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

LaMarr said:

my plan was to run a ballast that operates both mh & hps,as stated before I am no electrician so you totally lost me with 'cycle the power to the ballast itself',upon reading your first answer my understanding was to run power to the ballast run the ballast to the relay & then run the relay to the lights,is this not correct ?, & thank you for your help.

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Are you trying to run one bulb then the other? (aka: only one on at any time?) Or both at the same time? There are switchable ballasts and there are dual ballasts. Switchable will only run one bulb at a time. Duals will run 2 bulbs at the same time.

As for the cycle power, its just turn off/turn on. HPS use a igniter and cap to fire the bulb. (they fire up slowly an MH only uses the cap) These may need to see nothing then power to operate correctly (but I also said I wasn't sure about that. The relay/contactor switching may not have enough 'off time' during the switching to fully collapse the coil of the ballast, and discharge the cap.. I know, too much info)

Going to a MH probably won't be much an issue.

2000 watts should i upgrade anything electrical or is that not much power?

Where would be the best place to get the components for a DIY ballast (HPS 250W)?

BigBudBalls said:

Are you trying to run one bulb then the other? (aka: only one on at any time?) Or both at the same time? There are switchable ballasts and there are dual ballasts. Switchable will only run one bulb at a time. Duals will run 2 bulbs at the same time.

As for the cycle power, its just turn off/turn on. HPS use a igniter and cap to fire the bulb. (they fire up slowly an MH only uses the cap) These may need to see nothing then power to operate correctly (but I also said I wasn't sure about that. The relay/contactor switching may not have enough 'off time' during the switching to fully collapse the coil of the ballast, and discharge the cap.. I know, too much info)

Going to a MH probably won't be much an issue.

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Yes,actually I was planning on running the two rooms at different times, room 1 for twelve hours & switch off to the next room for twelve hours & then back to the first room & so on & so forth.That way the ballast would run 24 hrs. a day & there would be no 'warm' up wait time nor the tell tell energy spike as occurs when a ballast starts up & shuts off at the exact same time every day.

Was getting ready to buy a dehumidifier but the on i am going to buy does not have a temp control on it so i was thinking i could hook up a humidifier controller to it but not sure it would work right. Then i found this thread DIY Controller and was just going to go that way since i already have a humidifier and the controller, just need to get the relay and the dehumidifier.

Not really sure how it would work though.....does the humidifier control turn off the humidifier after it reaches the set humidity then if the humidity raises more then that it will turn on the dehumidifier or .... does the dehumidifier turn on when the humidifier turn off by control and relay ???

If that makes since to anyone and you can help out i am all ears, just need to finish the control panel and i am back growing cant wait!!!!

LaMarr said:

Yes,actually I was planning on running the two rooms at different times, room 1 for twelve hours & switch off to the next room for twelve hours & then back to the first room & so on & so forth.That way the ballast would run 24 hrs. a day & there would be no 'warm' up wait time nor the tell tell energy spike as occurs when a ballast starts up & shuts off at the exact same time every day.

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The warm up time on a HPS is not for the ballast to warm up, but the bulb.
MH, from what I've gathered doesn't have the warm up time. But will have a spike from the in-rush current.

BigBudBalls said:

Unless its a tiny cab, don't bother.
I'd suggest using it to cool water, like it is doing now, and pumping the water through a radiator with a fan blowing through it. Would be more efficient and less trouble to do.

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Ok that sounds more efficient seeing as thats what its made for, how would i go about doing so. Im not very handy and could use a walk through on what would be needed and a how to.

Thanks

ghostsamurai25 said:

Ok that sounds more efficient seeing as thats what its made for, how would i go about doing so. Im not very handy and could use a walk through on what would be needed and a how to.

Thanks

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If the water in the jug on top is cold, just cut a hole in the top (well bottom) of the jug, drop in a pump with hoses and your done.

Otherwise it may not be too do-able. it may only chill a small amount in the unit below the jug. In that case you can *try*.
Hook a hose the the spigot, an run to radiator. From the rad, go to the pump, pumping back to the jug. But the cooler part may not be able to keep up in its cooling capacity.

I had posted the idea to do basically this with a dorm fridge. Just keep the water in the fridge. It would probably get kinda warm over the course of the day, but should last for a 12/12, and can re-cool on the dark cycle.

I've got a 1000 watt hps balast but a little space to grow, was wondering if I can use a 250watt bulb to reduce the heat?

elgalloloco said:

I've got a 1000 watt hps balast but a little space to grow, was wondering if I can use a 250watt bulb to reduce the heat?

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Not recommended. The ballast is a current limiting device.

bricktown73 said:

Smoote pretty much nailed it. A surge protector is pretty much a multi outlet with a small replacable fuse in it. And you should be fine with a regular 14 guage wire extension chord to run what you need. Good explaination smoote.

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maryjanemama here. This is my first post and my first gow room. I will try try to be clear. My total space is 5ft. 3in. by 7ft. I will have a 4ft. x 4ft. flower room. 1000w electronic ballast and a 1000w hps light for my flower room. I want to run a t5 floresantlight for my grow room, I have about 3ft by4ft. What do I need. The furnace is near and has two additional outlets. Also one light fixture in the room the entire space. HELP!!

hey brick me and my cousin have a question for you. We have a 1000 watt light that we will be using for our set up and we would appreciate some help on how to set up the safe and best way to do it .

I'm looking at a ballast right now called a HPMV ballast. it says it'll run a 100-400 HPS or 35-401 MH.
I'm not really sure what it is... I only know that it's a 10th of the price of other ballasts i've looked at. here's a link: http://www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=6371
would I just need to connect the input to those three screws and run the cord from my e4 to the other end?
thanks +Reps

In my veg room I have an exhaust fan on a TMP-DNe temp sensor so it kicks on when it gets hot in the room and turns off when the temp drops to a set level. Outside temps have been low recently so it's not turning on as often as it was when I set it up. I'm concerned that my babies may not be getting enough CO2. Is there any way to turn it on every hour for 15 minutes and also have it respond to the temp sensor?

Is there a way to test how much current a particular breaker is pulling? How do I find out which lines are running to which room? I am trying to take the line running from a room and stop it before it gets to the room so I can add a couple sockets to the grow area without running a long extension cord thru the wall.

Hey,
I am going to be running 6-600 watt lights and 1-400 watt light, as well as all the fans, co2 generator, pumps, ect.
I only have normal 120 outlets in the room right now. What do I need to run those lights?
Thanks Buddy

Yo Brick!

I need your help. I am almost finished with my room and ran into a problem. I have a Everstar Brand 10000 BTU portable AC unit and it keeps tripping my 15 amp breaker. I read the owners manuel, it draws 15 amps, what happens is, it turns on runs for a few minutes and then the compressor kicks on and it trips my breaker. WTF??

Could it be,I have the wrong kind of recepticle? Do i need a heavy duty one? I just wired a basic brown recepticle "$2.00" on there from Lowe's? Or is it maybe drawing more than 15 amps when the compressor kicks on?

I bought the AC unit used, maybe it is bad? I'm no newbie, and it is a new grow room in a new house.

Did they use the wrong gauge of wire when they wired the house?? I'm stumped. Please help.

Thanks,

Po.

PoBox123 said:

Yo Brick!

I need your help. I am almost finished with my room and ran into a problem. I have a Everstar Brand 10000 BTU portable AC unit and it keeps tripping my 15 amp breaker. I read the owners manuel, it draws 15 amps, what happens is, it turns on runs for a few minutes and then the compressor kicks on and it trips my breaker. WTF??

Could it be,I have the wrong kind of recepticle? Do i need a heavy duty one? I just wired a basic brown recepticle "$2.00" on there from Lowe's? Or is it maybe drawing more than 15 amps when the compressor kicks on?

I bought the AC unit used, maybe it is bad? I'm no newbie, and it is a new grow room in a new house.

Did they use the wrong gauge of wire when they wired the house?? I'm stumped. Please help.

Thanks,

Po.

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If it draws 15 amps then you want it on a 20 amp breaker... You only want to use about 80% of what a breaker can handle this should solve your problem.

nickbbad said:

If it draws 15 amps then you want it on a 20 amp breaker... You only want to use about 80% of what a breaker can handle this should solve your problem.

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Here in lies the problem. I don't have a 20 amp outlet available.
I'm no Electrician, but even I know you can't just put a 20amp breaker in the box. It will fry the wire and the box and maybe the house!!!

fureelz said:

Is there a way to test how much current a particular breaker is pulling? How do I find out which lines are running to which room? I am trying to take the line running from a room and stop it before it gets to the room so I can add a couple sockets to the grow area without running a long extension cord thru the wall.

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Amp clamp.