120v to 240v conversion

Hey everyone, I am trying to lower the strain on my breaker in my grow room to add additional equipment and it was suggested that I buy a couple 120v to 240v (vice versa) 3000watt step up/down converter. Does anyone have any experience using these? They are essentially international power converters that can handle 3000 watts. I know jack shit about electrical wiring and I do not want to be that stoner that burns down his house, so please, any insight will be highly appreciated.

homegrown36 said:

Hey everyone, I am trying to lower the strain on my breaker in my grow room to add additional equipment and it was suggested that I buy a couple 120v to 240v (vice versa) 3000watt step up/down converter. Does anyone have any experience using these? They are essentially international power converters that can handle 3000 watts. I know jack shit about electrical wiring and I do not want to be that stoner that burns down his house, so please, any insight will be highly appreciated.

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be much , much cheaper to just add a wire or two to your existing electric panel on new breakers. is that not possible ? a piece of 14/2 romex wire ran directy to your panel will give you another 1500watts to play with. (ran on a regular 120 volt) Its safer and cheaper then a converter.

another option is if your ballasts are wired to run at 220 or 120...... never mind, thats too deep if you know nothing.

yea your gonna have to wire up the converter too , fuck all that. its just easier an safer to tell you to run a new wire or two.





soil

No way any device can supply you with more watts on the output side than what is supplied on its input side. Who told you to use step up/down converters? You will actually have lesser available watts with a converter because nothing is 100% efficient in converting energy. Your best option is to install another circuit from the main circuit breaker panel to your grow room. Better yet, install a 240 volts circuit from the main circuit breaker panel to your grow room to run your ballasts on 240 volts and invest in a 240 volts lighting controller if you are running multiple ballasts.

I've thought about it..I'm out of space for breakers in my panel I would have to replace the whole thing..I think, I'm not sure what all that would entail. I realize I could theoretically switch the breakers for higher amps and then switch the wire for a larger gage: but the strain on my breakers, even if I replaced them with larger amp single slot breakers, will be nearing 85% (I've heard that over 80% is not good). That's why I was hoping a transformer would help lower the draw but oh well.

Nope! What these guys said!!^^^^ All my ballasts are multi-tap, and I had thought the same thing. It makes no diff cost wise in electric use, and you'd need to run new wiring. Any reason you couldn't add a new, 2nd breaker box dedicated to that room?

If your main circuit breaker panel is out of space for breakers, adding a sub-panel will give you more breaker space, but will require a double pole circuit breaker which will use two adjacent slots in your main circuit breaker panel. Load balance between the two poles of the main breaker will then become a critical factor when trying to maximize the use of the available power in your main panel. Running your ballasts on 240 volts is one way to keep the load balance between the two poles. Running equal loads on two separate 120 volts branch circuits from single pole circuit breakers placed in adjacent slots to each other in the sub-panel is another way to keep the load balance between the two poles.

50 amp sub-panel located in or near your room will solve your problems. Then you can have lots of room for new circuits with short runs and easy access for additions or maintenance. Follow code and you wont have fires, research research research.

homegrown36 said:

I've thought about it..I'm out of space for breakers in my panel I would have to replace the whole thing..I think, I'm not sure what all that would entail. I realize I could theoretically switch the breakers for higher amps and then switch the wire for a larger gage: but the strain on my breakers, even if I replaced them with larger amp single slot breakers, will be nearing 85% (I've heard that over 80% is not good). That's why I was hoping a transformer would help lower the draw but oh well.

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your transformer thingy will work. its just not as effecient as running a new wire. they make cheater breakers that is two breakers but only takes one slot in your current panel. get two 20's an a small roll of 12/2 romex wire, then you'll have two whole circuits just for your stuff only. or 3000 watts at 120. or 6000 at 240.




soil

A step up transformer plug into a 120 volts 20 amps circuit is limited to supplying less than 10 amps at 240 volts before tripping the 20 amp breaker. A tandem circuit breaker (two slim breakers that occupy one slot in the panel) can not supply 240 volts because both breakers are sharing the same pole. Using a tandem circuit breaker to relocate a circuit that normally don't draw much current, or don't get much use, is a good way to make room in the breaker panel for adding another circuit.

Thank you for all your help, everyone. Turns out one of my customers is a 30yr electrician and will take a half oz trade for services (pot, the best form of currency). I was freaking out because I though I would have to try an move all the girls somewhere with it being 30F.

good deal!

1/2 a zip for him to fix it, or for him to look at it.... LMAO... I am so glad you contacted someone that understands, OHM's law....
a thousand watt light, will pull 1000 watts, on 120 vac, or 240 vac....
You can not lessen your load by magic....
Good Luck man....

Sand4x105 said:

1/2 a zip for him to fix it, or for him to look at it.... LMAO... I am so glad you contacted someone that understands, OHM's law....
a thousand watt light, will pull 1000 watts, on 120 vac, or 240 vac....
You can not lessen your load by magic....
Good Luck man....

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dont need magic. he wasnt trying to reduce bill. he was trying to reduce "load". which is as simple as going from 120 to 240. it "magically" reduces the amps by half.


geez , im sure glad you aint helpin him.




soil

Using Ohm's Law ...When voltage is doubled (from 120 volts to 240 volts), and the impedance or resistance (ohms) of the load was not changed, the current (amps) through the load will double, and thus the wattage of the load is quadruple. In order to maintain the same wattage as before, the impedance (resistance) of the load will have to be increase four times the amount. That's the reason why a ballast will draw half the amps running on 240 volts.