here to help with any electrical problems

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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
wowzerz said:
Thanks for the reply. And since then I have ordered another LCD power supply, this one being 12v 5a and it does the same as the last, just pulses off and on.
Mabye I will try and track down a battery charger. Is there ant reasonably priced (most of those inline fans are Pricey) AC fans that you would recomend for venting?
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well the fan is rated at 4.5 amps but when it starts up it takes a significant ammount more to get it spinning so maybe your 5 amp power suply will work if you spin up the blades by hand first

as for cheap fans if its just for venting air in and out i think you could just get the fans from home depot that you use to boost the ammount of air that comes out of the heating vents in your house, they are around 30 bux or so and move a good amount of air

the batery charger for car bateries would work for sure
the one i attached is a charger that can supply either 2 or 10 amps of power at 12 volts and can even handle a draw of 50 amps for a short time
 

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sunyDQ

Member
ganjaboii024 said:
well the fan is rated at 4.5 amps but when it starts up it takes a significant ammount more to get it spinning so maybe your 5 amp power suply will work if you spin up the blades by hand first

as for cheap fans if its just for venting air in and out i think you could just get the fans from home depot that you use to boost the ammount of air that comes out of the heating vents in your house, they are around 30 bux or so and move a good amount of air

the batery charger for car bateries would work for sure
the one i attached is a charger that can supply either 2 or 10 amps of power at 12 volts and can even handle a draw of 50 amps for a short time
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yeah i just bought 2 1000 watt hps lights and i wanna run them both in my room.. am i able to plug them both in in the same room? thanks a bunch
 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
sunyDQ said:
yeah i just bought 2 1000 watt hps lights and i wanna run them both in my room.. am i able to plug them both in in the same room? thanks a bunch
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you need 2 separate circuits, one for each lamp, per every 15 amp 120 volt circuit you should only load 1440 watts. volts X amps = watts
 
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sunyDQ

Member
ganjaboii024 said:
you need 2 separate circuits, one for each lamp, per every 15 amp 120 volt circuit you should only load 1440 watts. volts X amps = watts
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so i will need to run a cord from another room to my grow room to make it work well? thanks for your help man! saved me calling an electrician!
 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
sunyDQ said:
so i will need to run a cord from another room to my grow room to make it work well? thanks for your help man! saved me calling an electrician!
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you can use extension cords from another outlet thats on another circuit but your always playing a chances game. wiring 2 separate 15 amp 120 volt plugs from your panel would be the best choice.
if you use extensions use the 3 pronged ones and heavy duty ones rated at 15 amps
 
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ohidroptit

Active Member
ganjaboii024 said:
you can use extension cords from another outlet thats on another circuit but your always playing a chances game. wiring 2 separate 15 amp 120 volt plugs from your panel would be the best choice.
if you use extensions use the 3 pronged ones and heavy duty ones rated at 15 amps
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I don't know where to better post it.I just bought a Staco [FONT=&quot]3PN1020 Variac Auto Transformer and after the fact find that that it is designed for 240 volts. I live on 120 volts and wish only to use it to control (less than 1 amp) fan speeds. Is there any chance it will work as is or is there any way to rewire it?
I'll appreciate your help. [/FONT]:confused:
 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
ohidroptit said:
I don't know where to better post it.I just bought a Staco [FONT=&quot]3PN1020 Variac Auto Transformer and after the fact find that that it is designed for 240 volts. I live on 120 volts and wish only to use it to control (less than 1 amp) fan speeds. Is there any chance it will work as is or is there any way to rewire it?
I'll appreciate your help. [/FONT]:confused:
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i do not know to much about these
from what i understand about how they work in theory, i think it should work
but like i said, this isnt my area of knowledge
google it or post in an electric forum on another site
 
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GUERILLA DIESEL

Member
Curious abt putting a 1000 watt hps light in a apartment will the electric bill trigger the bad people to come . same for a house . Also when the electric company reads the electrical usage do they just read what you have used for that day or can they tell you how much was used at a paticular time meaning can they tell that you where drawing eaxctly 1000 watts for 18 hrs then droped down to 300 for the rest of the night
 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
GUERILLA DIESEL said:
Curious abt putting a 1000 watt hps light in a apartment will the electric bill trigger the bad people to come . same for a house . Also when the electric company reads the electrical usage do they just read what you have used for that day or can they tell you how much was used at a paticular time meaning can they tell that you where drawing eaxctly 1000 watts for 18 hrs then droped down to 300 for the rest of the night
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what the hydro company looks for is a large, sudden increase. depending on what your being charged for hydro you might be looking at an extra 12 bux on your bill for a 1000 watter, not a big deal
 
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Johnou833

Active Member
Hi ganjaboy hope your well and can help me with something, id really appreciate it.
I just brought a RUCK 125 extraction fan and want to control the speed of it, I have orded a ''POWER REGULATOR, ELECTRIC SPEED CONTROLLER (Variac)'' from fleabay with this tech spec:
regulates incandescent lamps, heaters, hand drills, motors etc. via a potentiometer
Max. admissible current: 6A (constant duty: 3A), at 110V~ this corresponds to maximally 600 watt or constant duty 300 watt, respectively, or to maximally 1200 watt or constant duty 600 watt, respectively, at 230Vac
Duty cycle: 100% at 3A or 20% (max. 3 min.) at 6A, respectively
Control: via a firmly connected rotary potentiometer''​

On the ruck specification sheet it says it runs at 0.3 Amps (60 watts) Will the controller be able to run this at 0.1Amps or will it send 3Amps strait away as it says 3amps respectivly?

Sorry for the long post and lots of questions im quite new and dont want to brake things :\

Thanks :bigjoint:


 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
if i understand correctly you have a 60 watt fan, you should have no problem using that variac


Johnou833 said:
Hi ganjaboy hope your well and can help me with something, id really appreciate it.
I just brought a RUCK 125 extraction fan and want to control the speed of it, I have orded a ''POWER REGULATOR, ELECTRIC SPEED CONTROLLER (Variac)'' from fleabay with this tech spec:
regulates incandescent lamps, heaters, hand drills, motors etc. via a potentiometer
Max. admissible current: 6A (constant duty: 3A), at 110V~ this corresponds to maximally 600 watt or constant duty 300 watt, respectively, or to maximally 1200 watt or constant duty 600 watt, respectively, at 230Vac
Duty cycle: 100% at 3A or 20% (max. 3 min.) at 6A, respectively
Control: via a firmly connected rotary potentiometer''​

On the ruck specification sheet it says it runs at 0.3 Amps (60 watts) Will the controller be able to run this at 0.1Amps or will it send 3Amps strait away as it says 3amps respectivly?

Sorry for the long post and lots of questions im quite new and dont want to brake things :\

Thanks :bigjoint:
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BikerDude

BikerDude

Member
I just built a new grow room and have some questions:

I want to run a sub-panel to my grow room and want to know if I should run a 10/3 feeder or an 8/3 feeder. Here is what I have layed out...using 14/2 wiring. {or should I use 12/2}

Circuit 1: Dedicated line to my 6" exhaust fan.

Circuit 2: Dedicated line to my 600wt. grow light

Circuit 3: 2 GFCI outlets and one regular outlet

Circuit 4: Single pole light switch to an overhead light and then on to a regular outlet. {I will use 14/3 between the switch and the light

I was thinking all I need is 4-15 amp breakers to do this; one for each circuit.

How close am I?

Thanks,

BikerDude
 
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ganjaboii024

Well-Known Member
i answered you in a message
the setup seems a bit overkill
you can have 1500 watts per circuit nominally (volts multiplied by amps = watts)

10/3 is plenty
14/2 is all u need for 15 amp circuits
i think u can have all your stuff on 2 15 amp breakers and run a 14/3 feeder from your main panel on a two pole 15amp breaker


BikerDude said:
I just built a new grow room and have some questions:

I want to run a sub-panel to my grow room and want to know if I should run a 10/3 feeder or an 8/3 feeder. Here is what I have layed out...using 14/2 wiring. {or should I use 12/2}

Circuit 1: Dedicated line to my 6" exhaust fan.

Circuit 2: Dedicated line to my 600wt. grow light

Circuit 3: 2 GFCI outlets and one regular outlet

Circuit 4: Single pole light switch to an overhead light and then on to a regular outlet. {I will use 14/3 between the switch and the light

I was thinking all I need is 4-15 amp breakers to do this; one for each circuit.

How close am I?

Thanks,

BikerDude
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ottawaliquid

ottawaliquid

Active Member
Sorry if this has been asked and answered already...

It may seem like a dumb question but..

Does a 600W HID bulb w/ ballast use 600W of power per hour (ie. .6 kwh?)

Or does it use more or less because of the ballast. I'm just curious to calculate my electricity bill and what the savings will be.
 
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T.H.Cammo

Well-Known Member
ottawaliquid said:
Sorry if this has been asked and answered already...

It may seem like a dumb question but..

Does a 600W HID bulb w/ ballast use 600W of power per hour (ie. .6 kwh?)

Or does it use more or less because of the ballast. I'm just curious to calculate my electricity bill and what the savings will be.
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I can help with this one, the bulb uses 600 watts by itself. A "typical" ballast uses about 10% of what the bulb uses, in addition to your 600, that would be about 660 watts. An "Electronic ballast" only adds about 7% to the value of the bulb; or in your case about 642 watts.
 
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T.H.Cammo

Well-Known Member
My question is more out of curiosoty than actual need to know, but maybe it will come in handy to somebody else. Here goes:

Let's say I'm going to wire-up a "whole bunch" of small, 25 watt, CFL's (at least 10 or 20). Should I be wiring them in "parallel" or "series", or "series-parallel"? Or does it just not make no nevermind?
 
PJ Diaz

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
T.H.Cammo said:
My question is more out of curiosoty than actual need to know, but maybe it will come in handy to somebody else. Here goes:

Let's say I'm going to wire-up a "whole bunch" of small, 25 watt, CFL's (at least 10 or 20). Should I be wiring them in "parallel" or "series", or "series-parallel"? Or does it just not make no nevermind?
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You need to wire them in parallel. If you were to wire them in series it would just split the load (120v) over all the lights in the series, and you would have a bunch of very dim or non-functional lights.
 
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tiptopper

Member
Couple of questions for any eletrician. #1 Is There a way to run 2-1000 watt ballast off of a single plug 240v outlet? It is either a 20 or 30 amp breaker. Also I cannot do any wiring so could u give me suggestions as to what size ext. cords to use because outlet is roughly 30 feet away? Option 2 for me would be to run 1 ballast from another room and just have both on 120v. What size cord would be needed for this second option? If choosing second option both would have their own breaker of 15 or 20a single pole.
 
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tiptopper

Member
If I am thinking correctly would a 20a double pole be enough for both ballast as they would be pulling a lower amperage?
 
GanjaGod420000

GanjaGod420000

Well-Known Member
Awesome thread man. I'm a Journeyman Wireman in the IBEW, as well as State-liscensed, with 15 years of experience, mainly in commercial and industrial, and line work, but have done quite a bit of house wiring in my times of unemployment with my cousin, who owns a residential electrical shop... So, not to try to one-up your post, but anyone reading this is more than welcome to PM me as well, especially if it's something related to larger scale grows, which I have wired many of in my career, from CA all the way back to the South, where I hail from... Peace!
ganjaboii024 said:
ok so i have several years of experience with residential wiring and am quite knowledgeable on this topic. i have help several fellow growers with there electric problems and questions and iv been told to make a thread so i can help even more people. well....here it is!!!! :bigjoint:

so if you have a question or problem with anything electrical send them here!
even if its not electrical ill try and help

a typical house circuit is 120 volts, the amount of power you can draw off one circuit safely is 1440 watts or 12 amps at 120 volts, these circuits are on a 15 amp breaker (or should be), and these circuits should be wired with 14 gauge wire. 100 percent load is 15 amps or 1800 watts but i highly recommend you dont load circuits up to 100%, try to stay below 80% of the load which is the safe limit i mentioned of 1440 watts

you can also access 240 volt circuits in your home from either a stove or dryer outlet (they sell light control boxes that plug right into one of these) i dont recommend you tap into these unless you know what you are doing, use a purchased control box or if you want to build you own control box and are running lots of lights (4Kw+) run a separate line to your control box

if you do your own wiring gauge it correctly

15 amps 14 gauge
20 amps 12 gauge
30 amps 10 gauge
40 amps 8 gauge
60 amps 6/4 gauge
100 amps 2/0 gauge

if its a long run of cable then the cable acts as a resistor and you loose power, so if you are drawing a lot of power (40+ amps) over a long distance i recommend upping the wire size to the next size up

when making your own connections, DONT EVER SPLICE into a random wire behind a wall and leave the connection sitting there, any connections must be made in a junction box that is properly grounded, securely tighten wire nuts (tape them to the wire if you want), tighten all screws well but not too tight as to damage the wire. dont leave anything exposed or loose.

dollar store extension cords are a NO!!! NO!!!
go and buy a heavy duty, GROUNDED (that means it has 3 prongs not 2) extension cord and use that to supply power to your grow room, use a heavy duty power bar connected to your extension to split up the power

let me know if i missed anything, im baked
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