Under powered HOUSE needs rewiring

I only have 100 amps to the whole house. Looking for wiring solution. Here are some pics below of the current setup.

Do i need to call the electrian?

Want to run 4 1000 watt lights, hydro setup.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tckfui said:

Bump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

whats that?

When one approves a thread, but has nothing relevant to say. Bumping places the thread at the top of the list of most recent posts.

johnnycash said:

I only have 100 amps to the whole house. Looking for wiring solution. Here are some pics below of the current setup.

Do i need to call the electrian?

Want to run 4 1000 watt lights, hydro setup.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Click to expand...

I have same deal, except I have no breakers, its all fuses. I am getting mine fixed sometime this week. Goto Home Depot, or Lowes(the best deal for me was HD) I found a box for 100 bucks, it had most breakers I needed. Had to buy the main and one 20 amp. Get what you need, call an electrician. Some times you will find an electrician that will shut off the juice off at the meter. Otherwise, you will prolly get billed by the electric company to shut it down for the electrician. The best thing to do is try and plan it with your electrician and electric company to upgrade everything at the same time. New home run line, new meter, new breaker box etc. It will take both people so it needs some planning. The electric company is not charging me to change out meter and main line, they consider it an upgrade, plus I told them I want a 200 amp line, because I have air compressors in the garage.

I 'll take your advice today and see where it goes.

i bought that 400w hps ($120) from htg and it works real well.
i also have it running through a 15 amp buss fuse in a 100 amp panel.( needs replaced)

i also used a surge protecter between the light and the wall

he wants to run 4000W oh HPS so hes going to need some good ampage running into that room

My house is an older house as well and I dont want to start paying out tons of money for lights that will catch my house on fire. Is there a way to see if the wiring in my house is sufficient?

I installed the 200 amp service to the meter ( which the power company will supply). If you own the property you can pull your own permit, in most locations and do the work yourself. It is possible to run new 200 amp service to a new box, buy a 100 amp breaker and install it with wires to the old service panel so you wouldn't have to make any other changes. From the looks of what you have there that is what was done when the 100amp service was installed, they left the old 30 amp fuse panel intact. VV

just moved into new house and have the same problem, not enough circuits and only one outlet in each room on avg. dont even have enough for the legit appliances, much less my grow. where i live, you dont need the elec. company involved, just an electritian. really simple process, but fairly pricey. i know enough to do it myself, but scared of "gettin hit", those 220's hurt! so def. worth the money, dont want your house to burn down or electrocute yourself.

johnnycash said:

I only have 100 amps to the whole house. Looking for wiring solution. Here are some pics below of the current setup.

Do i need to call the electrian?

Want to run 4 1000 watt lights, hydro setup.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Click to expand...

I would talk to a professional about your service upgrade. I already belive the old fuse box is over fused. Most of those fuses are too big for their current application. Wall recepticles(120v) are normally only rated for 15-20 amps and the 30a fuses that are in place present a fire risk. Especially if the wire is smaller than #10(more than likey).

Well, I did cheat when I did mine. I bought a book. I have one of the rare 40th Editions. It will tell you what you need to know and do. Wiring Simplified. When I was wiring the addition for the house I worked deal with a client of my wife's. I ran all of the wiring to the point where it would enter the new box. He installed the box, which means he disconnected all of the old circuits and then installed them and the new wiring in the box. Since we didn't change the service no permit was needed. They will usually work with a handy person if you do the grunt work, running the wire's to where you want them. At least that has been my experience. VV

I happen to be an electrician myself. It is possible for you to connect your lights now and make them work. What you need to check out is the amps that the lights will be running on. The fact that you now have 30 amps going to your recepticals are draining your potental overal power. Unless you want to pay an electrican at least $90-$150 and hour to come rewire your house. First, change all those fuses to the standard 20 amp. This is going to free up some space for you. Next, see if you can simplify any circuits. If you want to message me feel free, There are some circuits that need to be on their individual circuit to meet code standards but you can always splice extra circuits together and just watch how you use your outlets. I hope this helps its rather hard to explain typing out.

If you're the home owner, there are lots of things you can do to reduce your energy use in the rest of the house, providing enough power to your grow.

I replaced the electric oven with a gas one - that alone gave me 40 amps of breaker space. Replace an electic dryer gives similar gains.

Replace most or all of your regular bulbs with cfls - each 60w incandecent replaced with an 11w cfl gives you about 50 watts you can point towards your grow...

See what you can redistribute - maybe moving the TV to the other wall puts it on a different circuit freeing up amps for your grow.

Use the AC less, etc... general energy conservation stuff can definately benefit your environment

Pico420 said:

I happen to be an electrician myself. It is possible for you to connect your lights now and make them work. What you need to check out is the amps that the lights will be running on. The fact that you now have 30 amps going to your recepticals are draining your potental overal power. Unless you want to pay an electrican at least $90-$150 and hour to come rewire your house. First, change all those fuses to the standard 20 amp. This is going to free up some space for you. Next, see if you can simplify any circuits. If you want to message me feel free, There are some circuits that need to be on their individual circuit to meet code standards but you can always splice extra circuits together and just watch how you use your outlets. I hope this helps its rather hard to explain typing out.

Click to expand...

I am more concerned with the safety of the existing circuitry than the addition of new equipment. 20a fuses are fine if there is #12 present, but what if there is #14 in the walls and the 20a fuse is still overfusing. I am sure the 100a service is more than adequate for his power demands, but I think he should deal with making the old servies safe in the process.

Hey WillieNelson! - there are some other electrical questions you may want to check out - make sure we're not steering anyone in the wrong direction.

Well... I am looking at My code book right now, haha if you have one you can follow along... (you dont want one)

any size 14 awg wire rated at either 60, 75, or 90 degrees C. can work with a 20 amp circuit. Which means, the wire is rated to withstand the 20 amps that would be going through it!

However.... The code permits that if you have 14 awg wire, the overcurrent protection cannot exceed 15amps. which poses your possible problem. It will work, but it wont be to code... which, unless you have an electrical inspector coming and tearing up your walls to see what size wire you have... youre going to be fine.

thanks anyone know where i can buy a 400 watt hps for under 120 bucks?

ebay.... ha