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

SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
16 gauge is the individual conductor size sans insulation. Insulation thickness varies. Just measure cord diameter and use that to size the choke.

It has biggest effect on ballast end of lamp feex however a little added supression can be had from chokes on both ends.
 
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Buzerek

Active Member
Most of you guys looking for extra 240V power in average house when facing inadequate power and potential danger of circuit overload relax, there is an easy solution applicable in most cases most "experts" and "electricians" on this thread are missing.

If your grow house has any of following: Central AC, Electric water heater, Electric kitchen range, electric dryer, AND any of those are not used, or INFREQUENTLY used you have a potential of plenty 240V power WITHOUT ANY rewiring, subpanels and other nonsense suggested.

Modern digital HPS ballasts run on 120/240 automatically switchable just by applying proper cord with either 120V or 240V plug.

Here is your solution:

1.
Central A/C (I assume not used in winter) average 10KW (mine is 5 ton AC draws 20KW).
Even if yours is 3 ton central A/C you can run 8 1000W lights out of this circuit when AC is not used obviously.

2 Water heater (240V) 4500W to 5500W . Easy 4 1000 hps lights at 4500W.

3 Kitchen range (10KW) easy 8 1000W Hps lights.

4 Electric dryer (3kW +) 3 1000w HPS lights

All it takes is proper extension cord, ASSUMING you are not using those appliances at the time.

So even if you live in the house you are growing how often you use Clothes dryer?

When you are flowering you can run lights at night. How often you are using kitchen range at night?

Or even better, put your water heater on timer (off when you are flowering) and you have easy 4 1000W HPS here.

How often you are using AC in winter, spring or fall depending where you live? Central AC is the biggest power hog in the house, so it is a biggest potential for those hungry 1000W HPS lights.

My house is not the most modern house, built in 1978, only 150 amps panel, but I could run easy 10 KW + of lights in summer or 30 KW in winter if I wanted to. THATS 10 - 30 fricken 1000 watters !!!

Summing up if you run your lights on 240V you can free all 120V circuits to run fans, controllers, pumps which run on 120V, but that should be no issue since those devices draw a fraction of power the big HPS lights require.
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
Buzerek said:
Most of you guys looking for extra 240V power in average house when facing inadequate power and potential danger of circuit overload relax, there is an easy solution applicable in most cases most "experts" and "electricians" on this thread are missing.

If your grow house has any of following: Central AC, Electric water heater, Electric kitchen range, electric dryer, AND any of those are not used, or INFREQUENTLY used you have a potential of plenty 240V power WITHOUT ANY rewiring, subpanels and other nonsense suggested.

Modern digital HPS ballasts run on 120/240 automatically switchable just by applying proper cord with either 120V or 240V plug.

Here is your solution:

1.
Central A/C (I assume not used in winter) average 10KW (mine is 5 ton AC draws 20KW).
Even if yours is 3 ton central A/C you can run 8 1000W lights out of this circuit when AC is not used obviously.

2 Water heater (240V) 4500W to 5500W . Easy 4 1000 hps lights at 4500W.

3 Kitchen range (10KW) easy 8 1000W Hps lights.

4 Electric dryer (3kW +) 3 1000w HPS lights

All it takes is proper extension cord, ASSUMING you are not using those appliances at the time.

So even if you live in the house you are growing how often you use Clothes dryer?

When you are flowering you can run lights at night. How often you are using kitchen range at night?

Or even better, put your water heater on timer (off when you are flowering) and you have easy 4 1000W HPS here.

How often you are using AC in winter, spring or fall depending where you live? Central AC is the biggest power hog in the house, so it is a biggest potential for those hungry 1000W HPS lights.

My house is not the most modern house, built in 1978, only 150 amps panel, but I could run easy 10 KW + of lights in summer or 30 KW in winter if I wanted to. THATS 10 - 30 fricken 1000 watters !!!

Summing up if you run your lights on 240V you can free all 120V circuits to run fans, controllers, pumps which run on 120V, but that should be no issue since those devices draw a fraction of power the big HPS lights require.
Click to expand...


Also most dryer receptacles are 30 amp so good for 5kW not just 3.

If you can run 30kW in lights on a 150 amp main your the man. Mains usually start tripping when load pulls more than 80% continuously. Your also failing to account for cooling, circulation, and other electrical requirements.

Base your math on the ampacity of the circuit. Volts x Amps x 0.8 = Usable Power in Watts
Check breaker feeding circuit, lets say 30 amps on a 240v dryer receptacle.
240 x 30 x 0.8 = 5760 watts so its good for five thousand watters.
 
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Buzerek

Active Member
SnapsProvolone said:
Convert range, dryer and hot water to gas. That's what I did so that my 150amp main could run 20kW plus cooling.
Click to expand...
Here we go, common sense why bother with extra panels, circuits etc. Conversion to gas will gain you more power than you need in average residential house, there is always an option to partial conversion as the needs require to avoid extensive costs.

My point is you can SAFELY get more 240V power to run high wattage (lights) application out of existing conditions with some creativity. Just run 12 - 8 gauge extension cord equal on circuit breaker value easy made of ROMEX

Obviously electricians will not advice this simple solution for an obvious reason $$$$$$ missing their pockets.

In average US house 240V power accounts for 50 % ++ of total consumption/load. In my case is about 65% of total power available. And is being used selectively like during night water heater, clothes dryer, kitchen range is not used, lot of potential for creative minds.

Just make extension cord of romex proper gauge conductor, 240V plugs, (by proper gouge I mean 80% of load of protected particular circuit), thats all !!

Pennies on a $$$$ compared to fees charged by electricians and "experts" for major work on your electrical system.
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
Buzerek said:
Here we go, common sense why bother with extra panels, circuits etc. Conversion to gas will gain you more power than you need in average residential house, there is always an option to partial conversion as the needs require to avoid extensive costs.

My point is you can SAFELY get more 240V power to run high wattage (lights) application out of existing conditions with some creativity. Just run 12 - 8 gauge extension cord equal on circuit breaker value easy made of ROMEX

Obviously electricians will not advice this simple solution for an obvious reason $$$$$$ missing their pockets.

In average US house 240V power accounts for 50 % ++ of total consumption/load. In my case is about 65% of total power available. And is being used selectively like during night water heater, clothes dryer, kitchen range is not used, lot of potential for creative minds.

Just make extension cord of romex proper gauge conductor, 240V plugs, (by proper gouge I mean 80% of load of protected particular circuit), thats all !!

Pennies on a $$$$ compared to fees charged by electricians and "experts" for major work on your electrical system.
Click to expand...
The reason we don't recommend this extension cord solution is because it's not nec compliant by any means and therefore by making such recommendations we could loose our license.
 
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Buzerek

Active Member
SnapsProvolone said:
Also most dryer receptacles are 30 amp so good for 5kW not just 3.

If you can run 30kW in lights on a 150 amp main your the man. Mains usually start tripping when load pulls more than 80% continuously. Your also failing to account for cooling, circulation, and other electrical requirements.

Base your math on the ampacity of the circuit. Volts x Amps x 0.8 = Usable Power in Watts
Check breaker feeding circuit, lets say 30 amps on a 240v dryer receptacle.
240 x 30 x 0.8 = 5760 watts so its good for five thousand watters.
Click to expand...
My post was about an idea, not splitting hairs. You admitted in your post that I underestimated dryer potential, you need to do your math and apply 80% total capacity main load to be on the safe side.
 
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Buzerek

Active Member
SnapsProvolone said:
The reason we don't recommend this extension cord solution is because it's not nec compliant by any means and therefore by making such recommendations we could loose our license.
Click to expand...
if the solution is SAFE that's a solution, any other "solution" is money in the pocket of parties involved in "solution".

Dude you sound like an electrician trying to protect your territory. I have master degree in electronics/ DC/ AC theory, Government, unions and "special interest groups" have no meanings in my book.
 
BadgerBuds

BadgerBuds

New Member
Hey Bricktown or anyone,

Just wanted to say that your electrical forum has been very helpful for me. I am wondering if I may ask you a couple questions...
I am new on RIU but very familiar with growing high-quality medicine.
I am currently in the process of switching from a 4000w room to getting two 1000w switchable ballasts and two rooms. This will allow me have two (oppositely timed) rooms of 2000w each right next to each other-with only 2 ballasts! I am going to get 240v cords for this instead of 120v (and correct me if I'm wrong please) because that will be less stress on the system and maybe lower costs.
So my concern is that I am going to use my dryer outlet (220v,30amp,3wire) and I would like to use a y-adapter extension cord coming out of that that is commonly used for generators-similar to the link: (http://www.amazon.com/Conntek-YL1430520S-Generator-Adapter-Connector/dp/B002MGJ2F4). Will the 240v cords for the ballasts be too much for this cord AND should I use the 120v cords instead? I would rather be over concerned than under concerned.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
BadgerBuds said:
Hey Bricktown or anyone,

Just wanted to say that your electrical forum has been very helpful for me. I am wondering if I may ask you a couple questions...
I am new on RIU but very familiar with growing high-quality medicine.
I am currently in the process of switching from a 4000w room to getting two 1000w switchable ballasts and two rooms. This will allow me have two (oppositely timed) rooms of 2000w each right next to each other-with only 2 ballasts! I am going to get 240v cords for this instead of 120v (and correct me if I'm wrong please) because that will be less stress on the system and maybe lower costs.
So my concern is that I am going to use my dryer outlet (220v,30amp,3wire) and I would like to use a y-adapter extension cord coming out of that that is commonly used for generators-similar to the link: (http://www.amazon.com/Conntek-YL1430520S-Generator-Adapter-Connector/dp/B002MGJ2F4). Will the 240v cords for the ballasts be too much for this cord AND should I use the 120v cords instead? I would rather be over concerned than under concerned.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Click to expand...
That cord has a twist lock plug. It's not going to work with the dryer receptacle.
 
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FarmerGee

Member
That's awesome that you offer your advice like that. My question is....Is there a photosensor that I can wire for my co2. What I want to do is plug my co2 into a photo-controlled outlet that kills the circuit at night. All the photocells I find are dusk to dawn. Is there one that works in reverse that I can use? On the cheap us my idea. I'd hate to spend $70+ for a co2 contoller when a photocell costs $10 or less.
 
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FarmerGee

Member
I wish it was that easy snaps. I use a dual analog repltile day/night timer. One timer bank does my hps and fan for light, my other bank has 4 outlets. 2 on and 2 off..when the timer trips the 2 that are on to off, the other two that are off turn on.....so my carbon fan and intake fan are on that second bank. Timer turns fans off and co2 on, and vise versa. So right now, the fans run unnecessarily all night. If I plug my co2 into a photocontrolled outlet, I can turn the fans off at night which would power the co2 but be cut by the photocell. All the photocells I can find are for security lighting...which woukd power on my co2 at night.

QUOTE=SnapsProvolone;9911593]Why not just plug CO2 into the lighting timer?[/QUOTE]
 
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FarmerGee

Member
I'm beginning to think thats my only option. I was trying to avoid additional electrical connections with just getting the correct photocell for my application. They must make them. Has anyone disected a co2 controller? Is there a relay or just a dawn to dusk photocell?
 
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FarmerGee

Member
http://m.petco.com/product/109802/Zilla-24-7-Dual-Analog-Timer-Power-Center.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGoogleAdExtProd -_-Pet Supplies-_-Zilla-_-1238612&gclid=CNTUgJronrsCFcQDOgod_j0AfQ

It actually a pretty badass timer that I use. They dont make mine anymore with the dual timers, but this ones similiar. $29.95 at pet stores and it'll run your intake/exhaust fans and co2 regulator.... I lied...this timer is dual analog for $10 more. One bank runs co2 and fans, the othet is the light...built into one for $40
 
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