Electric Question's ? Maybe this will help....

Hey all... I have noticed that there are many misunderstandings of how you run your electrical in your grow room, house for grow, or even in your warehouse grow.

My background is many years of electrical and wiring, my dad started me 'pulling' wire when I was twelve, ha... a long time ago. I was a EC in that big golden state, for 25+ years. I don't know it all, however, my code book is always near by, The NEC, is my bible... I specialized in custom house wiring, and Hotels...


I have done many load calc's for many dwellings. Please like another poster said: "hire a electrician, if you 'F' up your nutes, your plant dies, you 'F' up your electric, you die...."

If you are on a budget [like me] you can do some things yourself, to save you money.
Simple terms, you need to do a calculation of all your added load [load = lighting, fans, heaters, bubblers, etc, if it takes juice, power, add all the items up]
Then you must get a dedicated circuit into your grow room. Maybe easier than you think....

Here is an over simple example anyone can and should do this:
Say, for instance you want to 'use' a spare bedroom for your grow room. That bed room, may 'share' through the walls, it's power. [Power= lighting/outlets/motors]
Plug something into the outlet in that bedroom, like a light, and turn it on.
Now go to your breaker panel, and turn off one at a time, your breakers, "off, then on", until your grow room test light goes off.
Turn all other breakers off [just for 5 minutes, wont be a problem], MARK this breaker, Mark it "Grow"...
Now, the test light is on, for your room, that is the only breaker on, [double check], and leave it on, and walk around house with another light, plugging the light you are holding in your hand, into every other outlet. Every outlet/light that is still on, mark it with a magic marker/masking tape. All outlets that stay on with your new grow room, take note, and mark them [mark them, we want to rid grow room of all other load]...
Try and find other places for any stuff you have plugged into your grow room circuit.
Turn breakers back on.
Say, the three outlets in new grow room, along with the light switch, and center light, plus 5 or 6 outlets in other rooms, are all on the same breaker.
You have isolated this circuit. Look at breaker size, should be 15 or 20 amp. ALL lighting branch circuits in your house are either on 120vac/15 amp, or 20 amp breakers. All 15 amp breakers should have 14 AWG wire attached, and all 20 amp breakers should have 12 AWG wire attached.
You now have a dedicated breaker for your grow. 15, or 20 amps direct to your room, a non shared circuit. Having a dedicated circuit will eliminate or ease your fear of blowing breakers. Blow a breaker, loose a crop... lets not go there...


Ohm's law is your friend, don't be afraid--> Watts [find you loads] divided by Volts [120] = amps [your breaker is rated in amps 15 or 20]


Now, add up [sorry, you need to do some math] all your new load:
Your new 1000 watt HPS/Metal Halide ballast may not be exactly 1000 watts, look for it's name plate rating to be exact. [Every electric item has a name plate, go pick up your GF's hair dryer -1200 watts!!! Yikes-blow your hair when you are plugged into your grow room and you will blow breaker...]
1000 watts divided by 120 volts = this light pulls over 8 amps so always round up, 9 amps. This one light uses almost half your breaker power.
YOU CAN NOT JUST PUT IN A BIGGER BREAKER IN IT'S PLACE. If you up size your breaker and do not change your wire from breaker, this is where FIRE starts. Your wire will be breaker, if you over load.
So with new light installed, you still have 1000 watts or so, for your other needs of room. You can, share the load, if you have rid the rest of the house of load on this circuit.
Heaters, and Lighting should not be on same circuit, unless you install heater to only come on when lights are off. A small electric heater might take upwards of 1200-1500 watts, and should be on 'another' dedicated circuit.


Ever wonder why....Look at your kitchen circuit- Microwave [1200 watts]/Toaster [650 watts]/Coffee maker [600 watts], if they are all on at same time, and you only have one breaker for kitchen, you will blow it, because 1200 + 650 + 600 watts =2450 watts which is over the rating of your breaker...


We do not want to blow fuse or breaker in your grow room ever....
Right ? Be careful, check your existing loads....do the math.... Electricity is just one big math problem, and not that hard.


I hope this helps, if it doesn't drop me a note... Just remember 'Free Advice' is worth what you pay for it....

Fair play for writing this out bro. I did read the whole lot and will be looking over my sockets and breakers!!

I have a isolated 220 v 50 amp circuit id like to use. Not a problem finding 220 grow lights but i do have a problem finding 220 everything else ie fans, water pumps. is there a way get 110 circuits out of my 220 and still keep it 220. I understand i can have 2 110 circuits but i dont want to lose the 220.

Afghanfan said:

I have a isolated 220 v 50 amp circuit id like to use. Not a problem finding 220 grow lights but i do have a problem finding 220 everything else ie fans, water pumps. is there a way get 110 circuits out of my 220 and still keep it 220. I understand i can have 2 110 circuits but i dont want to lose the 220.

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You should be able to get a transformer for an outlet and run those from there.

Nice post OP, agree that people should be learning that electricity is simple but very important.
My eldest brother was burned very badly in a electrical fire, I hope that no growers have to go through that...

Afghanfan said:

I have a isolated 220 v 50 amp circuit id like to use. Not a problem finding 220 grow lights but i do have a problem finding 220 everything else ie fans, water pumps. is there a way get 110 circuits out of my 220 and still keep it 220. I understand i can have 2 110 circuits but i dont want to lose the 220.

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Turning a 220vac 50 amp outlet into a 50 amp sub panel?

Inside this 50 amp outlet, there should be #8 wire, Black, Red, white, green [or bare copper]
Between red and black is 220, between red or black to white is 110 vac
Buy a box store sub panel and mount it over your outlet, then run branch circuits out of it to your grow.
A little 100 amp [always buy bigger], and sub panels are rated at what is MAX amps they can handle, so a 12 space 100 amp sub panel could be installed over the outlet and give you 12 breaker spaces. [Power off] Bring your Black/Red/White/ and Ground into new sub. Black screws to bus, red screws to bus [black/red hook to each side of panel bus where breakers clip/screw on. The 50 amp breaker in your existing sub panel that feeds this will be your disconnect. Turn it off, and leave it off ...tape it off... Put a sign on it [DO NOT TOUCH!] Electric can kill...
White wire installs to "Nutral" bus look for white or silver screw
Ground [green/bare] screws to ground bus. Green screw, also ground your panel box.
Now 220 breaker sized to the load of your lights [wattage? = amp load]
220 breaker is a "Double" size [takes up two spaces]
110 breaker is a single size [takes up one breaker space]

size your wire correct:
14 AWG = 15 amp load
12 AWG = 20 amp load
10 AWG = 30 amp load

Most likely, 1000 watts, of 220 = 5 or 6 amps, so you can use a two pole 15 amp breaker and small 14 AWG wire.
That's where 220 saves you on the wire size for same wattage as 110 vac...
Good Luck....

Electric story of the day...
Project engineer at 'X' old work ask me if I'd come by and check out his house wire...
It seems that every time he opened his refer first thing in morn, he'd get a small shock...
[small shock= shock to someone else]
Black/hot was crossed at outlet with White/Nutral all the metal of refer was hot, carrying 110 volts... When he opened with bear feet in morn, power would go through is hand on handle, through his body, and out through his feet...
Opposite of BUZZ Kill....
Outlet wasn't grounded properly, so refer wasn't grounded, hence he was shocked.... It wasn't god telling him to go on a diet, as he thought...
Ground, all your metal boxes, lights, and panels, with a green wire...

thanks sand i was thinking about the sub panel idea myself.

Nice post OP, looking forward to seeing some pics of your grow. And I bet you have some tight wiring too lol.

Another way to get a dedicated circuit into your grow, find your heater/FAU in your house...
"Usually" by code on newer places, it will have a dedicated circuit, with no load, except when the Heater in your house/apartment cycles on... And FAU units, only draw minimal power.... maybe 4-6 amps only...

The Red said:

And I bet you have some tight wiring too lol.

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Thanks man.... However...Naw, not really-haha my electric install, is safe, clean, however, you know, you start with a small area, then expand... then maxing out load on circuit, then sheiot, just run another extension cord to the panel... My load in room #1 [veg] is about 13 amps, my power comes from my FAU [gas heater], which pulls 4 amps when on-FAU/Forced Air Unit, is just basically a fan... So Room two [buds] gets it power from another circuit... I started with just one room [1] and have expanded a bit... Bud Room may get expanded again soon....
POWER !!! I need more power......

Good Luck....
If you have a question....
Hahaaa.....
About Power....

Electric in your house?

Are step up /step down transformers able to power grow lights ? Safely ?
Like a 3k or 5k transformer (3k is the one)

Idk the actual amps but it should be around a 20 amp breaker

1800 watts ..continuous 12 hrs ..
I dont want to have to do much work but I can get my electrician if I need to do any work if this isn't safe

1800 watts 110 vac is pushing the limit, because I worry about start up which on a ballast, may be more than the listed name plate rating on lights...
You need a dedicated circuit for sure...

I have a questions... in my country we use 240v wiring. I am planning a setup in the attic, I assume all the wiring comes from the mains/fusebox because I can see really thick wires (in the attic/roof) leading to the kitchen (high voltage appliances), a few medium wires running towards the lounge/bedrooms, and a couple of smaller wires which I assumed are just lighting. All wires are flat white casing and inside red, green, black.

1.) First, how do I know how many watts I can run through any one of these wires? Is it stated on the breaker switch or should I look on the wire for the current rating and use A=W/V? And just to clarify.. breakers are like fuses except instead of blowing they just switch off right? So how do you blow a breaker?

2.) Also the wires don't loop back to the breaker box right? The circuit is contained within the wire itself? Where does it end? I think I read somewhere if it ends in a power socket then its ok (dedicated circuit?), but if there are other wires leading from the power socket then its a spur which shouldn't be used (too much load).

3.) If I am using <1000 watts for my setup I should generally be ok with a wire that leads to a power socket with no spurs right??

4.) I want to use a toggle switch, switching the red wire which will come from either the junction box so I can switch off my whole setup in the roof from my CLOSET. OR ideally... just the red wire coming from an extension cord which connects to my fan(s) only (from an extension board coming from my junction box) . This way when the lawnmower man or someone comes I can just switch off the fans with the switch poking through into from my closet, so the noise/smell doesn't escape when he comes round to mow the lawns. (I feel suspicious asking the landlord to mow my own lawns since its included in the rent) DO I NEED A DIODE TO PREVENT THE BACK EMF FOR THIS?? The switch is rated at 240v and I think as much as 10A.

5.) Last important question.. when im in the roof how can I be sure of which wire is leading where without having to create junction boxes on each wire with test lights and then turning off the breakers as you stated... Because even if I turn the breakers on and off and see which sections of the house it powers I still cant be sure which wires belong to which parts of the house when im in the roof.

Answers.....
1) wire size determines "Load" of wire:
NEC says: 14 awg is good for 15 amps
12 awg is for 20 amps
10 awg is good for 30 amps... You're not in America, IDK [NEC= National Electric Code/AWG= American wire gauge[/COLOR]
....
You "Blow" breaker by overloading it [too much load, or short on line]
If you use too small wire it will become breaker, heat up, melt, and catch fire...


2) You may be able to isolate load


3) Yes...
4) Should be fine if 'Load' is less than 10 amp rating of switch...


5) It's hard...


If there a light in attic ? Maybe try the breaker off trick described, with light. into plugs... you might get lucky...
Good luck man!

I am glad to be of service for any of your electric needs....

I know we are all stoners here... and I know this thread requires reading my 'how to' get a dedicated circuit...
You need a dedicated circuit [or two] for your grow room, and this will help you...
If you played 'connect the dots' as a child, you can get yourself a dedicated circuit...
Good Luck!

Questions with blowing a breaker?

I have been pulling wire as well for a long time, i use the code handbook as well. It's the bible, but where I live the local electrical codes go above and beyond what the book states. The local code states that your load on a circuit should not exceed 80% of the load capacity of the breaker. This is what I go by. The following calculations are as follows:

15A breaker: Rated for 15A but not to exceed 12A
20a breaker: Rated for 20A but not to exceed 16A
50A breaker: Rated for 50A but not to exceed 40A

I you do not now how to calculate % do the math as follows:
Rated Circuit Breaker Amperage x .80=Alotted Amperage per circuit

The reason that they do this is to allow for room in the breaker rating to absorb spikes created when an appliance is turned on, thus tripping the breaker.
In my location as well, they stick to this rating no matter what the input voltage is: 110V or 220V.
I like this method. Better to be safe then sorry when you are shitting where you and your family sleep (growing in the dwelling where you, your wife and your kids live as well).

Peace All