2000W Medical Garden, Prepetual Multi Strain Grow

jsamuel24

Active Member
im an electrician plane so if you ever have any questions I can do my best to help..
but im not trying to turn you away from reading always a good idea to read about the basics befor atempting to play with something like electricity..
Just verifying Reggae, 12G 3 wire will work for my two outlets to plug my ballasts into right?. The 12G will be going into my waterheater sub pannel. Will put me at 28.5 amps on a 40amp circut.
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
Just verifying Reggae, 12G 3 wire will work for my two outlets to plug my ballasts into right?. The 12G will be going into my waterheater sub pannel. Will put me at 28.5 amps on a 40amp circut.
12g 3wire meaning black red and white is correct...
And if what you meen by 40 amp circuit is a 2pole 20amp then yes 20 amps per phase you are ok, but dont hook up that 12g wire to a 40amp breaker that would be a no no..
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
12g 3wire meaning black red and white is correct...
And if what you meen by 40 amp circuit is a 2pole 20amp then yes 20 amps per phase you are ok, but dont hook up that 12g wire to a 40amp breaker that would be a no no..

Actually I just checked again and its a 2 pole 30 amp. I should still be okay right since the draw in that line will only be 5 amps per line
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
how many watts are on the line TOTAL.

if you are runnin 1000w lights they are 5 amps ea. running on 240v 10amps on 120v. if you are running under 5000w on the line you should be alright. wire guage is really relative to ditance as well as voltage 12g is a good size wire for in house work and should be just fine. you are running 4 line wire correct? 2 lives ground and a neutral?
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
how many watts are on the line TOTAL.

if you are runnin 1000w lights they are 5 amps ea. running on 240v 10amps on 120v. if you are running under 5000w on the line you should be alright. wire guage is really relative to ditance as well as voltage 12g is a good size wire for in house work and should be just fine. you are running 4 line wire correct? 2 lives ground and a neutral?
As of right now there will be 1000w on the line, it will be 2000W in 5 weeks though, I was pretty sure I was right on it, but I just wanted to verify before i did anything. Thanks poly. and yes, 3wire is red, white black and then a ground wire.
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
Flower Room Update

So we got alot of work done today, but still have a bit more work to go. As of right now it is looking like I will be able to get the equipment setup saturday or sunday. The things left to do are finish caulking and sealing every join in the new walls, install the door, finish cutting out the 8 inch and 4 inch holes for the hood fan and ac respectively, Paint and let dry, and finish the electricty install on my 240v circut for the room. I should be able to finish all of that tomarrow evening and paint will be dry and ready to do the very last and most important part, put all the gear up. Anyways, here is how things are looking, and at the end I will add a shot of the mother plants I currently have for the grow.









I will prolly wont update again on the room until the gear is installed unless you guys would like to see the stages and the empty room before I fill it with all the fun things that go in there. I will let you guys be the judge if you want another photo update before the eq is in. 7 days till I have girls in that room. 7 days!!!!!

Snoochie Boochies!
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
those plants you got in that closet are screaming for you to finish that room.... they are looking very nice and healthy...

so back to that electrical tho. do you plan on running all your fans and what not on that same 12/3 circuit? amperage wise the wire will be able to handle it just fine, but for future referance that 12g wire is only rated @ 20a for safe opperation.. so if you start to upgrade later down the line dont think just cause you wired it to a 30a breaker that the wire could handle 30amps of load.. personally I would think safty first and spend the extra $15 and buy a proper 2 pole 20a breaker....
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
those plants you got in that closet are screaming for you to finish that room.... they are looking very nice and healthy...

so back to that electrical tho. do you plan on running all your fans and what not on that same 12/3 circuit? amperage wise the wire will be able to handle it just fine, but for future referance that 12g wire is only rated @ 20a for safe opperation.. so if you start to upgrade later down the line dont think just cause you wired it to a 30a breaker that the wire could handle 30amps of load.. personally I would think safty first and spend the extra $15 and buy a proper 2 pole 20a breaker....
No, fans are running on a differnt 110 30 amp breaker, not on the same circut at all. on this circut will be my hot water heater (18.5 amps) and 2 1000W balasts, however the hot water heater is on a sub pannel that I will be tacking into for my 2 balasts, so only thing on the 12/3 will be the lights as the water heater has a 6g going to it for some reason (On some things in my house the builder must have gotten a great deal for overkill parts. was really shocked at how over kill some things were.) So it ends up being a 28.5 amp draw on a 2 pole 30 amp breaker. I just want to put my balasts on the 240v and everything else I am going to keep on 110 until I can afford to pay for a building permit to move a sub pannel into my attic that will be dedicated just for the grow room. Only thing I hate about my city is they want almost 500$ for an electrical building permit for an 100 amp sub pannel. So all in all when I get the wire, box, breakers ect, its gonna cost around 800-900 dollars to do a sub pannel, so having to tap exhisting for the moment until I can afford.

Snoogins
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
well maybe you dont need a didicated sub panel for your small room. all I did was ran a 10/3 circuit over to my grow area and installed these cool pool timers to control everything.. that is 60amps of power at my service all on a 2 pole 30a circuit
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
find out the amp draw on your water heater.. is it a tankless? if so those normaly only need 20a if its a electric tank model than it might be 30a.. so if you have #6 copper running to that dissconect you should have all the power you need right there..
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
well maybe you dont need a didicated sub panel for your small room. all I did was ran a 10/3 circuit over to my grow area and installed these cool pool timers to control everything.. that is 60amps of power at my service all on a 2 pole 30a circuit
The only problem with me doing that is There is no more space in my circut box to add any more breakers. Originaly that what the plan was to add a 2 pole 30 amp circut and control everything off of it, but got out to my box and have literaly 0 open spaces. And I dont want to call my local power company to come out to shut it so I can change the main box out to get more room :/
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
take a pic of that box for me so I can see what type it is. you might be able to buy a quad breaker that will save you so many hassles. its what i do all day
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
find out the amp draw on your water heater.. is it a tankless? if so those normaly only need 20a if its a electric tank model than it might be 30a.. so if you have #6 copper running to that dissconect you should have all the power you need right there..
It isnt tankless, its a GE 40 Gal 4500W water heater. All literature, and the math point at a 18.5 amp draw, and its on 6 gague. I will go take a few pics right now if the camera decides it likes the dark. Wish me luck with my SLR
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
Okay here is the main power box, and for the life of me I dont see why the main breaker is only 125a. I am so used to seeing 200a for mains in everything i used to work on in socal and when I did apartment maintnance in Tn. irritates me, but again dont want to call the muni utili dep so i can change a main breaker damn it.



And here is where I am planing on tagging into. its the 2 pole 30 that is marked WHeater lol



Whatcha think brotha
 

reggaerican

Well-Known Member
holly crap man your panel is maxed for reals.. are you sure that is #6 wire going to that disconnect? it looks small in the pic, but if it is you can just change that quad breaker to a 60/30/30/60 and replace your disconect to a small 4 space panel and be done...
or actually I dont think they make a 60/30 quad, but they do make a 60/20 you would just have to move some wires around..
 

jsamuel24

Active Member
holly crap man your panel is maxed for reals.. are you sure that is #6 wire going to that disconnect? it looks small in the pic, but if it is you can just change that quad breaker to a 60/30/30/60 and replace your disconect to a small 4 space panel and be done...
Just went out and checked and it says 6g on it. Here is the thing, to move the disconnect I would have to have the head pulled to do it safely right? I just am trying to avoid having to pull the head cause i really dont want the electric company to have to come out. Now let me ask this, if I can pull the disconnect, can I go to a 175 or a 200 disconnect, replace the quad to a 60/30/30/60 and then put the water heater and dryer on the 60/60 side of that, and then run a new line for the 30/30 to a board like yours or a sub pannel?
 
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