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

Im sure this question has been asked as well but..... My husband assures me that the 900watts (give or take) we have running is not enough electricty to attract suspicion. Is this true???

900 watts is nothing. I would not worry about it. Smell on the other hand....

IAm5toned said:

you should be... and your lucky you dont live in north america....

tapping into meter boxes is STUPID, its what gets you CAUGHT!

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/10/smart_electric_meters_could_target_indoor_marijuan.php

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i never asked a smart arse for his comments about tapping in to meters, i never tapped in to a meter you idiot, i tapped in to the power before my meter ok and how the f***k do you propose that they are going to find out? when you look in my meter cupboard it all looks above board, and i pay my electric bill for my house as normal, maybe you are too thick to understand the way i have did this. dont ever answer my posts again EVER. as you do not even understand the ethics of what i am talking about.

hi mr. jonesez. this is true. i live in a tower block in the uk with 18 floors, i live on the 7th, my electric meter is situated in a cupboard that has its back to a bedroom and is 100 amp+ and 240v , the guy that fitted the single main fuse inadvertently left just enough room on the crimped seal wire to pull out the fuse that disconnects my meter, so i removed the fuse before my meter and that gave me access to a screw that removes a cover that conceals the neutral wire connection plate, now i can see the the two connector plates, so i drilled straight through them both, (the disconnected from live side of course), right through the single main fuse box with a 5.5mm drillbit, i removed the main fuse box and slowly pulled it forward just enough for me to go through the 5.5mm holes behind in the wall with a 13mm spade end drill bit straight in to the bedroom, i removed a large portion of the plasterboard in the bedroom and then got my hands on some 25mm cable and stripped out 3 feet of red live and the same of black neutral, i pushed the live through the hole in the back of the fuse box which was still dead as the fuse was removed, and the same with the black, i took an earth feed from my main consumer unit above my meter through the wall too, i bought a 5 - way small consumer box with a 100 amp isolator and 2 x 32 amp mcb (miniature circuit breaker) i have connected 1 mcb to two x two gang rcd (residual current device) sockets in a ring and the other to a 2 gang rcd socket, so now i have 3 double rcd sockets, 1 separate ring from the other two. i run every thing from these 6 rcd sockets including 2 separate 16 amp immersion heater timers to run my lights all connected through 13 amp fused plugs. when i go out i am paranoid as hell. what do you think, i am only running about 3500 watts total for 18 hours from this. i then put every thing back in order in the meter cupboard and i still get charged for power for the rest of my house, and free electricity in the room with the new consumer unit, the guy that is manager of the tower block came to see me and he opened my meter cupboard as i had my kitchen rewired 2 weeks before i did this, and he didnt smell a rat. i am waiting on the meter reader who comes every six months to read it soon. i pay my electricity through a key which i take to a shop and they put the amount i pay on the key, i know they can communicate with the key and can turn your electric price up or down from any shop when you buy credit, i am also assuming that the key may have told them my meter lost power for a while. but they are doing a lot of electrical work on my block and i hope that acts as a cover.

Hey Brick,

I am having a little trouble with wiring my electric for my ventilation fans and when I saw your post I decided to see if you would be kind enough to give me a hand. I wont need a step by step hand held guide so dont worry I just need to be put in the right direction if u dont mind.

Right now I am in the process of setting this up.


The measurements are not on the diagram im sorry, but the mesurments are 4x4x3(depth). Each compartment will have an "as close to" air tight seal as possible and I will be venting the top two, and bottom two separately. On the top the only fan is my CPU Exhaust fan ( http://www.thefanvan.net/servlet/the-453/AVC-BA13733B12H-Blower-For/Detail) and it will be on the outside of the upper right room sealed air tight to the wall sucking air through the hole drilled to size. Its a 12v - 2.6A spec (as said on the front at least). I have four other fans that will be exhausting the bottom, these four fans are tiny 2x2 cpu rotary fans ( 12v - 0.17A). I will have two as an intake on the bottom left box and two on the bottom right to exhaust. Holes will be drilled accordingly to give proper air flow through the room.

Here is the question lol. I have a 2 amp DC power supply ( http://www.altex.com/Philmore-Multi-Voltage-Regulated-DC-Power-Supply-MW122A-P143093.aspx ). I stripped the connectors off of the end wires. On the CPU fan I have four wires, red black white blue. I know red is positive, black negative, white ground - what is blue? - The fan runs perfectly fine for hours on end with just the red and black attatched (ofcourse I sat in the room and monitored it).

My question(s) is - as for all wiring - the ground should always be attached to something metal yes? to disperse a possible electric surge? If my entire box is wooden where would I disperse it and is it even necessary? The blue wire, do you have any idea what it is? I have heard inexperienced people tell me it "could be a timer wire" but Im not willing to play with wires and plug it into the wall if I dont know exactly what it is and how to use it. My third question is if it is a timer wire, do you have a link to a guide that shows how to attach this to a thermo. to slow/shut down when its cool enough, and or tell me how if you know?

My last question ( and im sorry for flooding you with this stuff today ) is if I wire both the cpu and the four 2x2s on the same AC power supply - is that hazardous? and if so - how can I make this work?

My DC power supply gets VERY hot on the back plate to the point it will burn you if you touch it - it says it has a build in thermal shut down sensor and i checked the fuse and everything is perfect. If I keep this power supply up on the top of the system and properly wire all the fans to this and leave it running 24/7 (or w a timer, less time) will this DC charger set on fire? Ive never worked with any of dc adapters with free wires and it jus seems a lil too hot. Then again my laptop plug gets much worse lol..

If you can help me I would really appreciate it - I dont know why but I cant receive or send PMs so I will check back here for a response! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to guide me on this lil project Have a wonderful day.

bricktown73 said:

Here are some pics of venting for the lights

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I realize this is an old post, but your'e running the same exhaust fans that I am. I love those things.

WeeGogs said:

i never asked a smart arse for his comments about tapping in to meters, i never tapped in to a meter you idiot, i tapped in to the power before my meter ok and how the f***k do you propose that they are going to find out? when you look in my meter cupboard it all looks above board, and i pay my electric bill for my house as normal, maybe you are too thick to understand the way i have did this. dont ever answer my posts again EVER. as you do not even understand the ethics of what i am talking about.

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The "ethics" ? Really?
I don't think that word means what you think it means. That, or you have a strange sense of ethics.

WeeGogs said:

hi mr. jonesez. this is true. i live in a tower block in the uk with 18 floors, i live on the 7th, my electric meter is situated in a cupboard that has its back to a bedroom and is 100 amp+ and 240v , the guy that fitted the single main fuse inadvertently left just enough room on the crimped seal wire to pull out the fuse that disconnects my meter, so i removed the fuse before my meter and that gave me access to a screw that removes a cover that conceals the neutral wire connection plate, now i can see the the two connector plates, so i drilled straight through them both, (the disconnected from live side of course), right through the single main fuse box with a 5.5mm drillbit, i removed the main fuse box and slowly pulled it forward just enough for me to go through the 5.5mm holes behind in the wall with a 13mm spade end drill bit straight in to the bedroom, i removed a large portion of the plasterboard in the bedroom and then got my hands on some 25mm cable and stripped out 3 feet of red live and the same of black neutral, i pushed the live through the hole in the back of the fuse box which was still dead as the fuse was removed, and the same with the black, i took an earth feed from my main consumer unit above my meter through the wall too, i bought a 5 - way small consumer box with a 100 amp isolator and 2 x 32 amp mcb (miniature circuit breaker) i have connected 1 mcb to two x two gang rcd (residual current device) sockets in a ring and the other to a 2 gang rcd socket, so now i have 3 double rcd sockets, 1 separate ring from the other two. i run every thing from these 6 rcd sockets including 2 separate 16 amp immersion heater timers to run my lights all connected through 13 amp fused plugs. when i go out i am paranoid as hell. what do you think, i am only running about 3500 watts total for 18 hours from this. i then put every thing back in order in the meter cupboard and i still get charged for power for the rest of my house, and free electricity in the room with the new consumer unit, the guy that is manager of the tower block came to see me and he opened my meter cupboard as i had my kitchen rewired 2 weeks before i did this, and he didnt smell a rat. i am waiting on the meter reader who comes every six months to read it soon. i pay my electricity through a key which i take to a shop and they put the amount i pay on the key, i know they can communicate with the key and can turn your electric price up or down from any shop when you buy credit, i am also assuming that the key may have told them my meter lost power for a while. but they are doing a lot of electrical work on my block and i hope that acts as a cover.

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So stealing power is Ethical?

WeeGogs said:

i never asked a smart arse for his comments about tapping in to meters, i never tapped in to a meter you idiot, i tapped in to the power before my meter ok and how the f***k do you propose that they are going to find out? when you look in my meter cupboard it all looks above board, and i pay my electric bill for my house as normal, maybe you are too thick to understand the way i have did this. dont ever answer my posts again EVER. as you do not even understand the ethics of what i am talking about.

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He is a master electrician, you jack ass and stealing power will get you caught.

They know there's a leak. Your meter isn't the only one on the line. They will be looking you. Might not find you. But then again.

they will find him. it wont take a sweep and balance team bout 30 mins to track it down if his landlord catches on.
there is such a thing as KWh used and KWh billed... once the numbers dont add up (takes a few months) they will start looking for it when landlord is like, gee, my bill suddenly went up 200 a month for no reason... and i have one tenant i KNOW has already modified his power system.. mebbe i should call the power company see if they can track it down....

just saying man. i know you didnt ask, but i figured id let you know. its not sticking my nose in, its doing your ass a favor....

PSA- the building you live in has its own meterbase, on the Main Service Entry... your apt has its own meterbase, along with every other apt and house panel.. so when the numbers dont add up between the Main meter, and all the individual meters, bet your sweet ass they will look for you.

peace out!

HighC said:

I am looking at a warehouse that has 100 amp 3 phase power. I am not really sure how 3 phase works. Would I have enough power to run 8 1000 watt lights at 220v or 240v per phase and have enough power left over to run my other equipment? I have read a bunch of different information on the internet about 3 phase power and everyone has different idea's how it works. Please show me your calculations so that I can learn for future reference. Thanks for any help!!!

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u dont want to see my 3 phase power calulations because there isnt enough space on this page....
theres alot of sq root of Pi involved


but let me school ya-

3 phase is no diff than single phase when it comes to load distribution

the same laws apply.. thats why there laws

3 phase has more to do with motors, not lighting... and if your running 120/240 delta (im assuming you are, you never mentioned 208, 277, or 480, or a weird orange panel for an open delta system) there is no difference in ampacity or power consumed than there is with a single phase system.

and to be totally honest....

ive never seen a 3phase HID light... there all 2 wire devices

growmomma said:

Im sure this question has been asked as well but..... My husband assures me that the 900watts (give or take) we have running is not enough electricty to attract suspicion. Is this true???

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as much as you want to tell him he's wrong, this time he's right...

900w is a drop in the bucket, there are aquariums that use more power...
the trick to keeping the power company happy, is the same trick to keep alot of people happy- pay the bill on time.
dont tap your meter... and you can run up to 4-7thousand watts b4 any issues become apparent..

thats funny i live in a tower block and our transformer is at the bottom of the building, and it feeds 432 flats how do you propose they are going to find out which flat is sucking a measly less than 4000 watts you idiots, our tower block has no gas for safety reasons and all the heating is electric, each flat has 4 heaters at approx 2000 watts plus each, thats 8000 watts per flat for heating alone never mind hundreds of large plasma tvs, and you think they will notice an extra 3600 watts, my god some people better stop smoking this stuff.

Wolverine97 said:

The "ethics" ? Really?
I don't think that word means what you think it means. That, or you have a strange sense of ethics.

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ethical, ethical, do you think smoking a drug that makes you lethargic and lazy, ill, paranoid, fills your lungs with smoke, addictive etc, do you think that is ethical, i sell my grow to little boys like you who have no sense in knowing what this god damn stuff does to them, i dont care if people say oh, but this stuff is healthy, this stuff is a wonder drug, this stuff is proven to be good for you, off course it is, thats why it is legal in every country in the god damn world, do not tell me about ethics and you ask your master electrician this,

Have someone used thermostat as heat fuse? I have an idea to place it before my timers and lights and switch it to about 95F or something. If the temp will be lower than that thermostat will let power through but if there will be some problems with fans and temp will get too high it will switch off. Am I right?

WeeGogs said:

ethical, ethical, do you think smoking a drug that makes you lethargic and lazy, ill, paranoid, fills your lungs with smoke, addictive etc, do you think that is ethical, i sell my grow to little boys like you who have no sense in knowing what this god damn stuff does to them, i dont care if people say oh, but this stuff is healthy, this stuff is a wonder drug, this stuff is proven to be good for you, off course it is, thats why it is legal in every country in the god damn world, do not tell me about ethics and you ask your master electrician this,

i live in a tower block and our transformer is at the bottom of the building, and it feeds 432 flats how do you propose they are going to find out which flat is sucking a measly less than 4000 watts you idiots, our tower block has no gas for safety reasons and all the heating is electric, each flat has 4 heaters at approx 2000 watts plus each, thats 8000 watts per flat for heating alone never mind hundreds of large plasma tvs, and you think they will notice an extra 3600 watts, my god some people better stop smoking this stuff.​

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it would take me les than ten minutes and a 20$ ammeter to walk rigfht to your door and say, ytep, your power loss is origintating from this flat, officers......

WeeGogs said:

ethical, ethical, do you think smoking a drug that makes you lethargic and lazy, ill, paranoid, fills your lungs with smoke, addictive etc, do you think that is ethical, i sell my grow to little boys like you who have no sense in knowing what this god damn stuff does to them, i dont care if people say oh, but this stuff is healthy, this stuff is a wonder drug, this stuff is proven to be good for you, off course it is, thats why it is legal in every country in the god damn world, do not tell me about ethics and you ask your master electrician this,

i live in a tower block and our transformer is at the bottom of the building, and it feeds 432 flats how do you propose they are going to find out which flat is sucking a measly less than 4000 watts you idiots, our tower block has no gas for safety reasons and all the heating is electric, each flat has 4 heaters at approx 2000 watts plus each, thats 8000 watts per flat for heating alone never mind hundreds of large plasma tvs, and you think they will notice an extra 3600 watts, my god some people better stop smoking this stuff.​

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You don't know me.

IAm5toned said:

it would take me less than ten minutes and a 20$ ammeter to walk right to your door and say, yep, your power loss is originating from this flat, officers......

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I wouldn't take that bet. Even if it was for a tiny joint of schwag.
Daniels

whats funny is im just trying to be nice and give the guy fair warning is all...
tapping a meter covertly isnt easy, and he pulled it off, without getting hurt or burning the place so that says something for his intelligence.
and being in an apt building... where maintenence can literally enter ur place at will.... and with high energy costs, landlords and property managers be trying to eleminate power loss...
some lessons you have to learn the hard way, i suppose.

oh well.

IAm5toned said:

it would take me les than ten minutes and a 20$ ammeter to walk rigfht to your door and say, ytep, your power loss is origintating from this flat, officers......

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well you have 432 flats to walk in to with your meter, the 100 amp plus cable that goes to my flat comes straight from the transformer at the bottom of the building, so you better ask the police for 432 search warrants because there is a 4000 watt leak somewhere in a building that probably uses an average of about 1000 amps plus per hour LOL.
you are one crazy person. by the way can i get a loan of your ammeter i want to check my neighbours flat to see if he has any hps lighting running 18 hours a day at 3500 watts. he would probably kick me up and down like a pair of empty overalls, LOLOL and if you walked in my flat with an ammeter i would take that dildo and stick it right up your aristotle before i forced you to pick a window for your little flight.