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

[Gregor Mendel]

OK space not that available for 2 rooms maybe later.but the fish tank is about 4 ft high and 3 ft wide with a height of 3 ft as well.the tank is holding about 4 plants in it with 2 fluorescent tubes on top and the plants are in soil pots. im not so familiar with the flip cycle method ? oh and the current for the fan heater is ok however im just concerned about the fact that i might get the plants infected with fungus or something thats why i wanted to know is this warm air the fan supplying enough for wind circulation well. so yeah thanx for the reply i appreciate it .

 

[legallyflying]

Dude, in all honesty. If your really interested in growing weed you need to buy or bit torrent at least a book or two on the subject. It seems to me you have absolutely zero knowledge I the subject. Plus, your fish tank grow (fairly assanine) are in a thread about specific electrical connections.

This video may help... http://m.videojug.com/film/how-to-behave-on-an-internet-forum


I would pay specific attention to steps 4 and 10

 

[Gregor Mendel]

dude yes , don't know a lot about about weed growing i know that in fact i think i made that clear enough however i am doing courses on botany so yeah growing weed was just next on my list.anyways yes part of me looking for help was to register on the forum but u kinda give the impression that u dont wana help but hey its cool man but hey i think you could of just not replied would have been better

 

[contraptionated]

Dude, in all honesty. If your really interested in growing weed you need to buy or bit torrent at least a book or two on the subject. It seems to me you have absolutely zero knowledge I the subject. Plus, your fish tank grow (fairly assanine) are in a thread about specific electrical connections.

This video may help... http://m.videojug.com/film/how-to-behave-on-an-internet-forum


I would pay specific attention to steps 4 and 10

I agree with legallyflying on the fish tank being the wrong grow space. The air circulation is going to be far from ideal and you're quite constricted in your reach and even if you are able to reach in its a drag to have to lean over the glass (or acrylic). I remember my 120 gallon acrylic planted tank and what a bitch it was to keep the landscaping trimmed , and those were slow growing plants.

 

[contraptionated]

dude yes , don't know a lot about about weed growing i know that in fact i think i made that clear enough however i am doing courses on botany so yeah growing weed was just next on my list.anyways yes part of me looking for help was to register on the forum but u kinda give the impression that u dont wana help but hey its cool man but hey i think you could of just not replied would have been better

We wanna help, trust me. That is what we are here for . Sometimes a little straight talk is misinterpreted (especially at the beginning of dialogue when you haven't had the chance to get to know the people on the forum yet). But it's all good. One day you'll know enough to throw the abuse right back at us! Lol. If you want some advice on how to build out a decent grow for your given space, feel free to pm me and I will be more than happy to share some soup to nuts designs that would help you achieve your goals.

 

[legallyflying]

Yeah it wasn't anything personal, this forum gets tons of newbs that won't even do a little homework.

I'm willing to help and I am a very straight talker. Fish tank grow? No. Dumb idea for a multitude of reasons I won't bother to list

 

[tallstraw]

My girlfriends house for the upstairs all runs on one fuse I assume. I have a 8x52w (I think) t5 setup, a DWC bucket wiyh timer attached for 15 on 15 off. A 6in 435cfm fan, and a 1000w bulb with ballast running. As well as a fan to push C02 around for thr vegging plants at the time being. Xif hrr roomate tries to straighten or blowdry her hair. We will blow a fuse 50% of the time. How can we get it wired so that her room is on 1 fuse and the other is on another. Is that possible? Id like to add an Mini Split AC to her roo., and know as of now, it would pop. So maybe a second question would be how to allow more electeicty(amps?) to run to her room as well. If either of these options are at all feasible. I don't know much. So thanks for the time. I just want this grow room perfected, or as close as I can get. And with her electrical situation, its really not feasible atm. Her room gets to like 78 at night with her balcony door cracked, and when the lights run and 83 inside the tent, more in my veg tent. Because the t5's that arent having air pulled, only a rotatojg fan, with the door unzipped halfway up to keep light in but also vent heat...YOu can see my dilemma. As I'm writing this. I'm thinking of installing a sctreen door, so we can have it wide open.., and putting up a f
2ft wide black structure that 7ft tall so no one can see the tentd if they were to look in, but we'd then finally have full venting capability, or atleast a lot better..and as I just wrote that, I settled on trying it. But a response to the questions I asked already would be great, incase that method isn't enough.

 

[legallyflying]

Jesus fucking run on Christ

Long story short...your running too many lights for that space. It's always going to be too hot and you don't have enough electrical capacity to cool it.

Running a new circuit is difficult. Very difficult in a place you don't own..which I suspect you don't.

Get a 400 or 600 watt bloom set up. Learn to grow quality bud with that. Because your not going to grow it with too high temps.

Just doesn't happen.

 

[tallstraw]

Well I turned the light down to 750 before reading this. But also saw before that turning it down messes with the spectrum, which is not the same as an actual 750w bulb. Is it a negligible difference, or do I need a new 600w? Per your advice I shut off 4/8 on the veg 2x2x6.5 tent, and am gonna install that screen door. To see what helps. We're gonna start using AC too. Boohoo about the run on.

 

[wheels619]

Jesus fucking run on Christ

Long story short...your running too many lights for that space. It's always going to be too hot and you don't have enough electrical capacity to cool it.

Running a new circuit is difficult. Very difficult in a place you don't own..which I suspect you don't.

Get a 400 or 600 watt bloom set up. Learn to grow quality bud with that. Because your not going to grow it with too high temps.

Just doesn't happen.

i dont have any problems growing and flowering in 85 degree temps. my buds are still very dense and heavy even with heat. and is there really a such thing as too many lights? lol. i would pack 6 1000s in my 10x10 if i had the power for it. lmao. big monstrous budskies. but yes ac is nice. im actually waiting to set up my mini split for everything but until then 4 lights confined space with no ac and 85-90 degree temps with no problems.

 

[contraptionated]

If you don't own your place and you really want more power (and you happen to want a mini split ac for your grow) just tell your landlord you need more power because you want an air conditioner. If you have anything less than a 60 amp (2-pole) circuit feeding the sub panel for your apt. then he will have no problem allowing you to pay for your own upgrade. Just a thought.

 

[Stevie51]

Okay. I looked through 1/2 of the post and could not find someone who asked my question.

"can you buy a 110v to 220v step-up box instead of running new wires? I have 2 1000Watt HPS but a butt load of other stuff and my breaker like most is rated at 15 amps. My Digital ballast can run both 110v and 220v. So I just wanted to buy a step up transformer I can plug into my rooms 110v outlets and plug the 2 1000 watt lights into the step-up box that can handle 2000 watt. I know 220 cuts your amps down quite a bit so wondering if this would work so I can use the same 15amp circuit.

Not going to work. First off, nothing is 100% efficient in converting energy, some of the energy used will be wasted in heat from the transformer, so you are limited to less than 7.5 amps @ 220 volts output from the transformer before tripping the 15 amp circuit breaker in the 110 volts circuit. No way any device can supply you with more watts on the output side than what is supplied on its input side.

 

[legallyflying]

Put another way... There is no such thing as a "step up box". You could just identify the circuit and replace the breaker with a double pole breaker and then take the neutral wire from that circuit and attach it to the other side of the dbl pole breaker. BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW EVERYTHING running on that breaker. If you have lights on it...poof, there goes your lights.

Side bar..since your asking this question you lack an understanding of wiring and home circuits...so you best check and double check before you go walking down this road. At best, you melt your alarm clock, at worst, your bun down the house. Electricity is no joke dude. For reals

 

[tallstraw]

If you don't own your place and you really want more power (and you happen to want a mini split ac for your grow) just tell your landlord you need more power because you want an air conditioner. If you have anything less than a 60 amp (2-pole) circuit feeding the sub panel for your apt. then he will have no problem allowing you to pay for your own upgrade. Just a thought.

Thanks man.

 

[contraptionated]

You're quite welcome.

 

[Stevie51]

Ok, so I think I have a pretty decent understanding of electrical currents and their properties. I have a switchable Sun System 1000watt ballast that can run on either 110 or 220. I understand that while the actual power consumption (watts) is unchanged from the current difference, the amount of amps the ballast uses is half on 220.(Makes perfect sense, double the current 1/2 the amps required). Point is... the only benefit of running 220 is drawing less amps on the ballast allowing for possibly more lights on a single circuit as long as you make sure not to overload by more then 75%. Can someone just verify if this is the only benefit to running 220 for a system such as this. Thanks in advance, such a great thread, glad people are trying to help in this area.

Yes it does seem like a moot point whether it's 110 volts or 220 volts that powering the ballasts except for the reason you gave about overloading a single circuit. I personally like to take advantage of the switchable feature of the switchable ballasts when running multiple 1000 watts ballasts on the same light controller built for 220 volts, simply because I know the load will always be balance across both hot legs of the double pole circuit breaker. But then I could also built a light controller to power 110 volts ballasts by using the same double pole circuit breaker and adding a neutral wire to construct two separate 110 volts circuits sharing one neutral wire. Of course you will have to balance the load to each circuit. Given the same even numbers of ballasts (for example, powering four 1000 watts ballasts) the current running through the double pole circuit breaker will be the same whether its 110 volts ballasts or 220 volts ballasts. So then again it become another moot point whether to run 110 volts or 220 volts to the ballasts.

 

[legallyflying]

Longest ever answer when you could just say...yeah, there is no difference

 

[Stevie51]

I would also like to clarify, just so there is no misunderstanding in my posts, that when I use the word "current" I am referring to amps. Since Boulderheads mention that he has a Sun System 1000 watts ballast, I noticed that many of the Sun System ballasts are now using what Sunlight Supply refer to as a "Smart Volt" power cord. Does anyone know what is a smart volt power cord and what is so smart about the cord?

 

[ASMALLVOICE]

I would also like to clarify, just so there is no misunderstanding in my posts, that when I use the word "current" I am referring to amps. Since Boulderheads mention that he has a Sun System 1000 watts ballast, I noticed that many of the Sun System ballasts are now using what Sunlight Supply refer to as a "Smart Volt" power cord. Does anyone know what is a smart volt power cord and what is so smart about the cord?

Its a new sales gimmick, just means the equipment will auto detect what voltage the source power is. My light can go 120/240. Just plug it in, nothing to switch on the device for specific voltages anymore.

Peace

Asmallvoice

 

[Stevie51]

I will say that the recommendations you gave are directly inline with what I heard on other forums. Need to use #3 thhn.

So my grounding bar on my controller panel is not bonded to the box then?
There seems to be a screw in the binding bar that serves to bind it with the panel.

Can you confirm that the ground and neutral bars are essentially the same in my controller panel? I mean I will have bare copper grounding wire coming from the grounding/neutral bar in my main panel going to the grounding bar and a #10 thhn wire going from the neutral/grounding bar in my main panel going to the neutral bar in my controller panel.

So since both bars in my controller panel are connected to the neutral/grounding bars in my panel...can I just route grounds and neutral wires to either bar in the controller panel?

Does this make sense? I'm just curious because in the main panel in my house, neutral and grounds go to the same bar.
Is that because they are bonded?

Almost done with the panel, just waiting on the delay relays from china

Oh..btw, I have to use 10 gauge wire on y plugs because I'm using 30 amp double pole breakers.

On the secondary side of the pole mounted step down transformer serving your resident, the center tap of the transformer winding (which now becomes refer to as the "neutral" connection on the transformer) gets grounded to earth ground. The neutral wire feeding to your home gets grounded again to earth ground at what NEC refer to as the " first disconnect". Based on what you have described about your main circuit breaker panel having the neutral wires, earth ground connection and equipment grounding conductors going to the same bar inside that panel, the electrician who install that panel and the inspector who approved it is telling me that the main circuit breaker in that panel is being the " first disconnect". That being said, only that panel can have the neutral wires bonded to the equipment grounding wires. From that point on when the wires leave that panel, under no circumstances can the neutral be bonded to the grounding wires. The neutral wires will now be refer to as "current carrying conductors", and the grounding wires will be refer to as "normally non-current carrying conductors". The purpose is to eliminate current from flowing through the grounding wires until there is a fault. I will elaborate more on this subject as it pertain to wiring sub-panels at another time.