Warning don't burn your house down!

Safety is a big issue with me, even more so, since a friend recently burnt his house down leaving him not only homeless but penniless, damage occurring through growing anything illegal can void your home insurance, a great get out clause, and one his company has used refusing to pay the claim, he has been charged with endangering lives, growing with intent to supply, etc, etc, plus it looks like an imminent divorce is also on the cards, why, because he overlooked safety aspect of his grow room which led to the fire.


Some common sense issues concerning safety seem to elude some growers electricity and water do not mix so all electrical equipment should be kept above the ground wherever possible in case of a flood. Wiring should be as short as possible and extension cables especially those on a drum should never be used and if they have to be then the cable under no circumstances should be left wound round the drum as this can lead to the cable overheating. Cheap plugs and sockets should never be used only use quality products from established manufacturers the additional cost is worth it in the long term.


The initial outlay of setting up a grow room is expensive and one thing that is often overlooked is the safety issue especially the wiring and layout of electrical equipment and whilst most household circuits can cope with small grow rooms the extra load of a grow room may cause overheating leading to a fire. With this in mind I have invested in an IP65 metal enclosure measuring 40cms w x 60cms h x 30cms d, cost £55, the feed to this comes from the cooker terminal of the consumer unit which was not in use, any spare terminal or one drawing a low load can be used be sure to use an appropriate rated MCB, the wiring from the consumer unit to the grow room is 4mm which has been professionally installed, cost £150 with labour, this is fed into a secondary consumer unit a small Wylex [FONT=&amp]Consumer Unit, cost £21, Fitted With 80 Amp 30mA RCD and 2 x MCB’s one 16 amp for the lighting connected to a Black Box 4 switch and main fan which draws air through the filter and cools the lights and one 6 amp for the auxiliary equipment any cheap extension lead sockets have been replaced by heavy duty sockets as have any cheap plugs the two Maxibright Ballasts are mounted on the side walls of the cabinet externally to allow sufficient cooling. [/FONT]

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This is mounted on a brick wall well away from anything flammable should any equipment contained inside overheat the power will be cut, in the worst case scenario if there is a fire from the equipment mounted in or on the enclosure this will be contained within the metal cabinet. The total cost of this £226 a small price to pay for peace of mind, I would rather lose a crop than my house. [/FONT]


[FONT=&amp]Hope that you find this helpful.[/FONT]

Sorry to hear about the hardtimes fallen upon your friend. Great advice, thank you.

Sorry but 4mm wire will never ever ever be used on a cooker socket and switch it has to be 6.5mm to be legal and 80amp and 16amp and 6amp Are you mad your maines into the house is rated for 100amp som older houses are only 50-75amp So that's 102amp into one room I assume your british like me I would seriously question the spark you used as that to me is a massive fire hazard waiting to happen

I have a separate consumer unit for my grow room I've installed and I've used 6.5mm wire from my house consumer unit to my secondary unit and only put 1 35amp rcd and 2 15amp mcb's anything more than that I will be cooking my mains into the house I'm in my 2nd year of electrics.

So to put it simple you house mains consumer unit will have about 6 to 10mcb's and 1rcd for sockets witch will take upto the 100amp from your mains and you have just added about consumer unit with the possible usage of another 102amp that's 202amp on a line rated for 100max!

Plus always have a foam and co2 fire extinguisher in your grow room and a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm.


Not trying to be a tosser or anything but dude that's a problem go check your mains breaker and it will tell you ur max load its normally located before your electric meter a big black thing

Those flame defenders are pointless if your growing in tents or anything that's not in the open they would have to be put in the tent your growing in and just hope the heat won't set it off

Dude your a nice guy for trying ...................but ppl are and will be crazy when it comes to stuff likes this ..................they always try to cut the cost and use some other method

first this is First your buddy/u need to grow some peppers for legal reason (u were not growing weed u were growing ghost chilli) to make your tongue bleed at the next cook off thing in your area .........take your plants out put in a few peppers and take some pics keep a plant or 2 going for the chillis.........add your plants back the pics are for insurance reason store them off site in a bank vault or something

now u have a way to claim the money and what u were doing ...................as for fire if your temps are above 120 degree f in the exhust air something is massive wrong and u need to correct it before u kill your motors .............as for electrical that is sheer where/when it was built and by who this is what gets most ppl the simple answer is to over due it do the wiring to and above code


and if your shit is going up and pas the point of keeping it quite ........................run away let it burn as much as u can no plant matter/ roots can not tell shit (as for the feed pick a line that is knowen for other things then just weed) .............and pray it all burns before they get water/foam on it to id

Nitro1990 said:

Sorry but 4mm wire will never ever ever be used on a cooker socket and switch it has to be 6.5mm to be legal and 80amp and 16amp and 6amp Are you mad your maines into the house is rated for 100amp som older houses are only 50-75amp So that's 102amp into one room I assume your british like me I would seriously question the spark you used as that to me is a massive fire hazard waiting to happen

I have a separate consumer unit for my grow room I've installed and I've used 6.5mm wire from my house consumer unit to my secondary unit and only put 1 35amp rcd and 2 15amp mcb's anything more than that I will be cooking my mains into the house I'm in my 2nd year of electrics.

So to put it simple you house mains consumer unit will have about 6 to 10mcb's and 1rcd for sockets witch will take upto the 100amp from your mains and you have just added about consumer unit with the possible usage of another 102amp that's 202amp on a line rated for 100max!

Plus always have a foam and co2 fire extinguisher in your grow room and a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm.


Not trying to be a tosser or anything but dude that's a problem go check your mains breaker and it will tell you ur max load its normally located before your electric meter a big black thing

Click to expand...

For a start I am not mad, the grow room isn't being connected from a cooker socket it is wired from the consumer unit which like most modern units is a common rail (that means the RCD and all MCB's share the same rail you were probably off that day or maybe they cover that one in year 3) if it were going to a cooker socket to supply a cooker from the consumer unit then yes a 45 amp MCB and 6mm wire would be used, though most modern ovens are designed to run from the ring mains. But as it is drawing a combined load of no more than 7amps continuous power 2.5mm cable would have sufficed as it will comfortably handle a 16 amp load and 4mm is more than adequate the RCD in the second consumer unit is commonly used in shower room applications and the MCB's both at the main consumer unit 16 amp and secondary are 16 amp and 6 amp rated there is no way that i could draw 102 amps from one line as the overloaded current would trip at least one of the MCB's. Also as both the cooker and heating are gas if i were to run everything at the same time in the house the load would still be well under 50 amps probably not even 30 amps.

The electric meter is a small white thing with a digital readout don't know where you live but the big black things went from this area years ago, and don't forget the mains fuse in older properties or service cut out now being fitted in new builds or in upgraded older properties, situated in a sealed housing before the meter which would blow well before 202 amps were reached as they are normally rated at 80 amps for modern builds and usually 60 amps in older properties.

Don't want to appear pedantic but this has been seriously thought out by a fully qualified electrician not a 2nd year student, if I wanted to grow on a commercial scale then I would have to have a major rethink but this is for a small grow room that will never come near to drawing a 16 amp load not even when the lights are starting up, as for the RCD the load rating isn't the important factor 35 amp or 80 amp that just means it will comfortably handle current drawn up to that amperage by appliances, the important factor is the the trip switch that is built into the RCD having a current trip out within 200mS when a 30mA earth leakage current is detected these limits are well within the safety zone in which electrocution or fire would not be expected to occur, the MCB's cover everything else that could be a hazard.

It is common sense to have a smoke alarm and fire extinguishers but not much use if there is nobody home, a carbon monoxide detector in a grow room are you using gas mantle grow lights from the Victorian era never seen those on the Antiques Roadshow, just kidding!

If Nitro 1990 had read the original post carefully then this follow up would not have been posted, many years ago I was a fully qualified electrician before changing occupation, the reason for employing a qualified electrician instead of doing the work myself was to acquire the now necessary safety certificate.

As for a couple more comments regarding my friends downfall unfortunately there was no time to substitute the plants with peppers as the police were called by the fire brigade as soon as the fire was extinguished and the remains of cannabis plants were clearly evident. Although he is a friend I personally think his wife is better off without him than the other way around had his two young daughters been in bed when the fire broke out they would have certainly perished due to his incompetence this was just the final straw in a long chain of events that has led to divorce.

Nitro you cannot be 2nd year student with what u just wrote either that or you need go back to school an study maths an learn how to count!

202 amps where fuck pulled those numbers from??