green army
Member
Hello & thanks for your advice,can i fit a light switch/dimmer inline on my exhaust fan cable to control the speed?,how would it be wired if so?,UK cable.
A Bored Electrician to Answer Your Questions
- Thread starter IAm5toned
- Start date
weedyweedy
Active Member
I have a 250W ballast and when I asked how many amps it uses, the one who assembled it answered 20. Is that too much? Does having 20amps for a 220Voltage and 250W ballast make my electricity bill bigger? I'm sorry I'm just confused about this and I'm worried about electric bills.
http://www.horticulturesource.com/popup_image.php?pID=1969&osCsid=9b29c9d1bae5f00783c13ba27c86ca53
that is what I got then have a
model number is 734057-- then I have a
http://www.garden.com/item/eco-plug-digital-plug-in-timer-15-amp/G33624/?srccode=MRGDSHPZ&mr:referralID=ee8cbd76-1991-11df-8544-000423c27407
that all came together as a package deal---
get on the CARE program it is cheaper that is only if u make it an dont make a bunch of money--- go to PGE.com search CARE
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
no, you cant. you need a motor speed control switch, and it wires just like a light switch.
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
250w (lamp) + 50w(ballast draw) = 300w
300w @ 220v= 1.36 amps
300w @ 110v= 2.72 amps
so there you go.
dont worry about the electric bill. 1 250w shouldnt run you more than 20 a month
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
ok the way i see it, and i maybe wrong because the links you provided had minimum info, but heres what i got from it-
the timer plugs into 120v wall outlet, and the 30 amp cord on the light box plugs into the 220v dryer outlet.
then the black 110v cord on the light box plugs into the timer.
the timer controls a small contactor inside the lighting box, which switches power to the outlets on the box.
here is what i suggest-
1. make sure the power is on @ the 240v outlet and the 120v outlet.
double check... if this means plugging in a simple lamp to check the 110 and turning it on, and doing the same for the dryer and 240v outlet, than do it. or else get a meter and verify the power is on.
2. that timer requires batteries. did you put them in?
3. do your lights have lamps in them, and do they work?
4. if your still dead in the water after that, try taking the black 110v cord from the light box and pluging it in directly to the wall outlet. the light box should always come on if that plug is just plugged in directly. if it does not come on when you try that, than there s a pretty good chance that the lightbox is messed up or has a loose connection. it maybe worth your while to take the cover off and check for any loose wires, or if they are even hooked up inside the box... wouldnt be the first time ive seen a control panel bought online that wasnt put together inside, just a box of parts with a cover on it.
5 if it does come on, then you have a bad timer....
this is what I have done everything works but then i have the timer plugged into the 120volt on the box an it comes with 2 plugs on the sides an there dead i tryed to plug a fan an it didnt work but when I plug the fan into the 30 amp box it works-- do i need to plug the cord that comes out of the the 30 amp into the wall or does it go into the timer?----
right now how it is set up i have the cord that comes out of the 30 amp timer box it is going into a power cord that has multiple plug ins-- --is that wrong?
whats your E mail addy i can send u pics--- or i can put them on here--------
that is what i have--- the top cord that is the one cord coming out of the 30 amp box-- is that set up wrong? let me know if u need more pics to see---
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
lol yeah you fucketh that one upeth...this is what I have done everything works but then i have the timer plugged into the 120volt on the box an it comes with 2 plugs on the sides an there dead i tryed to plug a fan an it didnt work but when I plug the fan into the 30 amp box it works-- do i need to plug the cord that comes out of the the 30 amp into the wall or does it go into the timer?----
right now how it is set up i have the cord that comes out of the 30 amp timer box it is going into a power cord that has multiple plug ins-- --is that wrong?
whats your E mail addy i can send u pics--- or i can put them on here--------
that is what i have--- the top cord that is the one cord coming out of the 30 amp box-- is that set up wrong? let me know if u need more pics to see---
easy to fix though
move the timer to the power strip. plug it in! plug the black cord that comes from the LIGHT BOX into the TIMER.
the outlets on the bottom of the light box are controlled by the timer, your not supposed to plug the timer into the light box like you have in the pics. the timer goes into a wall outlet/straight unswitched 120v, then the light box plugs into the timer, so that when the timer comes on, the plugs on the light box comes on.
the way you have it shown in the pic, the timer cant tell the light box to turn on, because its plugged into the lightbox thats already turned off! easy mistake to make though...
edit/ps-
you said that your timer came on, but the plugs on the sides didnt... do you have the time on the timer set to your local time and the timer programmed? if sop, then it may be a bad timer then...
weedyweedy
Active Member
Oh so the 20 amperage is just the capacity. Thanks for clarifying that.
lol yeah you fucketh that one upeth...
easy to fix though
move the timer to the power strip. plug it in! plug the black cord that comes from the LIGHT BOX into the TIMER.
the outlets on the bottom of the light box are controlled by the timer, your not supposed to plug the timer into the light box like you have in the pics. the timer goes into a wall outlet/straight unswitched 120v, then the light box plugs into the timer, so that when the timer comes on, the plugs on the light box comes on.
the way you have it shown in the pic, the timer cant tell the light box to turn on, because its plugged into the lightbox thats already turned off! easy mistake to make though...
edit/ps-
you said that your timer came on, but the plugs on the sides didnt... do you have the time on the timer set to your local time and the timer programmed? if sop, then it may be a bad timer then...
thanks we will see if it shuts the lights of or not--- 15 mins then they be off----
i do have it sit an programed--- it said at first plug it into the wall an an to let it charge i did that then set the time an programed it--
well it didnt work it didnt shut the lights off-it is set on AUTO onthe timer-- but soon an it pushthe buttom on the timer for off it kills the lights--- do i need to hit it everytime---i thought Auto mean that I dont have to mess with it------
GrowingfortheGold
New Member
Hey man.
I'm gonna be going into flowering soon and am prolly gonna have to shit out like 3200 watts. I'm in an apartment btw. I was planning to disconnect the electric stove. Plug in a 50 amp cable with 3 120v plugs on the end. I'm gonna have 4 600 watt lights and a couple of fans and pumps. 2 lights on each plug and the last plug for the fans and such. Well I'm obviously gonna have to run a power strip or something. So let me think...
2 x 600w = ~1240-50 watts
2 x 600w = ~1240-50 watts
Inline +...= ~750 watts
So thats like 3250 watts.
50 Amp can hold what like 4800 watts before trippin?
So what gauge should the cable be for the 50 amp connection. All the other ones can be like 18 gauge even right? Thanks I lost my last crop due to faulty wiring - the buildings.
I'm gonna be going into flowering soon and am prolly gonna have to shit out like 3200 watts. I'm in an apartment btw. I was planning to disconnect the electric stove. Plug in a 50 amp cable with 3 120v plugs on the end. I'm gonna have 4 600 watt lights and a couple of fans and pumps. 2 lights on each plug and the last plug for the fans and such. Well I'm obviously gonna have to run a power strip or something. So let me think...
2 x 600w = ~1240-50 watts
2 x 600w = ~1240-50 watts
Inline +...= ~750 watts
So thats like 3250 watts.
50 Amp can hold what like 4800 watts before trippin?
So what gauge should the cable be for the 50 amp connection. All the other ones can be like 18 gauge even right? Thanks I lost my last crop due to faulty wiring - the buildings.
Allright I've got a cheap 400w htg hps/mh ballast. And I`m running them on 20/4. The last two nights I woke up to find the light not being able to relight. The ballast is running again, and the light is lightly flickering.
But heres the strange thing, I switch to a 400w spare MH bulb and it works fine for the day until it shuts off again. I had to do that again, I put the 400w HPS bulb back in and it worked all day.
I shut it off for a second, and it wouldn't refire. Unscrewed the bulb, rescrewed it back in and it worked fine.
I`m guessing my problem is with the ballast. I`m hoping I can get it to last this grow. I've got a little over a month left. Then I`ll upgrading to a newer digital ballast.
Any tips on dealing with this?
But heres the strange thing, I switch to a 400w spare MH bulb and it works fine for the day until it shuts off again. I had to do that again, I put the 400w HPS bulb back in and it worked all day.
I shut it off for a second, and it wouldn't refire. Unscrewed the bulb, rescrewed it back in and it worked fine.
I`m guessing my problem is with the ballast. I`m hoping I can get it to last this grow. I've got a little over a month left. Then I`ll upgrading to a newer digital ballast.
Any tips on dealing with this?
shinedog
Active Member
I'm currently looking at a new house to move my operation. The house is older, but has been recently updated and seems to allow me some flexibility in space and power.
There is a space on the top floor that runs the span of the house. Looks to be an old attic area that was converted. There are windows at each end of the room which should work well for venting.
At one end of the room there is a 4-pronged black plug. I wasn't able to get a pic of it yet, however it is the only plug of it's kind in the room and it's close to the window. I'm thinking it was probably used to power a window air-conditioning unit at one time. However, I'm not totally certain of it's use or if it's even hot.
Now going based on some general assumptions. Can I throw a voltage test meter on this and determine if it's hot? If it is I would like to run a system like the PowerBox systems. If it is the right type of plug, could I just change the breaker in the box if it isn't large enough?
There is a space on the top floor that runs the span of the house. Looks to be an old attic area that was converted. There are windows at each end of the room which should work well for venting.
At one end of the room there is a 4-pronged black plug. I wasn't able to get a pic of it yet, however it is the only plug of it's kind in the room and it's close to the window. I'm thinking it was probably used to power a window air-conditioning unit at one time. However, I'm not totally certain of it's use or if it's even hot.
Now going based on some general assumptions. Can I throw a voltage test meter on this and determine if it's hot? If it is I would like to run a system like the PowerBox systems. If it is the right type of plug, could I just change the breaker in the box if it isn't large enough?
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
thats what i would take it to mean to...
maybe its just a funky timer, or it has to charge up completely befor eit works right, honestly i dont know what it is if you have it programmed right... did you read the manual? sometimes theres a troubleshooting guide buried in there somewhere.
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
man to be honest your really need a loadcenter to run that... get a small 60 or 100 amp panel and connect the awg#6 cables to the main lugs in it, then put a 240v plug on the other end so you can plug it in to the dryer outlet.
for the lights use awg#14, dont use 18.
in the panel just have a 15 amp breaker for each light, and put the fan on one of them... what you really need is the lighting control box like what savage has ion the above posts...
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
sound slike you are using probe start metal halide lamps on a pulse start ballast. it probably is killing the ignitor slowly but steadily...
IAm5toned
Well-Known Member
i would say theres a 99% chance your right about that outlet being for a window unit. ofeten the same outlet is used to run portable heaters in the winter as well. that is a fairly common thing to see in older houses in my part of the country.
depending on the size of the unit that it was serving, its more than likely a 30-50 amp 220v w/neutral (which is why there are 4 prongs, 2 hots, 1 neutral, and a ground)
on the plug itself there shoul be 3 larger verticle slots on the top, and one smaller rounded slot on the bottom of the outlet.
looking at the three slots, the top 3 are the ones you need to worry about for now, they are the current carrying conductors, the bottom rounded slot is the ground. to test the outlet, youll have to make sure it is on first
on the 3 verticle slots, the one on the left is phase 1 voltage (hot) the slot on the right is phase 2 voltage (hot) the slot in the middle is neutral. with a multimeter on ac voltage, you should read somewhere between 110-130v between phase 1 and neutral, and the same for phase 2 and neutral. next read between phase 1 and phase 2, you should see 215-240vac.
next, test the ground... check to make sure you have 110-130v between both phase one,phase 2 and ground.
thats it. as far as finding out how many amps it is good for, the size of the breaker that turns the outlet on or off will tell you.
as far as upgrading it, it is a whole lot more complicated than just putting a bigger breake rin, because if you just stuck a bigger breaker in you would burn downyour new house and you dont want that, do you?
breaker sizes are determined by the size of the wire they are connected to, and thats it. the load, or power your trying to pull doesnt have shit to do with the breaker size. you size the wire for your power requirements, then size the breaker to the wire. always. no exceptions. if you put a larger breaker on a wire that is not rated for the amount of amperage your trying to pull through it, the wire will burn, pretty quick.
so if the wiring going up to your outlet is only good for 30 amps, and you need 50 amps, then your going to have to pull a new wire to it from your main panel, no other way around it.
fortunatly for you, if you know exactly what equipment you plan on running and how big the breaker size that feeds the outlet is, i can tell you whether or not tyou will have to run new wiring. im willing to bet you could pull damn near 5800w off of it if it is good for 30 amps...