A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

323cheezy said:

ohms law
amps x volt = watts

is this true

i guess if he ran 240 instead of a 120v circuit .....
wouldnt he be able to run more watts???
its been awh...ile

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wattage is porpionate to voltage but SHE would have to buy all new light fixtures and fans... and 240v fixtures are expensive....

FreeLeaf said:

Thank you for taking the time to write such an informative post 5toned.
It is much appreciated by everyone.

It almost sounds like running a 1000w lamp on a 1000w ballast is not only inefficent but borders on having the ballast fry. Maybe I would be better off running a 750w lamp on the 1000w ballast.

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your absolutly correct, and will greatly extend the life of the ballast. roughly 98% of all electrical component failure is related to long term exposure to heat!

or if she had conversion plug....
my light ballast has both 240 and 120.....
but there might not be enuff power....

323cheezy said:

or if she had conversion plug....
my light ballast has both 240 and 120.....
but there might not be enuff power....

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your right, a 240v conversion plug will actually use MORE power than 240v from the panel... the reason being it has to 'create' 240v from 110v. not very efficient

Hows it,

I would like to run (for my medical grow):
1000w hps
400w hps
3-4 23w cfl's
6 inch inline fan
3 350gph pumps
2 basic fans
(In a bedroom in a newer apartment)

All other appliances will be kept to minimal use to save some much needed money

I have been searching through threads for hours, trying to figure out if this will run without problems, ( my electrical knowledge is minimal ) I've been reading about building a separate breaker to run grow setups off of, Do you think I'll be okay with the wall outlets or should I educate myself on how to build a separate breaker?

thanks, and much respect for the time you spend helping others
gh

GeeHaych said:

Hows it,

I would like to run (for my medical grow):
1000w hps
400w hps
3-4 23w cfl's
6 inch inline fan
3 350gph pumps
2 basic fans
(In a bedroom in a newer apartment)

All other appliances will be kept to minimal use to save some much needed money

I have been searching through threads for hours, trying to figure out if this will run without problems, ( my electrical knowledge is minimal ) I've been reading about building a separate breaker to run grow setups off of, Do you think I'll be okay with the wall outlets or should I educate myself on how to build a separate breaker?

thanks, and much respect for the time you spend helping others
gh

Click to expand...

well u probly want stoneds advice....
but u could always jus try to run it on the circuit you plan on using..... and i the breaker trips ....your running tomuch power...
or you could use ohm's law....

GeeHaych said:

Hows it,

I would like to run (for my medical grow):
1000w hps
400w hps
3-4 23w cfl's
6 inch inline fan
3 350gph pumps
2 basic fans
(In a bedroom in a newer apartment)

All other appliances will be kept to minimal use to save some much needed money

I have been searching through threads for hours, trying to figure out if this will run without problems, ( my electrical knowledge is minimal ) I've been reading about building a separate breaker to run grow setups off of, Do you think I'll be okay with the wall outlets or should I educate myself on how to build a separate breaker?

thanks, and much respect for the time you spend helping others
gh

Click to expand...

well to give you an accurate answer to that i need to know the wattage of all the fans and pumps to.
but in my experience id say the lights will run just fine on the circuit in the room, however you may have to get a heavy duty cord with a good power strip for all the fans. much easier and cheaper than adding a loadcenter in the grow room, although a cord running from one room to another in an apt is unsightly, lol on my first succesful grow my roomate bitched for 9 months about the cord going from the office to the spare room untill we smoked the harvest.

however if the cord is not an option or u just dont want to deal with it, i would suggest reducing the 1000w to a 600w lamp, with the proper k rating for what its going to be used for, and use the cfl's to offset any shadowed areas. the reduction in wattage by doing this should give you enough leftover power for the fans and pumps, just make sure you use more than one plug to feed it all, trying to run all that equipment off of one receptacle using a splitters is a bad idea, and if your apartment is like mine theres a plug every 12 feet in the room, and no farther than 6 feet from any corner

IAm5toned said:

well to give you an accurate answer to that i need to know the wattage of all the fans and pumps to.
but in my experience id say the lights will run just fine on the circuit in the room, however you may have to get a heavy duty cord with a good power strip for all the fans. much easier and cheaper than adding a loadcenter in the grow room, although a cord running from one room to another in an apt is unsightly, lol on my first succesful grow my roomate bitched for 9 months about the cord going from the office to the spare room untill we smoked the harvest.

Click to expand...

use two circiuts ehhh????
i was gonna say that ....

323cheezy said:

use two circiuts ehhh????
i was gonna say that ....

Click to expand...

yes, gh's setup is right on the borderline of max wattage for a 20amp circuit. should be split up to keep it safe and avoid nuiscance tripping (messed up light cycle= hermies= bad)

IAm5toned said:

i hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your kinda screwed....

your main breaker is tripping because you are trying to use an amount of power that is greater than the wires coming in from the street are designed for...

your grow room setup is a firetrap. id strongly advise you to hire a professional contractor to upgrade the size of your electrical service. typically upgrading a service involves doubling the ampacity.. in other words if you currently have a 100 amp panel your going to need to get a 200amp panel and the wire required to feed it safely from the power companies connection... this is no small job, and only for a professional.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question... its not such bad news,,I knew I would have to spend some money... at least I don't have to risk my g r being seen by the electrician...the street connection is out front

IAm5toned said:

well to give you an accurate answer to that i need to know the wattage of all the fans and pumps to.
but in my experience id say the lights will run just fine on the circuit in the room, however you may have to get a heavy duty cord with a good power strip for all the fans. much easier and cheaper than adding a loadcenter in the grow room, although a cord running from one room to another in an apt is unsightly, lol on my first succesful grow my roomate bitched for 9 months about the cord going from the office to the spare room untill we smoked the harvest.

however if the cord is not an option or u just dont want to deal with it, i would suggest reducing the 1000w to a 600w lamp, with the proper k rating for what its going to be used for, and use the cfl's to offset any shadowed areas. the reduction in wattage by doing this should give you enough leftover power for the fans and pumps, just make sure you use more than one plug to feed it all, trying to run all that equipment off of one receptacle using a splitters is a bad idea, and if your apartment is like mine theres a plug every 12 feet in the room, and no farther than 6 feet from any corner

Click to expand...

Right on, think I'm going to go with the heavy duty chord, and shop around for the lowest wattage fans/accessories I can find

Thanks for the help it's always a pleasure to see the Rui love

323cheezy said:

well u probly want stoneds advice....
but u could always jus try to run it on the circuit you plan on using..... and i the breaker trips ....your running tomuch power...
or you could use ohm's law....

Click to expand...

Thanks cheezy, I appreciate all the advice I can get, Can never have too much info!

-happy smokin brotha-

I'm running 3 extension cords (rated to be able to handle somewhere around 1500 watts each) daisy chained together running a 400 watt hps. I have been doing this for about 3 weeks with no problems. Is there an off-chance that something could happen?

BucketGrower said:

I'm running 3 extension cords (rated to be able to handle somewhere around 1500 watts each) daisy chained together running a 400 watt hps. I have been doing this for about 3 weeks with no problems. Is there an off-chance that something could happen?

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id be worried about the ballast life... daisy chaining cords is a bad idea... you get whats called voltage drop. also risk of fire hazard, having 3 daisy chained together with a continous duty load on it...you better use electrical tape to secure the cord ends tightly to keep them from working lose from each other.

if i was you i would go to hd, buy some 12/2 romex or type SJ cable and make a cord long enough for what you need.

the wattage here is not the enemy, its the the long length of the cords vs. the light being on for longer than 8 hours at a time

IAm5toned said:

id be worried about the ballast life... daisy chaining cords is a bad idea... you get whats called voltage drop. also risk of fire hazard, having 3 daisy chained together with a continous duty load on it...you better use electrical tape to secure the cord ends tightly to keep them from working lose from each other.

if i was you i would go to hd, buy some 12/2 romex or type SJ cable and make a cord long enough for what you need.

the wattage here is not the enemy, its the the long length of the cords vs. the light being on for longer than 8 hours at a time

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! Could I strip one end of an extension cord and connect the 12/2 romex wire and run it the distance I need?

I don't want to be doing anything in my breaker panels, so I basically want something that can plug into a normal outlet and be long enough (about 150-200 feet or so).

Hey Iam5stoned.

Maybe you can help me. I want to use an old window fan (dual fans) and split them up for an intake and exhaust fan.

However, the wiring on these is complicated. Wondering if there is any way to run direct power to each fan and split them up.

Please see the diagram.

I need to know which wire on the fan is the power, and which is ground, to eliminate the switch. The switch uses low/high/off

Thanks in advance!

BucketGrower said:

Thanks for the reply! Could I strip one end of an extension cord and connect the 12/2 romex wire and run it the distance I need?

I don't want to be doing anything in my breaker panels, so I basically want something that can plug into a normal outlet and be long enough (about 150-200 feet or so).

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you can do that, or you could buy a male and female cord end and avoid having any splices at all. less points of failure that way

nmcpher said:

Hey Iam5stoned.

Maybe you can help me. I want to use an old window fan (dual fans) and split them up for an intake and exhaust fan.

However, the wiring on these is complicated. Wondering if there is any way to run direct power to each fan and split them up.

Please see the diagram.

I need to know which wire on the fan is the power, and which is ground, to eliminate the switch. The switch uses low/high/off

Thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

the grey wire is the neutral.
the black wire is the hot.
the black wire running from fan#1 to fan#2 is a jumper for the hot wire between the two motors.
the black wire going from fan#2 to the speed control switch is a jumper for the hot wire.
see how the hot wire comes in from the cord, goes to fan#1, then fan#2, then finally the switch.
the brown and white wires on both motors are the speed control legs, ill explain them in a minute

to seperate the two motors for independant operation from the switch do the following, to the letter:

cut the power off, obviously

the black and grey wires that go from fan#1 to the cord, cut them but leave plenty of wire attached to the motor, as much as you can spare.

cut the grey wire on fan#2 leaving as much wire attached to the motor as you can.

the black wire that runs from fan#1 to fan#2, you will need to cut it as close to fan#1 as possible, so all the wire is still attached to fan#2

the black wire that goes from fan#2 to the switch, cut it off close to fan#2 as possible.

cut both the brown and white wires off the switch, leaving most of the wire still attatched to the motor.

set aside the switch

ok now you have the 2 motors isolated.-the grey wire on each motor is a neutral.

the black wires on each motor is the hot.

the brown and white wires are the speed control legs, you will have to use one of them to make the motor work. i cant tell from your diagram which one is high, and which one is low, ill assume for examples sake that the white wire is the high, and thats the speed you want to use.

you will connect the white, the black, and the incoming hot wire from the cord together using a wire nut so that there are three wires twisted together.

you connect the grey wire to the incoming neutral from the cord so that there are 2 wires connected together.

plug it in it should come to life.
unfortunatly you will need two cords to pull this off as you have two motors, and dont forget to capoff or tape up any wires connected to the motors that your not using and i hacked ur image heres what it should look like when ur done

IAm5toned said:

but to add 2 120v 20amp circuits with breakers switches and wire your looking at roughly 100-125$ in parts... thats if you go expensive on switches/plugs and have long runs of wire to run. its more labor than anything else, the wire will be by far the most expensive part. the 20amp breakers themselves shouldnt be more than 5$ apeice, and the plugs shouldnt be either unless your getting gfci's

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thanks for the good info. my 'friend' was an Electrician but i'm pretty sure he'd try to rip me off since i know nothing.

test: why is the beach always next to the water?
test: on a 110v that goes to a elec motor and i want an indicator light that is on when the elec motor/pump is on and run it on ONE circuit say the cheap indoor romex, but if the light fails the elec motor will still run?? can't be done huh? i will have to have a separate circuit from the elec mtr for the indicator light correct?