A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Slixxor said:
Although 240/120V AC fans flow more I prefer 12V fans, they are safer to use, setup and safer to adjust the flow of. using AC speed controllers that regulate voltage or resist current can cause fires.

The only correct way to dim AC fans is via PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) For that matter if anyone would like a circuit diagram of a simple AC motor speed controller I can provide a diagram. My design uses high power MOSFETs and a 555 timer. for those more technical I can provide source for a PIC circuit using a 16F628A.

- Slix
Click to expand...
and they are also prone to short service life, and sudden failure, and are also dependent on a power supply, which is another point of failure.
for some people, thats ok, but for me, if my fans quit, unless my lights shut down in about 5 mins or less, very bad things happen. you could say that with my grow, my fans are the most critical part.
for that reason alone, i would choose a line voltage fan over a low voltage 12v or 24vdc, the absence of a potential point of failure. plus, you simply cannot get the cfm with low volt fans as you do with ine voltage, there just isnt enough torque at low wattages to compete with say, i of 2 240vac fans that push about 450cfm. however, i also have temp overides in place, just in case... temp hits setpoint, lights shut down, and stay off untill the setpoint has been restored for 9 mins. my lighting contactor is also overridden (in addition to the temp overide) by exhaust fan status, using a go/no go CT relay on my 120v exhaust fan neutrals or one side of 240v. if the CT senses a major drop in current on any fan, it kills the lights.
safety is priority....

...and what about frequency modulation, rectifiers, and synchronous drives?
 
S

silverfern

Active Member
Hi Iam5toned. Can I use a 600w hps bulb in my 1000w hps magnetic ballast. I have been searching for an educated answer to this question. Please help. Thanks
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
you should be able to... but differences greater than 400w are risky, id try it with an older lamp first, just to be on the safe side. that way if it blows, your not out a brand new hortilux.
 
B

bobganoosh

Member
Hey everyone,

This is technically my first post even though I've been lurking around here for over a month. I like to read a lot before asking any stupid questions like the one below ...

I'm a complete newb looking to start my first indoor grow. I'm currently in the process of finding a new place to live / set up, but I'm not 100% sure what I should be looking for in regards to electric capacity. A lot of the homes around here were built in the late 1800's / early 1900's which means they probably aren't capable of handling a decent-size project unless the electric was upgraded at some point. By decent size, I mean to run a perpetual hydro grow where I can harvest ~1lb every month.

My question is: How do I tell if a place has upgraded electric? Do I need to look for something in particular on the electric box (typically on the side of a house) or something in the breaker box inside the home?

I was advised that if the electric box on the side of the home said either 120v or 240v, then I should be good (see
). Is this true? What if I can't even find a specific voltage? Does that mean I'm looking at a gas meter? :dunce: <--- i'm retarded

Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated ... I want to make sure I don't get stuck in a place that can't handle a decent sized set up.

Thanks!
 
teryy

teryy

Active Member
hey whats the average wattage use for 3 bedroom apt? have a 150 hp and 4" inline fan. I wanna bigger tent with a 600 watt plus 4"inline and mayb some lil fans to keep tent cool. If i watch all other usage will this be ok for an apt grow?
 
Magnificient

Magnificient

Well-Known Member
A bored electrician to answer your questions

I bought 2 400 watt Cooper MHSS40 lamps which can be wired to run on anything from 120 to 440. They are currently wired for 277, or something like that. How much is it going to cost for me to get the wired for 120? Just a rough estimate will be fine. Thanks.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
bobganoosh said:
Hey everyone,

This is technically my first post even though I've been lurking around here for over a month. I like to read a lot before asking any stupid questions like the one below ...

I'm a complete newb looking to start my first indoor grow. I'm currently in the process of finding a new place to live / set up, but I'm not 100% sure what I should be looking for in regards to electric capacity. A lot of the homes around here were built in the late 1800's / early 1900's which means they probably aren't capable of handling a decent-size project unless the electric was upgraded at some point. By decent size, I mean to run a perpetual hydro grow where I can harvest ~1lb every month.

My question is: How do I tell if a place has upgraded electric? Do I need to look for something in particular on the electric box (typically on the side of a house) or something in the breaker box inside the home?

I was advised that if the electric box on the side of the home said either 120v or 240v, then I should be good (see
). Is this true? What if I can't even find a specific voltage? Does that mean I'm looking at a gas meter? :dunce: <--- i'm retarded

Any help in the right direction would be greatly appreciated ... I want to make sure I don't get stuck in a place that can't handle a decent sized set up.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
the voltage in the united states is the same everywhere, for residential service. its 240/120vac, that is 2 phases of power.... some places have 3 phase power, but that is exceptionally rare in the residential sector.

what you need to be concerned with, is wattage, running a perpetual grow, where you can yield a lb a month, is going to cost you about 4000w of usage, by the time you factor in all the lamps for clone mothers, veg chambers, flower chambers, and assorted hydroponic equipment you will need to run a perpetual operqation of that magnitude. a/c is also a factor.
i figure you will need about 40 amps of power......
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
teryy said:
hey whats the average wattage use for 3 bedroom apt? have a 150 hp and 4" inline fan. I wanna bigger tent with a 600 watt plus 4"inline and mayb some lil fans to keep tent cool. If i watch all other usage will this be ok for an apt grow?
Click to expand...
you will be fine.
its not the lighting that will burn a hole in your pocket, its the a/c ;)
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
Magnificient said:
A bored electrician to answer your questions

I bought 2 400 watt Cooper MHSS40 lamps which can be wired to run on anything from 120 to 440. They are currently wired for 277, or something like that. How much is it going to cost for me to get the wired for 120? Just a rough estimate will be fine. Thanks.
Click to expand...

is there a number after the MHSS40, like MHSS40-5T, or MHSS40-MT?

if not, it prolly would have been cheaper to just buy a ballast... because thats whats its going to cost to change it to a voltage you can use.
alot of high bay lights (thats what you have) are multi tap ballasts, that is, the ballast inside it is already setup to be run on a variety of voltages. take the cover plate off of it, and take a look and see if you dont find a bunch of wires labeled for different voltages, like 120,208, 240, 277, 460. if thats the case, simply hook up your power cord to the correct voltage.

as far as an estimate, count on 100$ minimum.
 
B

bobganoosh

Member
IAm5toned said:
the voltage in the united states is the same everywhere, for residential service. its 240/120vac, that is 2 phases of power.... some places have 3 phase power, but that is exceptionally rare in the residential sector.

what you need to be concerned with, is wattage, running a perpetual grow, where you can yield a lb a month, is going to cost you about 4000w of usage, by the time you factor in all the lamps for clone mothers, veg chambers, flower chambers, and assorted hydroponic equipment you will need to run a perpetual operqation of that magnitude. a/c is also a factor.
i figure you will need about 40 amps of power......
Click to expand...
Thanks for giving me a starting point ... now, is there a simple way to figure out how many amps a home is capable of producing? What should I be looking for in the breaker / fuse / electric box?
 
S

sow217

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this idea would work. I wanted to be able to run 2000 watts in my room but the room may not be able to handle that much electricity from the lights and plus the fans. so here is my idea, the room has a washer and dryer in it. the dryer has its own 240volt outlet and the washer has its own regular household outlet. There are also 4 other outlets in this room also standard household outlets. If i bought this 30 amp control board or timer is there someway i could plug it into the dryer outlet and it would be able to control all of my lights with no problems. I basically need to find a way to be able to run all my lights without having to get a electrician involved or have extension chords running into other rooms. here is the product, if anyone else has any other suggestions on what to do or any other products please let me know. here is a pic and a description.




When trying to control more than one HID lighting system, you can either use a bunch of timers OR the HPH-4. The HPH-4 makes it simple to control up to 4000 watts of lighting from a single timer or controller. The HPH-4 has FOUR UNIVERSAL receptacles that accept either a 120-volt or 240-volt male plugs from your HID ballasts. 30-amps @ 120 / 240-volt

thanks again for all the help +rep​
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
bobganoosh said:
Thanks for giving me a starting point ... now, is there a simple way to figure out how many amps a home is capable of producing? What should I be looking for in the breaker / fuse / electric box?
Click to expand...
look at that size of the biggest breaker in your electrical panel..... if there is not a breaker 100 amps or greater, look outside there's another panel somewhere.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
sow217 said:
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if this idea would work. I wanted to be able to run 2000 watts in my room but the room may not be able to handle that much electricity from the lights and plus the fans. so here is my idea, the room has a washer and dryer in it. the dryer has its own 240volt outlet and the washer has its own regular household outlet. There are also 4 other outlets in this room also standard household outlets. If i bought this 30 amp control board or timer is there someway i could plug it into the dryer outlet and it would be able to control all of my lights with no problems. I basically need to find a way to be able to run all my lights without having to get a electrician involved or have extension chords running into other rooms. here is the product, if anyone else has any other suggestions on what to do or any other products please let me know. here is a pic and a description.




When trying to control more than one HID lighting system, you can either use a bunch of timers OR the HPH-4. The HPH-4 makes it simple to control up to 4000 watts of lighting from a single timer or controller. The HPH-4 has FOUR UNIVERSAL receptacles that accept either a 120-volt or 240-volt male plugs from your HID ballasts. 30-amps @ 120 / 240-volt

thanks again for all the help +rep​
Click to expand...
theres a few manufacturers making several products, just like the one you mentioned, all of them pretty much do the same thing.
just make sure the one you buy is setup to run on your particular dryer outlet. there are 2 kinds of dryer outlets, 3 wire and 4 wire, you can tell by the number of prongs/slots on the dryer cord/receptacle what kind of outlet it is.
 
S

sow217

Well-Known Member
thanks for your reply. the reason i ask is because if you look at the picture of the product, the plug on the end of the chord looks like a standard 120 volt 2 prong chord that i wouldnt be able to plug into my dryer outlet. how could i convert that to plug into the dryer outlet? I ask because i am assuming that the 30 amp timer box is not able to run on a regular 120 volt outlet, or atleast wont be able to support 2000 watts. Thats why i feel it will be necessary to run it on the dryer outlet. is this assumption correct? also is it true that running your lights on 240 volts rather than 120 volts, that the 240 volts will save you electricity and is more efficient?
 
stormrage93

stormrage93

Member
I don't know if you'd know this but what kind of increase in electrical usage does a 40 watt light cause? Would it be enough to cause a significant bill increase?
 
Danielsgb

Danielsgb

Well-Known Member
stormrage93 said:
I don't know if you'd know this but what kind of increase in electrical usage does a 40 watt light cause? Would it be enough to cause a significant bill increase?
Click to expand...
40W light wouldn't increase a bill much. It's like leaving a light on, and getting shit from dad when you were little. I wouldn't worry about it. IAm5toned can tell you. You'd need your kilowatt per hour from your bill.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
sow217 said:
thanks for your reply. the reason i ask is because if you look at the picture of the product, the plug on the end of the chord looks like a standard 120 volt 2 prong chord that i wouldnt be able to plug into my dryer outlet. how could i convert that to plug into the dryer outlet? I ask because i am assuming that the 30 amp timer box is not able to run on a regular 120 volt outlet, or atleast wont be able to support 2000 watts. Thats why i feel it will be necessary to run it on the dryer outlet. is this assumption correct? also is it true that running your lights on 240 volts rather than 120 volts, that the 240 volts will save you electricity and is more efficient?
Click to expand...
240v is only slightly more efficient, and you wouldnt notice any difference unless your running greater than say, 5kw. it does however, allow you to have more lights on a single circuit than 120v however, and that single point is what makes it good for growroom lighting. whereas you can get 1920w on a 120vac 20amp circuit, you can get 3840w on a 240vac 20amp circuit.
if you havent bought that controller yet, you have to order it specifically for 240v, 30amp cord.
 
T

total

Active Member
i read a good few pages of this thread and i hope you dont mind me asking you for something that probably has already been asked

first question i suppose is - can i plug one extension lead into another one?

i read a lot of conflicting answers - some people saying no its dangerous and others saying its fine if you dont exceed the maximum wattage

i could draw you a diagram for what i was hoping to do
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top