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

Hi, I was wondering if i will have any problems with the electricty. I'm gana try to run four, 40 watt fluorescent bulbs, a 150 watt hps sun system and a 30 watt fan off of one wall outlet. Do you think that this will work and be safe.

herer said:

Hi, I was wondering if i will have any problems with the electricty. I'm gana try to run four, 40 watt fluorescent bulbs, a 150 watt hps sun system and a 30 watt fan off of one wall outlet. Do you think that this will work and be safe.

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yes...160+150+30=340watts 340/120volts=2.83amps

a standard receptacle circuit is 15amps

Captn said:

yes...160+150+30=340watts 340/120volts=2.83amps

a standard receptacle circuit is 15amps

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Ahhhhh, I love to see this equation in action.

Hill0046 said:

Bricktown,
Thank you so much for doing this.
Here is my question.
I need a 240 outlet for a ballast.
I have an abandoned A/C breaker in my panel that is a double 40 amp that I assume is 240. If I understand correctly I need to put one hot wire on one lug, the other hot on the other lug and ground to the buss. Is this correct and thanks for the help.
Hill

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You got it, but you are taking a huge risk connecting your ballast to a 40 amp breaker, you need a 2 pole 20 amp to be safe.

bricktown73 said:

You got it, but you are taking a huge risk connecting your ballast to a 40 amp breaker, you need a 2 pole 20 amp to be safe.

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Thank you!
I will swap the 40's out for 20's
Hill

hi im new here.... and i need some basic electrical help.. I need to get my room properly grounded. I have one of thoes socket checkers and it seems to blink saying its grounded then blick to say its not properly grounded. What can i do to try and ground the circit. It appears that the lights (1 4' flourocent and one standard light socket) and about 6 sockets are all using this same circit and the wiring and recpticles are about 35 years old should i re wire everything? i dont know where to start any help would be apricated

I had a 20A-250V outlet that was supposed to be connected to a 2 pole breaker, but was not. It was 2 single pole 20's. I took one wire out of one and put in on the neutral and left the other so that I could change the outlet to a 15-125. Do you think I'll have a problem using a 15-125 on a 20Amp breaker? Or do you think I'll be fine as long as I stay under the wattage that a 15 amp can handle?

does anyone know if most of the bathroom vent fans need some wiring done? Or can I just plug it straight into a socket?

nigapino said:

does anyone know if most of the bathroom vent fans need some wiring done? Or can I just plug it straight into a socket?

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yes you can hook up a standard bathroom fan to a cord with a plug.

bdomina said:

hello,

do you know anything about rewiring a tstat in a window ac unit? it sits outside my cab and i have the cool air ducted in. also i pulled the tstat copper node down into the top cab compartment. but it still has large temp swings and i would like it a little more dialed in. I thought about trying to wire a regular tstat like for your house but those are low voltage. although the baseboard heater tstats take 120 in i know. would you know anything about either rewiring these or could you splice a heavy guage ext cord into a bboard tstat?

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My guess is if you are using a small cabinet you are always going to have big temp swings and little control of humidity. Reason being is size of ac compared to the actual space you are cooling. Unit will turn on and off allot. I am sure it is somehow possible to rewire a tstat into it but pretty tricky unless you have a very good grasp of electronics due to issues with getting the circuit board connections right.

Mr.Freedom said:

My guess is if you are using a small cabinet you are always going to have big temp swings and little control of humidity. Reason being is size of ac compared to the actual space you are cooling. Unit will turn on and off allot. I am sure it is somehow possible to rewire a tstat into it but pretty tricky unless you have a very good grasp of electronics due to issues with getting the circuit board connections right.

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Well this is indeed doable but why when you can buy one that plugs into the wall and you plug your fan into it and set your temp and thats it. There are ones that come with photo sensors also and there are not only enviromental controls for heat but cooling and humidity as well allowing you to program set points for when to turn on various equiptment. There are cheap ones that will just do heat and there are ones that will controll everything including co2, pretty much depends on what you want and how thick your wallet is.

To wire an home t-stat you would need to be able to produce thel voltage that the t-stat runs on, then you would need to wire a relay that the t-stats voltage can trigger and the other side of the relay would have to be able to handle 120v an amperage of your exaust fans.

Woot! Thank you. Got any recomendations on a quiet fan?

chunkymunkey33 said:

I had a 20A-250V outlet that was supposed to be connected to a 2 pole breaker, but was not. It was 2 single pole 20's. I took one wire out of one and put in on the neutral and left the other so that I could change the outlet to a 15-125. Do you think I'll have a problem using a 15-125 on a 20Amp breaker? Or do you think I'll be fine as long as I stay under the wattage that a 15 amp can handle?

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What your're describing is dangerous because the circuit will be able to carry more than the receptacle...if you make a mistake in estimating the load you're putting on the circuit, a fire could result...not cool. Instead, why don't you just install a 20a/125v receptacle? They only cost a little more, and you will have another 5amps you can draw should the need arise. They're available at Home Depot and Lowes, though you may have to look carefully, or ask a clerk.

I have an inline fan that has an arrow showing the up side, and an arrow for exhaust direction. My problem is that I really need to mount the fan upside down in order to work best with my set-up. There is no information, that I could find, online about this. There were no installation instructions in the packaging. It is a Grow Bright 4" w/filter. Do you think there is any problem with mounting this way?

https://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=52557

I don't know about Grow Bright, but Can inline fans can be mounted in any position, according to the manufacturer. I don't think you will have a problem tho, since the stress forces placed on a fan are centrifugal, and the mounting position won't affect that. I mean, if you think about it, a fan is a circle, and where is the top of a circle?

I gotcha, just wondering why they would provide the arrow if that is the case? But I'm trying it, it would be more of a pain in the ass to re-configure half the closet to make it work the other way. Thanks!

i am making a grow room that is 4 ft tall and 3 feet wide out of plywood. This will be my first indoor grow and i have no idea what to put in there for lights. any suggestions?

the more watts the better, as long as you can regulate the temperature. From what i've read on this site, for a 3x3 area you want at least 400w. But that size light in that small an area, you will definitely need ventilation. You're definately in the right place, just do some more reading and searching of the forums b4 u lay ur money down, theres a lot of good info here, and im sure it will be cheaper to take some time and do it right the first time, than rush ahead and make major mistakes. Good luck.

yes thats what i was thinking. thanks alot!

i have a question.

I am using multiple pc fans for ventalation. Was wondering to cut down on how many outlets i use is it possible to connect more that one fan to the plug. I have the fans connected to random 12v dc plugs I found laying around.