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

BTW If you can get some small male/female plugs for the fan, I would. This way you can splice them into the wires and disconnect/connect the fan whenever you want. This makes VERY handy for being able to feed the fans power cable into/through whatever you have to to place the fan where it needs to go/reposition it.
Remember, even if it's in the perfect spot now it wont be sometime in the future...
I had used butt splices before (they're the easiest to splice any kinda electrical shit with haha) and it did not come in handy for this part of it =P

I posted a thread yesterday with respect to adding a big ballast/relay/timer set up and electrical needs, etc.

Would you review it and offer any insight if you have any.

Thanks

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/284899-insight-ballast-set-up-appreciated.html

I got a quick one for you. I'm a new grower and have the sea of green going into full action this month. I'm running all 1000w HPS and my electrical bill this last month increased just over $600 from my bill 2 months ago, to a total of almost $800. I expected this to happen but my question is, does this raise any red flag that I should be alarmed about? Veg room is a 600w sun master cool deluxe. All running on Galaxy ballasts.

davison7873 said:

I got a quick one for you. I'm a new grower and have the sea of green going into full action this month. I'm running all 1000w HPS and my electrical bill this last month increased just over $600 from my bill 2 months ago, to a total of almost $800. I expected this to happen but my question is, does this raise any red flag that I should be alarmed about? Veg room is a 600w sun master cool deluxe. All running on Galaxy ballasts.

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sweet Heysus man! How many 1000 watters are you running?

Alright, iv got a question that I know is easily answered, but i just cant find a good schematic. I am pretty electrically inclined Im more looking for other ideas other than my own on how to go about this.

So I have one nice Lumatek 1000W ballast. Iv got two rooms... See my direction..

Whats going to be the best way to wire up 2 bulbs to one 1000W ballast on alternating cycles, so when one is on the other is off?

I was thinking I would need just one timer, wire it up to a 120v DPDT relay, so when the timer goes into its "on" period the relay is energized and allows current through to one bulb, and when the timer goes "off" the relay goes back into its normally closed state energizing the other bulb.
The only concern is that the ballast has that moment of no load when the relay is clicking back and forth. I just want to avoid frying something expensive.. lol

stumbler This might help http://www.progressive-growth.com/proddetail.php?prod=43015

ElephantSteppedOnMyFoot said:

I only have 120V outlets and I use two 600W electronic ballasts @ 120V. Is there any benefit to using a 240V electronic ballasts vs a 120V?

I never considered, until reading this thread, adding my power consumption. My room is on a 15A 120V circuit while my two 600W electronic ballasts are running that leaves 600W which should run safe on that circuit, if I'm correct.

Item------------------Watt
2 x 600W HPS----1200W
12 x 26W CFL------312W
5 x 25W pump-----125W
Can-Fan 6"----------73W
16" Fan--------------77W
--------------------------------------
Total --------------1787W

Do surge protectors or timers use power? Would you say I'm looking good here? Should I be thinking twice before plugging in my shop vac or another lamp?

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That puts you at 14.89A on a 15A circuit. That might be cutting it a little close IMO.

i have three light sockets that have 250v on the side. i am assuming this is the max that it can run, i could b wrong. anyhow they are wired to #12 copper running up to where the original light in my closet was. i want to get 3 of those studio light sockets that converts 1 into 4, and want to get 12 40w cfl to put 4 into each splitter to veg 6 plants. 80w of cfl per plant. on each cfl bulb itself it says they take 120v each. can i run a 4way splitter with 4 bulbs in one of these 250v sockets

is there a way to get a bigger fuse/circuit for my box in the house to handle the load a little better? im in a apt? also would a newer fridge help the electric? danks alot!

any electrical suggestions on my 8x8x8 grow room. room will be split in two. veg side will have 12 cfl's an commercial air pump and ocsalating fan. flowering side will have two 400 watt bulbs and two ballast, two 8" in line fans and one squirrel cage fan. do i need to get an enviromental controller? if so how do you wire everything to it? also will have 20lb bottle of co2. will have ebb and flow system for 72 plants. no idea what im going to veg them in. how can i wire all these things up to work on one or two controllers?

alteredthinking said:

That puts you at 14.89A on a 15A circuit. That might be cutting it a little close IMO.

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Its over. should only use a max of 75-80% of rated breaker load.

igrowdro said:

i have three light sockets that have 250v on the side. i am assuming this is the max that it can run, i could b wrong. anyhow they are wired to #12 copper running up to where the original light in my closet was. i want to get 3 of those studio light sockets that converts 1 into 4, and want to get 12 40w cfl to put 4 into each splitter to veg 6 plants. 80w of cfl per plant. on each cfl bulb itself it says they take 120v each. can i run a 4way splitter with 4 bulbs in one of these 250v sockets

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The voltage rating is based on dielectric strength. aka: what the insulation is rated for.

Too much voltage and it can jump over/through. Too much current and things melt.

couchlock907 said:

is there a way to get a bigger fuse/circuit for my box in the house to handle the load a little better? im in a apt? also would a newer fridge help the electric? danks alot!

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Putting in a bigger breaker is only 5% of the work. You *HAVE* to increase the wire size going from the breaker to the outlet(s) if increasing a breaker.

As for the fridge? will help on the bill. (maybe)

thanks man, the pic attached is how i have my cfls set up, so instead of getting a studio 1to4 socket i should get 3 more 250v sockets and 3 more Y splitters to get the desired amount of lights in there? how many sockets do you think i would be able to add like this would 10 b a dangerous amount?

igrowdro said:

thanks man, the pic attached is how i have my cfls set up, so instead of getting a studio 1to4 socket i should get 3 more 250v sockets and 3 more Y splitters to get the desired amount of lights in there? how many sockets do you think i would be able to add like this would 10 b a dangerous amount?

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My God! At least use wirenuts. A simple turn, and exposed, and on wood?
Can you say fire?

Those simple twists will loosen over time, it will start to arc, and the arcs can easily cause a fire.

lol i love your profile pic. okay here goes, currently i am using 4 26 watt cfls and the 3 light s that are in the hood of my aerogarden. today i picked up 2 HID HPS Sylvania 150 w the numbers on the bulb are S55 and it has a med base (looks like it will fit in a regular light fixture) my question is this. how do i build a ballast to support these two bulbs. I can wire so I am comfortable with that and I know how to insulate and use wire nuts. lol step by step would really help. many thanks and +rep

jadeshecky said:

lol i love your profile pic. okay here goes, currently i am using 4 26 watt cfls and the 3 light s that are in the hood of my aerogarden. today i picked up 2 HID HPS Sylvania 150 w the numbers on the bulb are S55 and it has a med base (looks like it will fit in a regular light fixture) my question is this. how do i build a ballast to support these two bulbs. I can wire so I am comfortable with that and I know how to insulate and use wire nuts. lol step by step would really help. many thanks and +rep

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Best to just get a security lamp that uses a 150W HPS. has all you need (maybe minus a plant happy reflector.) Gut it into a remote ballast.
(the ones at Lowes and Cheap Homo even come with bulbs)

You could go somewhere like 1000bulbs.com and do a DIY, but after you figure in the shipping and such, might be more expensive.

it is just tempory for the next couple day till i harvest my plant and do away with the lights and the cab and put the smaller plants under my MH light along with my soon to be reveggin mother plant. then i am going to do a rubber made tub grow, i will reduce the number of sockets down to (1)two way light socket (2)medium to e40 mogul addapters and get (2)250 watt 240v mogal base 6500k full spectrum cfl grow lights, which leads me to my question..... when it says 250v sockets does that mean each sockets(on pic 1) will hold 250v?

BigBudBalls said:

Best to just get a security lamp that uses a 150W HPS. has all you need (maybe minus a plant happy reflector.) Gut it into a remote ballast.
(the ones at Lowes and Cheap Homo even come with bulbs)

You could go somewhere like 1000bulbs.com and do a DIY, but after you figure in the shipping and such, might be more expensive.

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thanks big bud balls.

igrowdro said:

it is just tempory for the next couple day till i harvest my plant and do away with the lights and the cab and put the smaller plants under my MH light along with my soon to be reveggin mother plant. then i am going to do a rubber made tub grow, i will reduce the number of sockets down to (1)two way light socket (2)medium to e40 mogul addapters and get (2)250 watt 6500k full spectrum cfl grow lights, which leads me to my question..... when it says 250v sockets does that mean each sockets(on pic 1) will hold 250v?

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Yes that is correct, but you can put 10 bulbs on that and it will still be 120v or 240v. (my guess is , your doing 120v?)
I think you are wanting to know how many bulbs you can put in there and still be safe? If so then you have to go by the amp rating of the wire and the socket.
2 of those 250watt bulbs = a lil over 4 amps @ 120v OR a lil over 2 amps @ 240v.

wb