A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions

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weeds247

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
a 60 amp double pole breaker could be used for anything, a large water heater, a boiler/heat/ac unit, welder, etc, etc. lots of people put wierd shit in there basement.

i highly doubt it was used for grow lights, unless the wire was used to feed a subpanel... the breaker is to big for 'branch circuit devices' (things you normally plug in)

what you have there is a single 60 amp, 240v circuit. depending on if there was a wire for a neutral, it could be easily converted to 120v though, with a little cash and some elbow grease....
if your missing the wire for a neutral... get 240v equipement... in most cases it'll be cheaper and easier than trying to add that one wire to get a 120v neutral to the basement.
Click to expand...

1. Where can I find this neutral wire?

2. Link or place where I can find 240 v equipment? Are you talking about the plug that runs from the ballast to the wall?

Thanks for help.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
grower001 said:
awsome thread you got going here my quetion is i found a site that sells medium based hps/mh lights. medium base is the usuall socket found in house hold lamp right? if so am i correct that these medium based light wont need a ballast??
Click to expand...
ANY HID lamp (mh, hps, cmh, pmh, mv, lps)
requires a ballast and a capacitor. if you have a sodium lamp, it will also need an ignitor.

so to answer your question, no.

the only non-incadescant lamp that i have ever seen that does not require a ballast is a CFL. and that is a white lie, because the CFL lamp has the ballast built into the base.

even LED's require a ballast (the capacitor and resistor, if you've ever played with making a led fixture....)
 
grower001

grower001

Well-Known Member
so iknow im a little slow but with these medium based hps lights. i wont be able to just plug them in and grow?? id have to do all that wiring shit and get a ballest??
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
weeds247 said:
1. Where can I find this neutral wire?

2. Link or place where I can find 240 v equipment? Are you talking about the plug that runs from the ballast to the wall?

Thanks for help.
Click to expand...
click HERE for 240v equipment...

and you never mentioned a plug, so i have no idea what you mena by that.
as far as finding the neutral... that should be left to a professional, as you will prolly get yourself hurt trying too find it.
a good hint is to count the wires feeding your 60amp device. 3 wires = no neutral. 4 wires = neutral
 
grower001

grower001

Well-Known Member
the web site gives this info on the lights """LU250 high pressure sodium light bulbs are used in all kinds of security lighting and for parking lots. It's 250 watts and operates on a core and coil ballast. The golden white color is how you identify them and they are very energy efficient."""""" the core and coil ballast part are they talking about a seperate ballast
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
grower001 said:
It's 250 watts and operates on a core and coil ballast
Click to expand...
you said it yourself man... lol. hate to point out the obvious... but yeah, you will need a ballast for ANY hid lamp, regardless of size, shape, base, color, race, creed, sexual orientation, surface temperature of the moon, etc, etc. its just the way they work.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
l8nightblunt said:
I'm hoping you can help me out here, so if you can tell me what you think or the best route to go I'd very much appreciate it . I'm essentially running a 240v line from my dryer. Dryer is one wall away, so I'm going to splice into the 240v line for the dryer, run 12 feet of cable and have a box with two 240v plugs for my lights. The dryer will only be used during the day time while my lights running off of the 240v line will be on at night, and I'll unplug the dryer just-encase, because my girl will probably forget one day and try to dry a load at night and trip the fuse lol. I'm thinking of wiring a relay so I don't have to go out and buy two new 240v timers, * I was running 120v previously and only have one 120v timer*. I'm also going to wire the box for the two 240v outlets *rated at 30amps each* so while I'm doing that Can I run a relay from my new box, with a timer on it so it will turn my power off and on at my predesignated times? Or should I just go pay the $40 bucks and buy two 240v timers and not worry about it? thanks in advance
Click to expand...
i just found this post and noticed i missed it.

imho, you are begging for problems...
but yes, you can get a 30 amp dpdt relay with a 120v coil that will run off your timer.
you would wire the dpdt relay so that the incoming line voltage (the hot wires) is connected to the common pole on the relay. then connect the dryer circuit to the normally closed contacts on the dpdt relay. then connect lighting circuit to the normally open contacts on the relay. connect the timer output circuit to the dpdt relay coil.
wiring the relay like that will cause the power to switch from the dryer to the lights, as soon as the timer comes on, and will switch the power back to the dryer when the timer shuts off.
just dont go cheap on the relay. make sure its of industrial quality and rated for an inductive load, as it will be in use for continuous duty.
 
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weeds247

Well-Known Member
IAm5toned said:
click HERE for 240v equipment...

and you never mentioned a plug, so i have no idea what you mena by that.
as far as finding the neutral... that should be left to a professional, as you will prolly get yourself hurt trying too find it.
a good hint is to count the wires feeding your 60amp device. 3 wires = no neutral. 4 wires = neutral
Click to expand...

Great so that means I can pull off a 4 600 watt hps light setup no problem?( 5.5 amps per setup if i remember correctly).
 
Laze

Laze

Well-Known Member
Question for the Master! Does using 150W HPS lamp means that every hour it uses 150w electricity. Or the ballast also uses electricity (150w ballast fot the 150w lamp), meaning that running 150W HPS sun system uses 300W eletricity??
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
itll use 150w per hour.... actually about 165-70 watts if you count the heat generated by the ballast.... bongsmilie

lol and i am not a master
 
Laze

Laze

Well-Known Member
Good. That means i can get 250W reflector without the landlord seeing something fishy.
 
ItsFourTwentySomewhere

ItsFourTwentySomewhere

Member
Is a 20A breaker enough to handle a 400w HPS and enough fannage to keep it cool and odor free?

How do I figure out for sure which outlet goes to which breaker? My box is marked, but not well. Is it a matter of flipping the breaker off and testing each outlet?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.
 
IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
you can pull 1900 watts off a 20 amp breaker.
make sure you check to make sure that your 20amp breaker is not running other stuff in the house, like kitchen plugs or a hallway light, etc, etc
the simplest way to find what breaker you want is to plug something in (like a simple light bulb/lamp) leave it on, then shut breakers off one at a time untill your light shuts off...
 
brookstown

brookstown

Active Member
Hi there stoned one, appreciate your thread here to answer question.

I've just opened a storefront collective in san mateo and i think i will need an elec upgrade. any ideas on the pricing of the upgrade. I think i will need at least 400 amps. do you have an idea of what this would cost and is this something we can do ourselves. I've read some books and it doesn't look that complicated just installing a panel and about 20 0utlets.

any help is appreciated.

Thanks
 
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