keep throwing breakers, not certain on the best way to handle it

Grow4tho187

Well-Known Member
Just hook it up to the stove plug ... its gonna be 220 so 30 amps is gonna be more then enough for what u need. IMG-20121112-00133.jpgIMG-20121112-00134.jpgIMG-20121112-00135.jpgSAM_0961.jpgSAM_0963.jpg Plug it up like this and you will still have a 220 female to plug your stove in . ( I don't recommend turning the stove on while 12/12 cycle )
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
so we got 2 1000 digital and 3 400 digital a 1 hp chiller few 6 in fans few oscillating fans pumps and say 6 t5's. bunch of shit. am using a room for grow and a room has chiller in it with all its shit going to one circut. a cord ran from bathroom to grow and it is noticible i think they are 20 amp fuses.

what would be some ways i can do it i dont know much about eletricity.
HIRE AN ELECTRICIAN.
your pulling enough power to start several fires, which is why your tripping breakers. you need to split the load, and you need to have a pro do it.
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
this is where your wrong.

if it was a 15 amp breaker or fuse, it would trip as soon as he tried to turn on his 1kw's.
 

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
You could go 220 route but then you'd have to split it to 2 seperate 110 breakers, unless you're an expert on elctricity I would leave it to a qualified elctricien to do it for you, not wise to fool with 220VAC my friend.
you NEVER split 220 between 2 120 v breakers.... this is madness! dont give people electrical advice if your not qualified to do so, please.
 

Krondizzel

New Member
That's way too much crap on one circuit. Typical outlets are 15A, 20A breaker. Better run an extension cord. I run a 1000w light and a 6 inch exhaust blower off of my washing machine outlet, and I am able to do laundry also. Some people overlook other accessories. The first thing you should have learned before installing anything, is figuring out which breaker controls what.

In the event of a fire, like one you risk, you need to know which breaker to turn off before you start spraying things. electrical fires are a no no with water. (seems like common sense, but see how fast u throw water on a fire without thinking its an electrical fire.)

No matter what, you need to know what your breakers do. Lucky for me, 6 and 9, yeahhhhhhh budddy. And don't be the only one to know what they do, whoever resides there needs to know this crap also.

The biggest bust I ever saw with my own eyes, was an entire house that was lit up in flames from electrical overloading.

Fire = brings authorities. Don't be THAT guy. :)
 

Krondizzel

New Member
Oh, and while I'm at it.... make sure your freaking extension cords and power strips are heavy duty rated as well. When in doubt, safe it out.
 

Krondizzel

New Member
Agreed. Here's an example:

1st circuit - 1000w magnetic ballast 120v, 2 4" intake fans, 2 centrifical fans, 2 water pumps, 3 air pumps

2nd circuit - 1000w mag ballast 120, 6 inch exhaust blower. (ran off washing machine socket/breaker. Running washing machine doesn't seem to bother anything a bit)
 

Taviddude

Well-Known Member
Man, you are running WAY TOO MUCH SHIT. I can't believe the amount of shit you're running on one circuit. There's pushing the envelope, and then just plain ass ASKING, BEGGING for a fire.

Personally I've actually got 4- 600 watt lights with all of em on separate dedicated 15 amp breakers. Over kill, but worth the peace of mind.

Safe, Not Sorry.
 

Krondizzel

New Member
dont listen to this fool he is going to burn your house down. period.
Don't hook anything to your stove. Oven and Dryers are on a 50A fuse normally, and have 4 socket holes unlike our ballasts cords which have 3 prongs.

The 240v wire from the ballast is a different connector. same as a 120, only the top two holes are horizontal and not vertical.
 

Krondizzel

New Member
Man, you are running WAY TOO MUCH SHIT. I can't believe the amount of shit you're running on one circuit. There's pushing the envelope, and then just plain ass ASKING, BEGGING for a fire.

Personally I've actually got 4- 600 watt lights with all of em on separate dedicated 15 amp breakers.

Safe, Not Sorry.
No NO NO NO... your just thorough with your work!!!

My other build, I ended up installing 6 individual 20A breakers. Decided I'm gonna go with 220v with a 50A breaker so I can do the 6 lights off the single point.

Oh, and here's what your 220 socket looks like. http://www.google.com/imgres?start=36&num=10&um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1680&bih=890&tbm=isch&tbnid=tCGlcIwHbcbxkM:&imgrefurl=http://www.justanswer.com/electrical/2hghj-i-ve-wired-110-circuits-but-i-m-not-sure-wiring-220.html&docid=I7-4D5nCcjVxRM&imgurl=http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/ElectricDoctor/2009-08-30_192959_15amp_220v_outlet.jpg&w=196&h=455&ei=hNmhUMWGDOTdigK7oIH4Cg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=510&vpy=220&dur=1174&hovh=342&hovw=147&tx=91&ty=166&sig=106446914937621616458&page=2&tbnh=156&tbnw=69&ndsp=58&ved=1t:429,r:39,s:20,i:121
 
if the smallest breakers are 20amp, then it is fairly safe to assume you have 12guage wire. This would be assuming the house is realitively new, last 20 years or so,
and no one has messed with the panel. A 200amp service is great and makes me think its a newer home. You can probably run 2x 1000watt lights on one 20 amp circuit
without it tripping, but that would be pushing that breaker to its max. So if anything else was running, you might have nuicense tripping issues. The wire itself can handle
the two lights no problem. If it newer wire, like last 20-30 years, the type of insulation will be THHN at 90 degrees C and that can handle 30amps.

Check the ballasts out because they have an actual full load amps (FLA) rating on them. Its possible they draw less than the calculated 8.3amp i come up with as im am using
a simple formula that calculates off of True power, however to get a true rating, you have to consider apparent power and reactive power together to come up with a real
world number.

The number to consider is 80% of 20amps and that number is 16amps. That is the ball park number your breaker will trip at. Is it exact? not likely, it might fudge one way or the
other. Add up the ampacity values of everything you have running off that circuit, lights, timers, fans, whatever, and as long as you are under 16amps, you should be ok. Every
piece of electrical equipment will have an ampacity rating on it, that comes hand in hand with getting a UL label.

Im getting used to this forum and how it notifies you of new posts and what not. I'll answer any questions best i can, feel free to shoot me more. Good Luck!
 

ASMALLVOICE

Well-Known Member
A thought to ponder,

If you force a circuit to "live" at it's rated capacity for very long( such as the amount of time involved with cultivation) you are truly knocking on the door of disaster. Yes, the breaker is rated at 20 amps, yes the wire is sized properly, yes the plug is in perfect condition and yes it should hold 20 amps of resistive load, WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not once have I heard anyone mention this little thing called INRUSH CURRENT. If the running load is near 20 amps (crazy if you do) then count on having your heart broke when your breaker trips, even though mathmatically your "load" is under 20 amps. When you have a circuit that is in use by a few things, a couple of pumps and fans and then you slam 3-4 600-1k lights on at once, the total "pull" on that breaker can exceed 50 amps or more for a small (very small) duration and there inlies the "mysterious trips" people get when they load circuits up like this. A fire hazard, An electrocution hazard and an overall health hazard is the mainstay for these kind of behaviors.
"
Take the above and combine that with a fault in any of the process, the breaker, wire or plug, and you are now dealing in failure absolute. Keep the load on a 20 amp circuit below 10-12 amps at "full load" and you will be less likely to have these "mysterious trips" that can wipe out your efforts in a hurry.

All this stuff is man made and fallible, please treat it as such.

Peace

Asmallvoice
 
inrush current is real, however its unlikely it would come into much play with the equipment you would be running in a grow room. Typically lights dont have any inrush at all, its mainly motors. When a motor gets turned on, it is at that instance trying to run at its full RPM, regardless of what kind of belt or chain is hooked up to it. Again with the consideration to the type of equipment you would normally be running in a grow room, the inrush on an inline fan is going to be next to nothing. The final thing to consider when you are talking about inrush currents is a breakers LSIG rating, that is Long time trip, Short time Trip, Instantaneous trip and Ground fault trip ratings. Breakers are designed to take a certain amount of inrush to overcome nuesense tripping. Inrush current is basically factored into the equation when you are in industrial type of settings where you have some major types of motors that are spinning some big pumps or fans. Alot of times in those cases starters or more commonly VFD's will be used to step up a motor gradually and avoid a massive inrush current. And now ive drifted into a tangent. Also, to re-iterate, on a 20amp circuit you have 80% available b4 that breaker trips, so in reality, you have 16amps avail, and thats what you should be calculating at.

In a nut shell, the advice to "take it easy" with regards to your electrical system is very sound advice. Electricity is still the number one cause of house fires. The most common voltage that kills people is not 480, 277, or 240. Its 120v.
 

chewberto

Well-Known Member
I ran an extension cord from my garage and stole those amps...if u have a spare room you can utilize. I wish i had it wired right though
 
Top