Experienced Electrician here to answer any and all Growroom ELECTRICAL QUESTIONS

Hi there fellow RIU'ers... Over and over again I continualy see new threads and posts about electrical work question and thought I would post a couple threads to help you guys the same way all of you who have done such a great job having helped me... So, Do you have a grow room question about how to wire something up, or what are the safest ways of doing things? The most important one I see alot is people running lights and fans off electrical extension chords... I have wired my own grow room and will post an example of my work.

Please, if you have any questions and are unsure of what to do or if what you are doing is safe, PLEASE! ask me first if you are even a tad bit unsure. I would hate to hear anyone has had an electrical fire because they didn't quite understand what they were doing when all they needed to do was to ask me a couple of questions... I will do my best to point you in the right direction.

If you want to do some of the wiring your self, I will either let you know that if your project is too complicated, if your not handy with electrical, to get a pro in there, or, IF YOU ASK ME WHAT YOUR SITUATION IS, I will walk you thru your project step by step.

So please, ASK AWAY!!!

You can post questions here but you may not get your question answerd on the thread, best way to go about it is PM me. You will forsure get a response back.

PS Even if you have basic around the home electrical questions, shoot em my way.

What are the major differences between magnetic, electronic, and digital ballasts; and which type would you suggest using? Thanks.

First off, you should know what a Ballast does. The whole purpose of a ballast is to limit current, because gas discharge bulbs won't limit current themselves (they look like a negative resistance), and will just eat up current until it destroys itself, or the breaker/fuse goes.

Magnetic Ballasts have a poor power factor, that is, there is slight power loss when in use, they also have a slow switching speed, the mains frequency 60Hz (50Hz), which you hear as a humming noise. Newer magnetic ballasts have capacitors to correct the power factor so there isn't as much of a loss, but the hum is still there.

Electronic Ballasts work like your computer power supply, they switch at incredibly high speeds, usually 20kHz+. These essentially take the AC, turn it into DC, then turn it on/off really fast.

Digital Ballasts are just fancy Electronic Ballasts that have extra options like preheating the cathodes for rapid starting, or being able to dim the bulb.

Personally I would say get an electronic ballast, if you can get one that has rapid starting capability get it, if you can get one that instead has programmed start capability, get it instead. Programmed start is like Rapid Start, but will prolong the life of the bulb a bit more.

What about durability, and performance over the lifetime of the ballast?

Electronic Ballasts are all solid state, that it is all integrated circuits and such, I would think these would last longer than a Ballast with large magnets, inductors and capacitors. Also, the magnets in a magnetic ballast will heat up, and heat kills magnets, so it will be its own downfall.

As for lifetime of the bulbs, using an electronic ballast will make it last longer, especially if you get one of the programmed start ballasts. Performance wise, an electronic ballast will win out, the magnetic core of a magnetic ballast will eat power as I said before, that power will be not getting to the bulb.

Atarijedi said:

Electronic Ballasts are all solid state, that it is all integrated circuits and such, I would think these would last longer than a Ballast with large magnets, inductors and capacitors. Also, the magnets in a magnetic ballast will heat up, and heat kills magnets, so it will be its own downfall.

As for lifetime of the bulbs, using an electronic ballast will make it last longer, especially if you get one of the programmed start ballasts. Performance wise, an electronic ballast will win out, the magnetic core of a magnetic ballast will eat power as I said before, that power will be not getting to the bulb.

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I agree with atar, he pretty much nailed it. I would go Electronic just because replacement parts are easier and cheaper to come by.

The room im using as my grow room was built by the previous owner of the house. it has two wall sockets on one side and a single socket directly across the first two. They are standard wall sockets, 15a 120v? The previous owner mentioned that the two together share the same power cable through the wall and the stand alone uses the same cable as the light bulb. My plan was to hook up 3 1000 watt hps lights in there, one for each socket but im concerned that it may be too much for the single cable inside the wall. What do you think?

I'm running a 1000W/MH, in an area that wasn't originally intended for such a purpose. I'm a bit sketchy about going over the limit on the power after lighting, the hydro kits, and ventilation that I setup. Am I just worrying? If not, what is it I need to do to remedy this issue?

Snicklefritz said:

The room im using as my grow room was built by the previous owner of the house. it has two wall sockets on one side and a single socket directly across the first two. They are standard wall sockets, 15a 120v? The previous owner mentioned that the two together share the same power cable through the wall and the stand alone uses the same cable as the light bulb. My plan was to hook up 3 1000 watt hps lights in there, one for each socket but im concerned that it may be too much for the single cable inside the wall. What do you think?

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If you are planning on using (3) 1000w HID in that room you will HAVE TO run a dedicated line in there. You are going to pull at least 3000+ watts and you will overload those circuit pretty much right away.

I would suggest running 2 new circuits from your panel (a 12/3 romex cable). A 12/3 romex has 2 circuits in one cable. This way you have plenty of wattage capacity to run your light and other equiptment like fans, pumps, timers... Good luck, let us know what happens.

beauser420 said:

I'm running a 1000W/MH, in an area that wasn't originally intended for such a purpose. I'm a bit sketchy about going over the limit on the power after lighting, the hydro kits, and ventilation that I setup. Am I just worrying? If not, what is it I need to do to remedy this issue?

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Usually, in a middle class home, bedrooms are ran off a 15 amp circuit. Most of the time, the bedroom has its own circuit but if it is shared with other bedrooms you are more then likely going to overwhelm the circuit.

If you can, I all ways recommend running new, dedicated circuits for your growing needs. Just because its peace of mind that your not going to trip vital circuits.

Add up all your equiptment you plan to use and use this formula. Amps = watt / voltage.

Example. Normall household voltage= 120v So, 1200w / 120v= 10 amps

is this a different thread then bored electrician dudes just curious

I have some simple control circuits for monitoring that I want to implement but they are DC. Some are 5VDC, and some are 12VDC. How can I make these work in my house? I would perfer to use just one breaker from the panel to dedicate this circuit.

How easy is it to route 150 amps into a basement safely?

i just bought a 240v light timer that can handle 4000 watts. it is rated for 30 amps.. i have a 40 amop breaker.. can i hook the 40 amp breaker up to the device? or can i hook up a 40 amp breaker to a 30 amp outlet? thank you

Glad I browsed the site instead of just being a noob and filling it with a million topics asking questions lol.

I am a first time grower and a total beginner so I know absolutely nothing and am learning as im going so excuse any ignorance. I am building a 11' long x 7' height x 7' wide room and not sure how many wall sockets I should install. I plan on having fans, lights, hydro or aeroponics equipment. im planning on having each socket run off their own circuit in the electrical box. Is that overkill? I plan on adding an additional room. for cloning and flowering later on so would 2 sockets suffice?

I have a few light ballasts laying around as spares for the basement and im wondering if those would work or would the grow lights have to many watts for them? Sorry but I dont know if there are special ballasts for higher watts. Also should the lights be running on their own circuit?

With that said I just wanna say thanks for taking the time to help everyone and contributing to the site.