electrician
- Thread starter mountainhigh8
- Start date
gotot
Well-Known Member
i've got a question. how do i use florecents without the fixture? and what do i hook the ducking fan up to?
holmes... thanks for your response. ummm what if they are both 110? i would rather have them 110 since thats just a basic outlet. im wandering how the fuck im going to hook up these 2 lights w/o blowing shit. i had an electrician to do it but he went to jail last month... and he'll be there for a while 
holmes
Well-Known Member
if each ballast is 110, then its best to have each light dedicated to its own line coming from the panel. it doesnt seem like you have any experience messing with electrical, so you should get someone to help you out. Its no big deal, but if you dont know what your doing, then you could mess shit up. we can talk about it a little more if you give me detail of your house, and where the grow room is, if its in the basement near your panel, it will be a peace of cake.
holmes
Well-Known Member
mountainhigh
if all the breakers are in use, then double up a different line.
the dryer has to be 2 seperate poles, so the breaker with double switches on em that occupy an inch space like phinxter recommended is not good. but you can use this double switch breaker for a different line occupying a smaller load. this will free up a space for you to place the bigger 2pole breaker.
let us know what youve got going on in that panel so you can be sure your doing the right thing if your not confident.
if all the breakers are in use, then double up a different line.
the dryer has to be 2 seperate poles, so the breaker with double switches on em that occupy an inch space like phinxter recommended is not good. but you can use this double switch breaker for a different line occupying a smaller load. this will free up a space for you to place the bigger 2pole breaker.
let us know what youve got going on in that panel so you can be sure your doing the right thing if your not confident.
mountainhigh8
Well-Known Member
sweet man i'm going to go look at it right now!
mountainhigh8
Well-Known Member
sweet so my dryer circuit is a 30 amp breaker and it's taking up two slots, and underneath that there is a 40 amp breaker for the range what's that? and there only 16 slots in my panel. all taken up to, what do ya think? can i put a 40 amp breaker in where my dryer is?
holmes
Well-Known Member
the range, im not sure, i imagine its above your stove, the exhaust/light combo. but 40 amps?, might be something else.
for now if its in use leave it
since you already have the 2 pole 30amp for the dryer, just leave as it was for the dryer to begin with, and run one or two extra lines depending on how many lights you have to connect ( sorry i dont remember what you have going there)
just pick up those single pole double breakers, as many as you need for the new and existing lines in place now.
if you have to,shutoff the main breaker so your not working live, use bx or romex and make sure its grounded.
i hope it helps somewhat, im gonna be gone for a while and i hope youll get the help you need from friends or other members here
good luck
for now if its in use leave it
since you already have the 2 pole 30amp for the dryer, just leave as it was for the dryer to begin with, and run one or two extra lines depending on how many lights you have to connect ( sorry i dont remember what you have going there)
just pick up those single pole double breakers, as many as you need for the new and existing lines in place now.
if you have to,shutoff the main breaker so your not working live, use bx or romex and make sure its grounded.
i hope it helps somewhat, im gonna be gone for a while and i hope youll get the help you need from friends or other members here
good luck
scruffmcgruff
Well-Known Member
in my experience if your stove/oven uses 220 volts then that is considered your "range"
I'll explain what i know.. i think you should listen.
lets start at your main panel, the breakers in that panel must be sized according to your wire gauge. examples would be 15 amp breakers use 14 AWG wire, 20 amp breakers use 12 AWG and so on. a Lowes department store will show you the wire conversion chart or you can google it.
every device (regardless if its intended on and off at different times) you have and intend to put on that feed wire, (your load) must always be only a total of 80% the total wire gauge... so if you have a 23 amp load you can not use a 25 amp breaker you must use the next step, a 30 amp breaker. don't cheat and say o i wont use both at the same time so i dont need a wire that can support both... thats a firehazard and can get you a burned down house.
Not all devices show amp, they may display watts. this formula will help you determine your amp requirements.
AMPS = WATTS divided by VOLTS
You sound like you have one black (the live wire) one white (nuetral for 120 applications, or the secondary live wire in 220v applications) and one ground (the green or yellow) this signifies you need a double pole breaker, one that offers your amperage and gives off 2 places to screw in wires which will become live once the breaker is seated against the breaker bar and turned on. your ground wire would go to your neutral or ground bar, just look for where your other bare wires or green/yellow wires go.
like stated earlier in the posts, if you do attempt to put a load of over 80% the wires rated gauge, you do run the inevidible risk of fire since the wire will heat up and melt the insulators keeping the two live wires inside the wire jacket from arching... a few good archs and your walls become good fire wood. make sure you securly fasten your connections aswell and i even recommend wrapping your outlet once or twice around with electrical tape just across your screw terminations...
and now i leave everyone reading this with a piece of information you will never forget
when hooking up 120v connections you can always tell what color wire goes to what screw color as the black wire always goes with the gold screw and the white wire with the silver screw
white guys get silver tooth fillings and black guys get gold fillings
lets start at your main panel, the breakers in that panel must be sized according to your wire gauge. examples would be 15 amp breakers use 14 AWG wire, 20 amp breakers use 12 AWG and so on. a Lowes department store will show you the wire conversion chart or you can google it.
every device (regardless if its intended on and off at different times) you have and intend to put on that feed wire, (your load) must always be only a total of 80% the total wire gauge... so if you have a 23 amp load you can not use a 25 amp breaker you must use the next step, a 30 amp breaker. don't cheat and say o i wont use both at the same time so i dont need a wire that can support both... thats a firehazard and can get you a burned down house.
Not all devices show amp, they may display watts. this formula will help you determine your amp requirements.
AMPS = WATTS divided by VOLTS
You sound like you have one black (the live wire) one white (nuetral for 120 applications, or the secondary live wire in 220v applications) and one ground (the green or yellow) this signifies you need a double pole breaker, one that offers your amperage and gives off 2 places to screw in wires which will become live once the breaker is seated against the breaker bar and turned on. your ground wire would go to your neutral or ground bar, just look for where your other bare wires or green/yellow wires go.
like stated earlier in the posts, if you do attempt to put a load of over 80% the wires rated gauge, you do run the inevidible risk of fire since the wire will heat up and melt the insulators keeping the two live wires inside the wire jacket from arching... a few good archs and your walls become good fire wood. make sure you securly fasten your connections aswell and i even recommend wrapping your outlet once or twice around with electrical tape just across your screw terminations...
and now i leave everyone reading this with a piece of information you will never forget
when hooking up 120v connections you can always tell what color wire goes to what screw color as the black wire always goes with the gold screw and the white wire with the silver screw
white guys get silver tooth fillings and black guys get gold fillings
since your panel box is filled i would recommend trying to combine circuits in your panel box to one breaker but the circuits you combine must be the same wire gauge like 14 wire and must go to the correctly sized breaker. if you have 14 gauge wire and just throw in a 20 amp breaker that means you 14 wire will burn up before the breaker shuts the power going to that wire off.. the breaker is a safety feature so if you lie to it and say you want it to cut off at 20 amps when your wire can only support 15 (and with the 80% rule it should only be supporting 12 amps rather than 15) then you would start a fire. FOR SURE
that said, you can go turning off one breaker at a time and going through your house looking for whats not getting power now.. check outlets you plan to use, the works. if you can get two circuit breakers with relatively no use, you can combine the lines coming into the box and put them on one of the two breakers, then remove the un needed breaker. you definitely want to shut down the main breaker first. this is probably the safest way
if you replace your dryer breaker to a higher limit your going to need to replace your dryer wire, period.
that said, you can go turning off one breaker at a time and going through your house looking for whats not getting power now.. check outlets you plan to use, the works. if you can get two circuit breakers with relatively no use, you can combine the lines coming into the box and put them on one of the two breakers, then remove the un needed breaker. you definitely want to shut down the main breaker first. this is probably the safest way
if you replace your dryer breaker to a higher limit your going to need to replace your dryer wire, period.
killamanilla420
Active Member
hey any 1 help me with wiring an exhaust fan off a over the range microwave
BigBudBalls
Well-Known Member
This is because if the voltage goes up or down, amp draw will vary. US household can be 108 to 130VAC which will 'adjust' the amp draw, but watts will remain the same. (damn KVA ratings drive me nuts)
Also recheck them after a month. Repeated E/C cycles can loosen connection. Especially on high amp circuits.
Oh, great post!