wire, lamp wire or wire less than 14 gauge can not be used for any wiring.
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thanks for the quick reply boulderheads!
 
R

RedEyeJedi619

Active Member
Im rewiring my 120v to 240v ballast. I wondering what the second power supply inside the box for the 240v. There is a 277 and 208v. I have all the con rewired and i just need this last step. Any help please?
 
R

RedEyeJedi619

Active Member
I just googled and maybe im actually getting this all wrong. I had an electrician friend come over and look at my ballast but he has never worked on ballast before. Anyways when i rewire it before he came over, i rewired 240v power chord the same as the 120 was except i changed out the 120v chord inside the ballast to the 240v. That was the only thing i did. Now when my friend came over, he said that i had the black chord going to the 240v chord inside the ballast correct, that i got the green ground chord correct but that the white chord does not go to the other white chords anymore. He said those are the neutral for the 120v and i needed to find the other power source. now there is another 208 and 277v inside the ballast. Does one of those go to the white cable in the power chord? But when i googled i read all some other guy did was change the 120v to 240 inside the ballast to the pwer chord and that was it, which is exactly what i did before my friend came over. He did no other rewiring. So im pretty much asking how do you rewire the dang ballast to 240v. Any help please. thnx
 
iloveit

iloveit

Well-Known Member
Hairy Bob said:
All electrical equipment should have a label on it with the wattage, add the wattage of everything together and divide it by the voltage to get the current in amps.
As long as you are below 80% of the breakers rated load you are fine.
Click to expand...
Here in the U.K. are electrical device have a fuse within the plug (see link):

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00cMvtFqosfubzM/British-Plug-with-Fuse-13A-.jpg)

Can the max load of the fuse be used as a better & accurate measurement?
 
Hairy Bob

Hairy Bob

Well-Known Member
iloveit said:
Here in the U.K. are electrical device have a fuse within the plug (see link):

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00cMvtFqosfubzM/British-Plug-with-Fuse-13A-.jpg)

Can the max load of the fuse be used as a better & accurate measurement?
Click to expand...
I'm in the UK, and no, the rating of the fuse is either 3, 5 or 13 amps and is not a good indicator of how much power the appliance it is attached to will use. If the appliance uses 6 amps, it will have a 13 amp fuse, if it pulls 0.1 amps, it will have a 3 amp fuse, so it can never give you more than an extremely rough indication.
The way I described before is completely accurate, assuming the wattage stated on the label is correct.
 
tat2ue

tat2ue

Well-Known Member
Simple, All you do is take the ballast cover off and connect your new 240 power cord as follows. put the black wire from new 240v power cord to the lead that is labled 240volts in the ballast. Put the white wire from the new 240 poewr cord to the same white wire that the old power cord was attached to. This is your common. Attach the green ground wire from the new 240 power cord to the green ground wire that the old cord was attached to. Thats it. Also make sure that either wirenut or clip the bare wires from the 120v power lead that you are no longer using and put some electrical tape over the end.


RedEyeJedi619 said:
I just googled and maybe im actually getting this all wrong. I had an electrician friend come over and look at my ballast but he has never worked on ballast before. Anyways when i rewire it before he came over, i rewired 240v power chord the same as the 120 was except i changed out the 120v chord inside the ballast to the 240v. That was the only thing i did. Now when my friend came over, he said that i had the black chord going to the 240v chord inside the ballast correct, that i got the green ground chord correct but that the white chord does not go to the other white chords anymore. He said those are the neutral for the 120v and i needed to find the other power source. now there is another 208 and 277v inside the ballast. Does one of those go to the white cable in the power chord? But when i googled i read all some other guy did was change the 120v to 240 inside the ballast to the pwer chord and that was it, which is exactly what i did before my friend came over. He did no other rewiring. So im pretty much asking how do you rewire the dang ballast to 240v. Any help please. thnx
Click to expand...
 
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