Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

Hey I'm a total newb, both to growing and electronics, and I just noticed a potentially big problem. I'm growing in my attic, and currently I have everything (water pump, air pump, timer w/3 way adapter going to 2 t5s and 2 cfls) plugged in to one surge protector. Ordinarily I wouldn't be too worried at this, but then i traced back the extension going to the surge protector to find it plugged into a light socket to polarized outlet adapter with a ground to ungrounded adapter! what a ghetto rig. there doesn't appear to be any actual outlets up there either. Anyways, I'd like to make this safer, to not only eliminate fucking up my equipment, but also so my house doesn't burn down! any advice?

Lennard said:

Thanks captn!

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Ok just wanted to make certain. Thx captn

bam bam said:

Hey I want to drill some small holes in my wall. Is there a way to find out if there are any electrical wires behind the wall? I dont want to buy that device that finds eletrical wiring behind walls. The holes Iam drilling will be about 5 feet above my floor, so nothing down low and close to wall outlets.

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...well... normally there wouldn't be any wires running up the wall unless it goes up to a light fixture or switch and then it would be stapled to the stud. Soo.. if you make sure you are between studs you should be fine. This assumes a small hole is like 1/4" not two feet. I prefer to use a depth gauge the thickness of the wall material, cut out an 'exploratory' hole and look before getting in to the space between the walls. If you like, you can view how I did this when I cut out the holes for my lights air cooling system here https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/187391-diy-venting-grow-room-lights.html Yes I did run into wires in the wall, some one that is not an electrician put them there to install a gfi circuit in my garage so I can't fault myself too much, I am glad I was careful. VV

I have a squirell cage fan that I got out of a dead stove. It has a 2 cord power connection with a little plastic thing connecting the end of them, looks like a plug for the stove or something. I am trying to wire a plug on it so I can attach it to a carbon filter.

bassmagicks said:

Hey I'm a total newb, both to growing and electronics, and I just noticed a potentially big problem. I'm growing in my attic, and currently I have everything (water pump, air pump, timer w/3 way adapter going to 2 t5s and 2 cfls) plugged in to one surge protector. Ordinarily I wouldn't be too worried at this, but then i traced back the extension going to the surge protector to find it plugged into a light socket to polarized outlet adapter with a ground to ungrounded adapter! what a ghetto rig. there doesn't appear to be any actual outlets up there either. Anyways, I'd like to make this safer, to not only eliminate fucking up my equipment, but also so my house doesn't burn down! any advice?

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Well... if I understand you correctly it should be fairly easy to make this better. I assume you are talking about a porcelain light socket. Turn off the circuit and remove the two screw that hold the light socket in place, gently pull it out so you can see how it is attached, I bet there are at least two wires there, and black and one white, maybe your lucky and there is a green one there too. You could install a receptacle instead of the light socket or make this a 'work box' and install new wire from there to wherever it is convenient.
Attic grows are simple to run wiring to if your electric service panel is one floor below, a lot harder if the service is in the basement. VV

what are the advantages to setting up a 240 30amp conversion? What is the advantage of running high voltage?

mossman59 said:

what are the advantages to setting up a 240 30amp conversion? What is the advantage of running high voltage?

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There is not any advantage to running 220 instead of 110 as far as your energy bill is concerned if you are in the US. Running the 240 30 amp circuit is being suggested as a way to put enough power to a room to install a sub panel instead of running separate 110 circuits from the service panel. VV

VictorVIcious said:

Well... if I understand you correctly it should be fairly easy to make this better. I assume you are talking about a porcelain light socket. Turn off the circuit and remove the two screw that hold the light socket in place, gently pull it out so you can see how it is attached, I bet there are at least two wires there, and black and one white, maybe your lucky and there is a green one there too. You could install a receptacle instead of the light socket or make this a 'work box' and install new wire from there to wherever it is convenient.
Attic grows are simple to run wiring to if your electric service panel is one floor below, a lot harder if the service is in the basement. VV

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Hmm, that sounds about right. I took a couple quick pictures just to help clarify. Oh, and my circuit panel is 2 floors below, in the garage
Am I in great danger of fire if I don't fix this soon, or can it wait until I'm at home depot next, probably within a week or two?

If you are not using that light bulb, you will probably be alright. We are talking about less than $10.00 to change what is there now. Having the service panel two floors below in the garage would be one of those cases where you may want to put a small service or sub panel in the attic. You would be able to buy wire that is weather proof. or at least approved for 'wet' locations like barns etc. Type NMC or if that is not available type uf will work, it will be more expensive, its approved for underground use, not just wet location. Painted the same color as the house, no one would even notice. VV

hey bricktown 73,got a quick question. this is my first grow and it is hydro. my first month i was using 120 wat led and a 125 watt cfl.my electric bill was 29.88 the first grow and now i am budding with a 400 watt hps.i am in a 2 br apartment with a grow tent and a carbon filter and for this month my electric bill is 66.02,the first month it shows 191 kwhand 2nd month it shows 947 kwh.is this normal and should this raise any bad attention??

Electrical assistance.

I am adding batteries in an array to assist with the UPS that I have attached to my system. The one thing I have not been able to rap my brain around and it might just be in front of me and I just dont see it!!!! By using OHMS Law is it logical to be able to calculate Amp hours as well as Watt Hours, or is just the amount of hours a device is in use and the amount of power it consumes?

eg: a device is using 100watts and runs for 12 hours = 1200 watt hours?
a device is using 100amp and runs for 12 hours = 1200 amp hours?

I can figure out all the volatges/watts/amps/joules But the basics of understand how much power is pulled over X number of hours is kind of making me feel a bit dumb founded. I would like to have a battery run time of 2days to ensure black outs or brown outs wont damage the ladies!!!


System in place
2 - 600Watt HPS
1 - 250 MH (Mother)
1- (2bulb) Grolux 40watt (80watt total)
1- Hunter Fan
1- pond pump
1- bubbler
1-oscillating fan
3-timers

Bump this thread!!!! What a great read!!!

quick question. i live in a really old building (1912 when it was built but very well maintained) my plans involve running a 2 1000w and all the usual pumps, timers, fans, etc for a standard grow. now my question is: how concerned would you be about the old wiring handling that kind of juice? more or less i just want to make sure im not gonna burn everyone alive in my apartment building.

Marvin said:

quick question. i live in a really old building (1912 when it was built but very well maintained) my plans involve running a 2 1000w and all the usual pumps, timers, fans, etc for a standard grow. now my question is: how concerned would you be about the old wiring handling that kind of juice? more or less i just want to make sure im not gonna burn everyone alive in my apartment building.

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More than likely it is not all old wiring, they would have upgraded. If you pay your electric you have a panel that services your apartment. You might want to look in that panel and see how many circuits there are before deciding. VV

also a way to know and check if you have a fuse box or breaker box .. if fuses you might want to have them upgrade your wiring

offthesidwalk

I want to move my ballasts out of my room to help control the temps.
To do this I need an extension cord.
Is it wise to plug two ballasts into a single extension cord?
Should they each get their own cord, or are they a bad idea all together?

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I think you know the answer to this, it is never a good idea to plug 2 major draws into one extension cord, if we knew what watt of ballast we could give a better answer. All hid ballast that are not hard wired use 'extension cords' they just put them in a work box for the connection instead of using plugs. The idea of keeping the ballast in a separate room is good make sure you use cords that have the necessary amp and temperature ratings. A good way to make sure is to use the extension cords the sell at hydro shops that match the proprietary plugs some of them use, usually available in 15' and 25' lengths. You would use them between the ballast and the hood.

Also on an unrelated question.
Are charcoal filters reversible?
I want to put my filter in my attic to reduce clutter, plug my lamp exhaust into this, and won't have to hang the bastard.
Any thoughts?

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Reversible? no, you have to pull air through the open end. The air cooling system for the light needs to be a separate system. It does not require an expensive CanFan for the light, I bought the one I use to air cool 3-1000 watt hid lights at Menards for less than $30.00. you do not have to hang the carbon filter, you can set it on the floor, it just means you will have more ducting and have to get a bigger fan, there are no short cuts. VV

hey man, your electrical set up is impressive, can you give me the specs for just the breaker

What would I need to run 2-4 1000watt ballasts? The only thing I know is I can't plug them all into one wall socket.

peter 421... add up all your watts that will be used and divide by 110 watts/volts= amps. This will tell you how many amps you will need to run into your grow room....
If you read this thread you will no alot more about electricity when you are finished... It takes time but very good info...
Im sure brick or capt will help you.... just be patient..
nk

Peter421 said:

What would I need to run 2-4 1000watt ballasts? The only thing I know is I can't plug them all into one wall socket.

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You can easily figure these thing by using the formula volts x amps = watts. As long as you know 2 of the three numbers you can figure the other one, so lets see what we do know. We know its 1000 watts and we know its 110 volts, right? So we plug in those numbers and divide both sides by volts, leaving us with the new equation, amps= watts divided by volts. 1000/110 is about 9 amps per light.
When I was running the wiring for my room, I used 12 wire and 20 amp receptacle and breakers. The suggestion is that you never run more than 80% of capacity so around 16 amps. Not many individual items, other than 1000 watt lights are going to run at 7 amps so I can plug a fan or a pump without having another circuit and still be safe. I figure the extra protection of the 20 amp circuit cost about $4.00. I haven't had a breaker blow yet, guess I done ok with that.
If it were me doing this I would run a circuit for each big light I intended to use and a couple of utility lines as well one of those would be a gfc. VV