touche sirim honestly not sure... i think you have two main problems though- the headlights will pull a shitload of 12vdc... like 25-30 amps worth for a single pair of lamps. a 25-30 amp dc power supply is going to run you around 200$... then theres the issue of cooling them.. im not sure how you would, and since the lamps will not fit in any standard socket that a house lamp will, your going to have to invent a fixture that is fire proof to hold them in place. interesting idea though, it might be viable for pc cabs or other stealthy setups, but for the price your gonna pay to power them up and the time it will take rigging a fixture and figuring a way to cool it, i would just spend the cash on a nice remote ballast from ebay and grab a socket and reflector hood or cooltube while i was at it... just my opinion though. im also not sure the lamps would give the proper spread of light to make them effective, as the lamps really get there brilliance from the reflector lense in the headlight assembly... woul be fun to experiment if you had the parts lying around, but as for myself i just dont see myself spending that much when i could get top of the line for the same price with no aggravation
*Long-ass post to follow, my apologiesyour going to make me blush
what will determine the answer to what your asking is how big is the wire going to the garage from the panel? it maybe possible to squeeze some more power through it to the garage... but it then again it might not be! and is there another small panel in the garage?
another question im asking is are you sure that the unlabeled breakers are not being used, and just not labeled?
ps- the blank spot at the top left corner in the panel is the only 'empty' or spare slot i see
nah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.*Long-ass post to follow, my apologies
Again, thanks so much for even entertaining my post - so, the answers to your questions are as follows:
1) Not sure how large the wire is - it's yellow and has the number 14 on it, but there's a few different wires coming in and out of the insulation, so I need to do some more homework on that end - there's at least two wires going in there, and more likely 3+. No, there's no panel in the garage.
2) No, not positive that they're not being used right now, and most likely they are - had an electrician here a couple of months ago to wire a ceiling fan, and he needed to install a new breaker (top right corner, which is newer than all the others).
So, at least we know that I have one empty slot, so that's a good thing
So, assuming that the wire gauge to the garage is thick enough to handle 60ish amps, is it something that an electrician can handle without access to the garage?
I'm basically trying to figure out if the solution is going to entail him needing to get into my garage, which is an obvious deal breaker, as I'm very private about my tomatoes.
Truthfully, I'm not even sure I'll need more power, and think I would PROBABLY be okay with the 40 amps I have right now, but it'll be tight, especially in the summer time.
Veg tent - 400 watt light, two inlines fans, all the fixins - call it 650 watts all-in.
Two flower tents - both 1000 watts with three inlines, atmosphere controllers, CO2, air pumps, etc. - call them both 1300 watts when running full bore, but they're going to be on alternate 12/12 schedules, so the lights will never be on at the same time.
Doing the math, that's 650 running 24/0, plus another 600 between the two flower rooms of things that have to always be on (fans and air pumps, pond pumps), and then always at least one 1000 light on.
Doing my math, that's 2250 that's always going to be on in the garage, and then in the summertime, I wanna add a large portable AC unit, like this guy:
http://www.portableairshop.com/AP14000W-EdgeStar-Extreme-Cool-14000-BTU-Dual-Hose-Portable-Air-Conditioner/AP14000W,default,pd.html?cgid=Residential_Portable_Air_Conditioners
So, in total that'd be 3450 watts running at any one time on 40 amps, which only comes out to 28.75 amps.
Am I missing something, or am I really fine and don't need to do anything for the electric?
Would love to be able to add a water chiller or two if possible, and they're 250 watts a piece.
Holy shit is this a long post, sorry bout that.
(lol no pun intended)
you dont know for sure thats a 14 gauge wire. he also said the jacket was yellow. if it was a 14 and he was pulling 18 amps continous duty through it, the wire would get hot enough at the connection point on the breaker to cause the thermal element to trip*........ sorry man, but this isnt my first rodeo either
The house was indeed remodeled before my girlfriend bought it about four years ago - there was an addition that added a bathroom and enlarged the kitchen, and I believe that they did something to the garage, but my girl's sleeping so I'll have to ask her tomorrow.nah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.
well the math works out... you should be fine running all that epuipment with a 40 amp supply. ill bet you have some nice tomatoes
are you currently running all the equipment you mentioned besides the a/c? i ask this cuz a red flag just went off... i noticed how in your panel, the breaker for the shed/ garage is a tandem breaker (the handles are connected) and that makes me wonder if one circuit is dedicated for the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed.
if this is the case you might have some problems when you go to add the air conditioner, as it really needs to be on a circuit that is only using, say 400-600 watts, or else your going to get nuisance tripping when the air conditioner starts to run.
to me it is strange to have a tandem breaker feeding two different circuits, usually they, and legally, they are used to run a single 240v circuit... theres nothing dangerous about using a tandem breaker, its just that if one circuit trips it will also trip the other which is just plain annoying. it might be worth your while to replace the tandem breaker with 2 seperate 20 amp breakers... id hate to see an accident happen and put all of your tomatoes in darkness.. no one likes early flowering or light stress issues.
is there any way you could be brave and maybe takes some pictures for me with the cover off on that panel? (dont do it if you feel uncomfortable)
and im going to go out on a limb here and ask this- but has your house also been remodeled recently? and if it has, did the water heater used to be in the garage?
I appreciate the help, but truthfully the wire said a lot of numbers on it, there were like 3036 and 14 and all kinds of other things - I tried to take a couple of pics but the camera's not good enough - I'll go write down and do a serious wire inventory tomorrow morning and see how many, what color, and what numbers they have written on them that are coming from the house into the garage tomorrow morning.
oh there is definitely only going to be 20 amps there. im almost certain that there is two seperate circuits being controlled by the tandem breaker, but what im curious about is how is it split up? thats why i asked if the house was remoldeled... cuz my theory was that the circuits in the garage and shed are being fed from an old 220v circuit for a water heater or maybe the previous owner had some shop tools in the garage. if thats the case, it maybe that one circuit goes to the garage, and another goes to the shed, OR and more likely, is that there are two circuits in the garage, one of them ends in the garage and is feeding some plugs or a light, and the other may feed a light, or a garage door opener, or a plug or two, then go outside to the shed. if thats the case, it would be ideal... because you would have two 20 amp circuits in the garage itself, and it would be a matter of plugging one setup into one and the other on the second.The house was indeed remodeled before my girlfriend bought it about four years ago - there was an addition that added a bathroom and enlarged the kitchen, and I believe that they did something to the garage, but my girl's sleeping so I'll have to ask her tomorrow.
As far as your "tandem breaker" question, would that mean that I would have to make sure to use the correct outlet in the garage (as there's probably four different outlets to plug into in there, and there's certainly a couple of different color wires coming from the house going to the different outlets), or would it mean that there's only 20 amps of power going to the garage and 20 amps going to the shed, and there's just a universal 40 amp breaker for the two of them?
Cuz if it's the latter that would fugging suck...............as far as running the equipment at once, I've not to this point, as my first flower tent is still being setup and some pieces of equipment (like the AC) I don't even have yet.
I guess when I set my flower tent up tomorrow and give it a test run that we'll figure out pretty quickly if there's 20 or 40 amps going into there, huh?
Also, there's never any power ever used in the shed, in case that was an issue. Like never, not in years, so that draws 0 watts.
So you're basically saying that, if the nuisance breaker is in full effect, that I'll basically have to figure out how to divvy up my power usage between the two circuits 50/50? If that's the case it's not a big deal, just means doing some math and some more extension cords and surge protectors.
Also, would be more than happy to take pictures - I assume it's as simple as unscrewing something to take the panel off, no? I'll do some Googling for how to do it without getting electrocuted, and I'll have some pics up first thing tomorrow morning.
Again, I really can't thank you enough for your help with this, you're really going above and beyond with this thread.
You could run five 1000's with all the fixin's with no problem.
Here's some pics of the breaker box sans cover, although it seems like a pointless exercise right now, already looking up electricians to callnah, your fine... sometimes theres alot of info to consider.
well the math works out... you should be fine running all that epuipment with a 40 amp supply. ill bet you have some nice tomatoes
are you currently running all the equipment you mentioned besides the a/c? i ask this cuz a red flag just went off... i noticed how in your panel, the breaker for the shed/ garage is a tandem breaker (the handles are connected) and that makes me wonder if one circuit is dedicated for the garage and one circuit is dedicated to the shed.
if this is the case you might have some problems when you go to add the air conditioner, as it really needs to be on a circuit that is only using, say 400-600 watts, or else your going to get nuisance tripping when the air conditioner starts to run.
to me it is strange to have a tandem breaker feeding two different circuits, usually they, and legally, they are used to run a single 240v circuit... theres nothing dangerous about using a tandem breaker, its just that if one circuit trips it will also trip the other which is just plain annoying. it might be worth your while to replace the tandem breaker with 2 seperate 20 amp breakers... id hate to see an accident happen and put all of your tomatoes in darkness.. no one likes early flowering or light stress issues.
is there any way you could be brave and maybe takes some pictures for me with the cover off on that panel? (dont do it if you feel uncomfortable)
and im going to go out on a limb here and ask this- but has your house also been remodeled recently? and if it has, did the water heater used to be in the garage?
assclown= retarded idiot that doesnt want business. im kinda shocked he said it could cost a thousand dollars to add 1 or 2 20amp circuits. perhaps i need to move to your area so i can make a killing, lol, it would be better than sitting here waiting for callbacks
you buy a line voltage thermostat and run the hot leg of the circuit through the thermostat. or you could buy something like this, click it for info....
Hell, where ya at? If this guy's gonna charge me $500 to do it, maybe I'll just fly you out here and then give you the balance of the remaining money from the $500 (and I'd even get you high - eating tomatoes, of course).assclown= retarded idiot that doesnt want business. im kinda shocked he said it could cost a thousand dollars to add 1 or 2 20amp circuits. perhaps i need to move to your area so i can make a killing, lol, it would be better than sitting here waiting for callbacks
i will walk u through the easiest way to get what you want. it may involve a trip or 3 to home depot but im quite confident you can do this without any major problems or issues.
ok- on your panel, note how the wires connected to the tandem breaker, one is black, the other is red... it appears (but i cant see the very bottom of the wire)
to me that that particular cable is what we call a 12/3 or a 10/3 romex. the first number being the guage of the wire, the second being the amount of current carrying conductors. it lets you run either a 240v circuit, or two 120v circuit, on a single cable. Your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to locate the other end of that red wire. it might require pulling some of the plugs in the garage out of there boxes to see what wire is behind the plugs. if this is not an option, or you cant find the other end of the red wire, lets try plan b- and intercept the visible wire going to the shed. take a pic of where its visible above the ground, and we will go from there. It would be optimum if it was visible on one of the exterior walls of the garage. keep in mind that plan a is less labor intensive than plan b, but requires more thought.
im having some issues with my 'highspeed' internet that is running like dialup today so bear with me if it takes me a few hours to get back to this thread...