Having an electrician come...What amp and how many breakers do I need?

Hopefully I can get some electrical gurus to help me answer this...

I am building my grow room right now (attic grow see pics) I want to have an electrician come before I get all my ducting and shit ran because its in a pretty stealth location (false wall) and I dont want the electrician asking questions, so if I do it now it just looks like a new room addition.

Anyways, the house is like 1920, no new fangled breaker box. Its got old school sketch fuses. Actually there are two pannels in two different places that use different types of fuses (one old school kind outside the house that have fuses that look like shotgun shells its the really old one and one with round screw in fuses in the basement that looks to be "newer").

Anyways, I am going to have the electrician run deticated circuits to the room but want to know what I should have him run (what amp fuses) and from which box).

Heres what I will need to have enough outlets for:

1000W HPS
T-5 flourecents (OR possiblly upgrade later to 400W MH like in diagram)
AC/Heat unit (probably like 12,000 BTU)
FANS (orange box's in diagram):
-Fresh air Intake fan to main room
-Fan into Flowering room from main room
-Fan into veg room from main room
-Fan to cool air cooled inline 1000W light
-Main exhaust fan pulling all air out of main room through 6-8" Carbon Filter
-Pump for EBB and flow system
-Vaious meters (temp, PH, etc.)
-CO2 will be added eventually so the necessary power for the meter
-Anything else miscellanious

Regarding the fans, I am not sure what CFM fans or what power they pull because I am still in the process of figuring it out (if you have any knowledge on ventilation that would be awesome too btw!) but I am HOPING that you guys can kind of concervatively guestimate. (The main room is about a 10 x 11 which is the room in the real pics, then inside that room I will have the flowering and veg room with the equipment listed above.)

So what should I have this electrician wire in? Id rather have more than necessary but dont need to go WAY overkill.

PS-This is assuming that I can even add circuit to such a old electrical system...Please tell me I can, lol ive come too far to not have power..

Thanks guys,

Nick-

I am not an electrician but this is what I would do as a minimum. Run two or three 20 amp circuits and two 240s(never know when you will get an idea and need another). Run them into a breaker box so that you will have one in your grow area and just make your individual runs from your breaker box. It would be nice to replace the fuse box to if you can.

oh, and have him put in as many outlets as you can, you never seem to have enough of those.

One thing to consider also. If your house was built in the 20's you may be weak on amps coming in. My house is 50 years old and I only had a 100 amp coming in. I replaced my fuse box with a breaker box, and got the electric company to replace the meter and give me 200 amps coming in.

Im not here to give advice, I just really wanna see pics of this thing when its up and running. You have gone all out... Cant wait to see the final product.

Its nice to have one 240V circuit for your light and one for your A/C unit. These are both high amperage and 240V is more efficient. A few regular 120V circuits should be fine too. I prefer to install my own but no big deal if you don't have anything suspicious. Good luck looks like you are spending the time to do it right keep us updated.

Do you think you could get some water lines run up there if you can keep them off the outside walls?

Ok so:
-Two 240 V circuits....what amp should they be?
-Three 120 V circuits....what amp shoult they be?

PS-I dont know jack shit about home electrical so bare with me, but doesnt 240V circuits (like your dryer or stove) all have the big plug? So the equipment (Ballast and AC) running on those circuits need to also have that big plug? So I cant buy an AC unit for a 120V and run it on 240V circuit? It needs to be a 240V AC unit?

rkm:
I was thinking I would just run the garden hose up there :/
But thats a good idea, just worried about the cost of having a plumber do it....any guesses for cost to do that?

nickibus said:

Ok so:
-Two 240 V circuits....what amp should they be?
-Three 120 V circuits....what amp shoult they be?

PS-I dont know jack shit about home electrical so bare with me, but doesnt 240V circuits (like your dryer or stove) all have the big plug? So the equipment (Ballast and AC) running on those circuits need to also have that big plug? So I cant buy an AC unit for a 120V and run it on 240V circuit? It needs to be a 240V AC unit?

rkm:
I was thinking I would just run the garden hose up there :/
But thats a good idea, just worried about the cost of having a plumber do it....any guesses for cost to do that?

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I would not think it would be all that expensive for a plumber to do it, but I would say it largely depends on where the closest lines would be that they could tap off of. Hopefully your op is above a bathroom.

lol! You're paying a professional electrician to come over and you're asking a bunch of anonymous internet stoners what he should do?

What is wrong with this picture?

ElBarto said:

lol! You're paying a professional electrician to come over and you're asking a bunch of anonymous internet stoners what he should do?

What is wrong with this picture?

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Well he can't really tell the electrician that he is running a grow room and need power for a 1000w light,ect.

nickibus said:

Ok so:
-Two 240 V circuits....what amp should they be?
-Three 120 V circuits....what amp shoult they be?

PS-I dont know jack shit about home electrical so bare with me, but doesnt 240V circuits (like your dryer or stove) all have the big plug? So the equipment (Ballast and AC) running on those circuits need to also have that big plug? So I cant buy an AC unit for a 120V and run it on 240V circuit? It needs to be a 240V AC unit?

rkm:
I was thinking I would just run the garden hose up there :/
But thats a good idea, just worried about the cost of having a plumber do it....any guesses for cost to do that?

Click to expand...

Nick, it seems like you have some construction ability, plumbing is VERY easy and with the new PVC lines its cake to work with. I set up an attic grow and ran water up there, I used the radon vent as a drain because it ran all the way down the house, I then tapped the vent at the bottom and installed a fitting so it went into the sewer. And yes 240V is the big plug, the benefit of using this or high amperage draw devices is that the run more efficiently and the ballast even runs a little cooler. It's pretty easy to find a 1000w ballast that runs on 240V. Depending on the size of your room you may not need an a/c big enough to draw off a 240V but attics tend to get very hot so I would look into what type of A/C unit you will be using.
Here is what I'm thinking:
1. 240v for light
2. 240v for climate a/c, heater
3. 120v for flouros/ 400w MH
4.120v for fans
5. 120v for pumps/ hydro equip/ misc

As for the amperage on the breakers ask you electrician, I usually install 20 amp breakers for 120v circuits but I'm not sure what amperage on the 240v.

NewGrowth said:

Well he can't really tell the electrician that he is running a grow room and need power for a 1000w light,ect.

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I think it's pretty likely that the electrician can guess why he needs all that juice up in his attic. Best to be upfront. Tell him you're growing orchids.

ElBarto said:

I think it's pretty likely that the electrician guess why he needs all that juice up in his attic.

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I think he is just installing the breakers not running the Romex but I could be wrong, i hope he is just putting in the breakers . . .

Thanks guys!

Well I was planning on having the electrician run the wires but you guys are making it sound like a cake walk to do...so, maybe Ill just have him install the breakers...I take it IS fairly easy to run the wires? Any tips?....I dont like messing with electricity lol 240V is alot of power, but am definately willing to do it if its simple and can be done safely.

Am I going to need to tell him the wattage that is going to be on the ciruicts inorder for him to decide what amprage?

About running the water lines. There is a bathroom above and next to it BUT there is a bedroom before the bathroom in both cases (bathroom is two rooms away). So I can just tap into the existing water line?

How do I run the wire (and plumbing for that matter) through the walls? Again, never done this so please bare with me. My main forte is carpentry not electrics or plumbing.

you need someone that knows what they are doing. to many things to go wrong.

So your saying I should NOT run the wire (Romex)?

nickibus said:

Thanks guys!

Well I was planning on having the electrician run the wires but you guys are making it sound like a cake walk to do...so, maybe Ill just have him install the breakers...I take it IS fairly easy to run the wires? Any tips?....I dont like messing with electricity lol 240V is alot of power, but am definately willing to do it if its simple and can be done safely.

Am I going to need to tell him the wattage that is going to be on the ciruicts inorder for him to decide what amprage?

About running the water lines. There is a bathroom above and next to it BUT there is a bedroom before the bathroom in both cases (bathroom is two rooms away). So I can just tap into the existing water line?

How do I run the wire (and plumbing for that matter) through the walls? Again, never done this so please bare with me. My main forte is carpentry not electrics or plumbing.

Click to expand...

If you are comfortable with wiring up your outlets go for it. Then at that point if you want to go ahead and make the runs to your panel, go for it. Anything you can do yourself will save you money, if all the electrician has to do is hook up the breaker box. If you want to let him hook up the outlets that is fine too, but you can certainly run the wire for him without any problems, just make sure to leave him plenty to work with at the ends. With the tools you are using I think you can figure it out. Just make sure you get the proper wire, I forgot what it is for 20amp(12-2????). Just drill holes through the studs to make the runs and you are set.

Same for the plumbing, whatever you can do yourself, do it. This is a little more involved than just running wires but not that difficult after you do it once or twice. If you know how to solder you are halfway there already. You will more than likely be dealing with copper lines with a house that old. Just make sure you turn the water off before you start.

The best thing I could suggest is to just go to a residential construction site. Find a house being built that is at the electrical and plumbing stages and see how they make their runs.

BTW are those studs on 16 centers?

running electrical is pretty cake. Save some money on labor and run your own............before he gets there to check it out.

If it was me, Id run a single 220V (240 for some minds) in a 50 amp "piggy back" box. Tell him youre putting a hot tub up in that bitch and making a huge bay window for party times!!!

a 50 amp 220 run will run at least 3 1000 watters if they pull 15 amps a piece but if you have digital ballasts for each I think they pull less than 9 a piece at start up. check to be sure..............

Run 2 dedicated 110 lines. Ground fault indicated so that if you do have a mishap they will pop before burning your house down. The 220 run should have its own main breaker as well but chances are that any electrician who is worth a fuck will know what you need for a "hot tub" up in that new party room addition.

If you have the ballse to run the thing, you can save enough money to get rid of that shit box set up on both sides of the house and get you 2 100 watter panels to run the whole house.

But hey, thats just my opinion.............

1) Nobody will believe he wants a hot tub in his attic, so he needs a bunch of outlets. A hot tub would only use one, maybe two if you have an upgrade.
2) Telling him that you're growing orchids will just get laughs and a bunch of "i'm not an idiot talk" possibly later ending up in a home invasion robbery compromising his grow.
3) If you run your own wiring, make sure the breakers are down, and you are extremely cautious with how you handle things, it could be very easy to stop a heart if you do things incorrectly... not to mention the fire hazards.

I wouldn't be honest with the guy, I also wouldn't run the wires myself without reading a bunch of DIY electrical articles on the internet, and possibly considering running a test line.

Be safe, not sorry.

GrowTech said:

1) Nobody will believe he wants a hot tub in his attic, so he needs a bunch of outlets. A hot tub would only use one, maybe two if you have an upgrade.
2) Telling him that you're growing orchids will just get laughs and a bunch of "i'm not an idiot talk" possibly later ending up in a home invasion robbery compromising his grow.
3) If you run your own wiring, make sure the breakers are down, and you are extremely cautious with how you handle things, it could be very easy to stop a heart if you do things incorrectly... not to mention the fire hazards.

I wouldn't be honest with the guy, I also wouldn't run the wires myself without reading a bunch of DIY electrical articles on the internet, and possibly considering running a test line.

Be safe, not sorry.

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Pulling wire that is not hooked up is completely safe. Its the electricians job to hook it up.

Ok so tomorrow I am going to just simply run the wire from where the breaker box is to the growroom. This will help with cost of the electrician for sure.

What gauge and type of wire should I buy (for both the 240's and three 120's)?
Can I just run them all together (like zip-tied together to make it easier)?
What are the do's and dont's of routing wire for this? Can it lay anywhere or does it all need to be attatched to the structure (framing) the entire route.
Its kind of a ways away so do I need to worry about how long the wire is)?

For your 20amp you can use 14-2 wire(verify my numbers, usually 14-2 or 12-2, one is for 20 amp and the other is for 15amp). For the 220 you will need to check out, I am not sure what is needed. If your going to run the main run to the breaker box you might as well run the individual runs from the the breaker box to the outlets as well. Just drill holes in the studs to run the wires through. Make sure you put the holes in the middle of the studs or towards the back so that when you put the drywall on you wont put a nail through the wire.

If you are going to run 3 20 amp lines make sure you keep them separate you will need three lines coming from the breaker box to the first outlet on each outlet then from there you can run from outlet to outlet. From the size of what the room looks like you might be able to get away with two 20 amp circuits. Just keep the circuits separate. Attached is a basic diagram of what you are after.