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

[SnapsProvolone]

Powerslide, so you have 40amps to play with for an 80% demand factor.

from here you can pick up a 1 phase 50 amp subpanel, 6/3 wire or if your hardware store has a standalone 240 plug that the same as the configuration of your welding plug comes in 6ft i believe, and two 20 amp breakers
EZPZ ?

LoL. I can tell your not a licensed ec. Just three wire feeding a sp w/o an EGC is begging for all kinds of troubles. Stick to growing pot.

 

[hibok]

if your talking about bonding all metal devices than the receptacle is already bonding and should be which is returned back to the main panel. so basically he would be matching each wire to maintain continuity to each phase.

 

[SnapsProvolone]

if your talking about bonding all metal devices than the receptacle is already bonding and should be which is returned back to the main panel. so basically he would be matching each wire to maintain continuity to each phase.

I gotta tell the guys this at work tomorrow they will laugh their asses off.

 

[SnapsProvolone]

What year is your nec code book? 1955? We stopped bonding with neutrals to chassis long ago.

just because you seen it done a certain way does not mean is the proper way to do it. Especially if a hearing to any remotely modern code standards.

 

[PhychicTurtle]

Hi , im in the process of getting and setting up 4 CFL bulbs in a closet , 2 on a top shelf and two on the bottom. I was wondering what the best way to wire them out of the closet it? Also can the 4 of them be wired to the same plug?
Cheers.

 

[Abiqua]

Yes the diagram is correct. As you are perhaps well aware of, the resistance of the 1k pot is way too much. We could replace the pot with one of another value, or we could simulate a lower-value pot by placing a resistor in parallel with it, diminishing its maximum obtainable resistance. Placing a 100 ohms 3 watt resistor connected from terminal #1 to terminal #3, will decrease the span of the pot to 91 ohms, but that span will become non-linear.

Yep, I think resistance of a 12v .215 fan is just about 45 ohms. I can't find lower resistor's with around 100 ohms and handling 500ma...... at least for cheap. 1k was the lowest linear resistor I could find. There were some 500k audio resistors too, non linear.

Is there that much of difference between linear and non-linear @ that low of voltage? I get that the amperage will upsweep as the resistance increases with the in-line resistor [100 ohm] but is it necessary?

Thanks again!

 

[Abiqua]

Hi , im in the process of getting and setting up 4 CFL bulbs in a closet , 2 on a top shelf and two on the bottom. I was wondering what the best way to wire them out of the closet it? Also can the 4 of them be wired to the same plug?
Cheers.

Are you wiring them to be plugged in or hardwired?

My 1st mini cab has [5] 110v single bulb[e27] fixtures [two wire] all wired in parallel going to 1 plug. Check out the link in my sig. I initially wired them all up for CFL, but ditched them all, for LED bulbs. I used 14ga. which is overkill, but handles 10A-15A.

Peace.

 

[PhychicTurtle]

I want to just plug them in yeah. With as little wires as possible , is there any fire hazard in having this setup with the cfls? I know there's not much heat but if I have 4 bulbs plugged in 24/7 on a timer with 18 hours of light a day is this ok?

 

[SnapsProvolone]

Do a search for medium base light bulb stringer.

Get the style with an integrated breaker.

 

[Stevie51]

Yep, I think resistance of a 12v .215 fan is just about 45 ohms. I can't find lower resistor's with around 100 ohms and handling 500ma...... at least for cheap. 1k was the lowest linear resistor I could find. There were some 500k audio resistors too, non linear.

Is there that much of difference between linear and non-linear @ that low of voltage? I get that the amperage will upsweep as the resistance increases with the in-line resistor [100 ohm] but is it necessary?

Thanks again!

The most current the fan will draw @ 12 volts is .215 amp. That is less than 3 watts. The purpose of the potentiometer is to add a variable amount of resistance to create a variable decrease of voltage to the fan. The voltage is what control the fan speed. As the voltage drop, so does the amperage drop. You do realize that too much resistance can cause too much of a voltage drop and stall the fan. Ideally it would be nice to have a potentiometer that is linear and have just the right amount resistance to utilize the full sweep of the potentiometer knob without stalling the fan, but I understand that isn't an option for you now. That's the reason I suggested adding a 3 watts resistor (available from Radio Shack for $1.89) in parallel across the potentiometer. To calculate resistance in parallel use the formula: (R1 x R2) divided by (R1 + R2). Because the resistor has a fix value, and the potentiometer has variable value through its span, the resulting resistance will become non-linear. As I have no experience doing this project, and thus don't know the voltage drop you are trying to achieve, the 100 ohms resistor I had suggested may not be the ideal resistor in ohms. I do hope you realize that what we are doing is "improvising". The decision rest with you as to what is necessary.

 

[Abiqua]

The most current the fan will draw @ 12 volts is .215 amp. That is less than 3 watts. The purpose of the potentiometer is to add a variable amount of resistance to create a variable decrease of voltage to the fan. The voltage is what control the fan speed. As the voltage drop, so does the amperage drop. You do realize that too much resistance can cause too much of a voltage drop and stall the fan. Ideally it would be nice to have a potentiometer that is linear and have just the right amount resistance to utilize the full sweep of the potentiometer knob without stalling the fan, but I understand that isn't an option for you now. That's the reason I suggested adding a 3 watts resistor (available from Radio Shack for $1.89) in parallel across the potentiometer. To calculate resistance in parallel use the formula: (R1 x R2) divided by (R1 + R2). Because the resistor has a fix value, and the potentiometer has variable value through its span, the resulting resistance will become non-linear. As I have no experience doing this project, and thus don't know the voltage drop you are trying to achieve, the 100 ohms resistor I had suggested may not be the ideal resistor in ohms. I do hope you realize that what we are doing is "improvising". The decision rest with you as to what is necessary.

Right now the 1k is fine, I just wanted to slow down the interior fan to about 9-10v's, while keeping the exhaust @ max. The sweep range of the 1k pot actually is right in the zone. Allows me to turn it down slightly and I almost get a full sweep before it cut's out, so no worries, here, I actually think this fits in exactly where I want it.

However, I will certainly brush up on what you have put down, great info!!!!!!!

 

[Abiqua]

Do a search for medium base light bulb stringer.

Get the style with an integrated breaker.

Can you just use an inline block fuse at say 5a's? Wired in between the 1st light and the plug?

 

[SnapsProvolone]

Sure if you dont mind changing a fuse instead of resetting a breaker. should only become an issue if the bulbs installed were drawing too much current. Key is fuse amperage is not to exceed the ampacity of the wire guage used. And fuse the hot leg not the neutral. Nice thing about a stringer is it allows someone to have something ul/etl approved.

 

[Abiqua]

Sure if you dont mind changing a fuse instead of resetting a breaker. should only become an issue if the bulbs installed were drawing too much current. Key is fuse amperage is not to exceed the ampacity of the wire guage used. And fuse the hot leg not the neutral. Nice thing about a stringer is it allows someone to have something ul/etl approved.

Snaps Big UPs! Thank you........bear with me. As you can probably tell Im green but I just need to learn and ask more questions.
I really like the stringer idea, however, I can't seem to find one to fit my space and that is half the battle. I am a micro-cab grower.

I have [5] 2 wire light bulb adapters wired in parallel. I believe it is 12 ga. single strand 15A wire. The wires run into a lil terminal strip and then into a Two plug outlet. I have a 15A general fuse holder and I have a 5A cartridge for it.
I am running all LED bulbs @80mA, lol. 400mA, so it will barely pull over a full amp, even if I add in 10 more bulbs [might add 2].

Is all this shit unsafe? I have made sure to coat all my leads and shrink wrap and solder where I can or terminal strip the rest. Should I try and run a lower cartridge fuse, like 1-3a? that should be well above the threshold of nuisance blows?

 

[Abiqua]

And fuse the hot leg not the neutral. Nice thing about a stringer is it allows someone to have something ul/etl approved.

Like I mentioned in the 1st post, like the stringer idea. My 2nd cab needs 12 bulbs, so these could be ideal.

But could you elaborate a lil for me enough to research at least, on what ul/etl is basically going to do? I imagine fire-proofing, code and ??? is included as a rating from Underwriters L?

 

[SnapsProvolone]

Ul / etl certification simply certifies the device is safe to use. They abuse products to ensure they fail in a safe manner.

You can shorten a stringer.

 

[Vansterdam]

Can someone explain the Ferrite Clamps to block or contain RFI noise. Do i just need to clamp 1 unit to the cord leading from the ballast to the light? What size clamp do I need for a 16 gauge cord?

I had a visit from the cable guy a couple of years ago, I'm not looking forward to another knock on the door...

Cheers.

 

[weedizard]

Hey. How can I setup a PC cooler to work? Thanks!

 

[SnapsProvolone]

Can someone explain the Ferrite Clamps to block or contain RFI noise. Do i just need to clamp 1 unit to the cord leading from the ballast to the light? What size clamp do I need for a 16 gauge cord?

I had a visit from the cable guy a couple of years ago, I'm not looking forward to another knock on the door...

Cheers.

Its a ferrite RFI Supression Choke. Available at Radio Shack. Put one on the ballast end of the feed to the lamp.

 

[Vansterdam]

Its a ferrite RFI Supression Choke. Available at Radio Shack. Put one on the ballast end of the feed to the lamp.

So I only need one, thanks for the info. Can you tell me what size? I've been tying to find the diameter of a 16 gauge wire, but I'm just not getting it. Chart shows 0.0502 and 1.3mm, but that doesn't make sense to me. The units I see online come in 7mm, 8mm, etc...cheers