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

Stevie51 said:

Hot Tubs and Spas most commonly have a 5500 watts 240 volts water heater, controlled by a contactor (high power relay) rated at 40 or 50 amps that would be perfect for switching on your lights. Another style contactor with the expose contacts as seen in this link http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/gro...controller.asp would also work great for your needs. Shouldn't be a problem getting a Double Pole Single Throw (DPST) contactor for $20 or $25 on Ebay. Be careful that you select the contactor with a coil operating voltage that match your timer voltage. Most people like to use a 120 volts timer to switch the relay on and off, and thus would order a contactor with a 120 volts coil and make a trigger cord out of an ordinary 120 volts power cord to connect the timer to the contactor coil terminals. I prefer to have the inline fan (that will be cooling those lights running on that relay) to be powered by the same timer or trigger cord. Timers have been known to fail and I wouldn't want a situation of lights running without a fan cooling them. Glad to see you decided to use two contactors (relays) to divide the lights into two separate group of four.

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It should be known that it is not enough information to only know the ampere rating of the contacts when selecting a lighting contactor. Unless you want the contacts to weld closed without notice, you must know the shutoff capacity of the contacts, otherwise referred to as current on break. The breaking (or disconnecting) capacity is always much, much lower than the full load rating (in this case the contactor in question has a 30 amp rating) and because you would be loading each contact to roughly 27 amps (if you take Stevie51's advice and use a DPST relay in the way you mentioned [6-240V outlets on each pair of contacts] you would definitely be expecting the contacts to eventually fail from repetitive excessive arcing.
It is for this reason that contactors are never even loaded to 50% of their rated output.
The preceding message was not a series of opinions rather a logical chain of facts from a Master Electrician.

Stevie51 said:

The amperage of the ballast is usually stated on the ballast. In absent of that data, the rule of thumb is: one amp per 100 watts @ 120 volts, or .5 amp per 100 watts @ 240 volts. Thus for every 1000 watts ballast operating on 240 volts it would be 5 amps per ballast. Now many of you may think he is fine and dandy to run up to ten 1000 watts ballasts on a 60 amp panel, but I have no idea (nor the experience) as to how sensitive the circuit breaker feeding that many ballasts is to the in-rush current during the first second (which is the length of time for the current to complete 60 full cycles). Perhaps someone with a nickname of "Power Strip Charlie", who motto is "no grow room is complete without a power strip" and have tripped more breakers in a year than what most of us have trip in a lifetime, can give us his expertise. I would think one would want to start out with a plan they believe might have a chance to reliably work.

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Its close but it will work. 114/2=57 on each phase. Inrush current is not a factor with ballasts only heavy duty motors and large compressors have that problem to overcome, the inrush doesn't last longer than the time delay of a breaker and it will not make the breaker sensitive because the inrush is nowhere near the magnitude that would cause this problem and if it were you would also need to upsize the wire by 20%(but no such rule exists in the NEC for HID lighting) .Just make sure you are using modern breakers (they are always rated for HID). Although, you should leave a little room for future expansion by upsizing the circuit in case you want to feed anything else from this panel. P.S. it's good that you chose mag ballasts. If you chose electronic ballasts I would say no to the 60 amp panel.
The preceding was not a series of opinions rather a logical chain of facts from somebody who is infallible in his electrical design advice.

Stevie51 said:

The amperage of the ballast is usually stated on the ballast. In absent of that data, the rule of thumb is: one amp per 100 watts @ 120 volts, or .5 amp per 100 watts @ 240 volts. Thus for every 1000 watts ballast operating on 240 volts it would be 5 amps per ballast. Now many of you may think he is fine and dandy to run up to ten 1000 watts ballasts on a 60 amp panel, but I have no idea (nor the experience) as to how sensitive the circuit breaker feeding that many ballasts is to the in-rush current during the first second (which is the length of time for the current to complete 60 full cycles). Perhaps someone with a nickname of "Power Strip Charlie", who motto is "no grow room is complete without a power strip" and have tripped more breakers in a year than what most of us have trip in a lifetime, can give us his expertise. I would think one would want to start out with a plan they believe might have a chance to reliably work.

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Hey Stevie51... There is no such rule of thumb and if there was it would be very inaccurate. If any electrician told me there was such a rule of thumb I would tell him he's just dumb and I would think he does anything to avoid simple math. Are you really suggesting that it is so difficult for somebody to divide the wattage of an appliance by their supply voltage that they would need to resort to your "rule of thumb"??? Divide the appliance wattage by the supply voltage. How's that for a rule of thumb.

its a hobby honey ! said:

so about half way through still making my mind up on the switch's .but will keep them in groups of four starting with 8K .
This will work like this- two lights circuits
- 4 fans circuits, two switched to keep two rows of hoods cool , so staggered start with the lights
and then shut off 20 mins after the light cycle .
then upper and lower fan circuits running 24/7
I already have the 120 v stuff covered as well as the veg box power so really all i need to get out of this circuit is 8 lights .
So correct me if i am wrong but at 5 amps a light makes 40 amps and with staggered start should be good to break out the sunblock and Oakley,s

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Yes, the intent is to have one DPST contactor (relay) for every four 1000 watts ballasts, thus you will be using two contactors for eight ballasts, and should you have the urge to add more ballasts, you will be using three contactors for twelve ballasts. This will allow you to use double pole circuit breakers in the sub-panel (one double pole circuit breaker for each contactor). The debate will be whether to use 20 amps or 25 amps circuit breakers if you are not using additional circuit protection (fuses or circuit breakers) to the receptacles.

Can I enclose my main house service panel and sub panel in a soon to be built grow room? The most ideal spot in my basement is the corner with the main service panel. Plan on a small grow room total 10'x 10' broken up as 4x10 along wall to corner with main entry door for storage electric exhaust fans supplies etc. then a 4x6 veg room with 4' 8 bulb t5. and a 6x6 flower room with 1000 hps. May just enclose the veg room and have flower and remaining space open. lots of exhaust and soil grow. Is it ok to enclose? Temp or humidity issues short or long term

Just don't enclose any utility meters and make sure your electric service is never disconnected for non-payment (duh... of course). The reason why it is worth mentioning is because if the electric utility company ever has to come back to turn the meter back on, they might ask to see the main breaker (and/or main panel) to be sure there is no jumper from some other energized panel or generator (if there even is one). Of course it wouldn't be "code" per se but hey, who are we kidding! As long as its not a fire hazard and you're able to reach it if a circuit trips a breaker. Just make sure you have negative air pressure in the room. If there is enough positive pressure in the room (due to not starving the exhaust fans a little bit) you could start leaking grow room air through the pipe (if it isn't sealed with duct seal putty) that connects the outdoor meter and the main panel. You wouldn't want the meter reader person to smell pot in the vicinity of the meter. You don't want to confirm any suspicions whether or not that person can only be allowed to report a crime if he/she sees it with their own eyes.

Sounds great. I have a medical card so I am not worried about legal issues but thanks for the advice. I will definitely ensure the main power pipe and everything is sealed well. There will be 4 foot of space btw the wall and the main and sub panels so access will be fine. Definitely plenty of negative air pressure and a carbon filter. Got the area pretty much ready to build Thanks!

not sure whos active on this thread anymore but maybe someone can answer. So lets say I want to raise how much power I can pull to lets say....the garage. lets say I want my garage to safely be able to pull 6,000 watts . How do I go about getting thi done with my power company? anything I should say like power tools , fridge , maybe im setting up a personal home office etc.

You tell them it gets cold in the garage so you need two heater ........hold on tell the power company what !!!! LOL
but if you feel you have to explain the goings on in your own man cave then feel free
here is a short list of the top of my head things that can draw big wup

welder

compressor

lathe

plasma cutter

water heater

AC

regards

This is probably very simple to an electrician type, however, It's driving me bananas so any ones help is appreciated.
I got a Main Control Unit for 120V or 240V.
After hooking up and wiring, the new ballast does not seem to be dimming.
Anyone have an idea why? Does polarity have anything to do with it. Is this wired properly?
Below are images of ballast and connecter unit.
Thanks in advance.

If the lamp is lighting it must be wired properly. I'm assuming that you compared the brightness of the lamp in contrast to a known to be working properly dimmed lamp. If you are certain that there is no reduction of lumen output when using the variable selector switch, then I would suggest turning the power off on 2 ballasts ( the one that is perceived to be malfunctioning and a known to be working ballast) making sure that they are physically disconnected from the power source. Borrow (or buy) a multi-meter electrical tester. Open up both ballast casings. Measure resistance and check continuity of the malfunctioning ballast (across all terminals) and compare what you find with the functional ballast.
Sometimes the problem is visually apparent and you will not need to use a tester and fixing it could be a matter of making a connection that was forgotten at the factory. Whether or not you fix the problem, your final step in troubleshooting this electronic ballast would be to buy magnetic ballast replacements , wire those up and then throw away your electronic ballasts(including the ones that work) to save yourself the heartache of an unexpected failure (that's what electronic ballasts do eventually no matter how well you adhere to the manufacturers recommendations).

Thanks so much for getting back as fast as you did.
I'll try those suggestions first thing I can (tomorrow) and will let you know how that works out.

Hi Bricktown,

I currently live in Asia with a standard electrical outlet of 220V.
I bought myself a “Speedster” variable fan controller that is 110V.
My 6” exhaust fan is 220V.

My question is, I would like to use the Speedster controller with my fan, but how should I connect it?

Please take a look at the diagram I drew and see which option I should take!

Much thanks and greatly appreciated!

Doug

C is the correct answer

So... what I was told,-- if you want to set the output at a different output with the Lumatek ballasts in above post you first need to turn off and let cool for a few minutes prior to turning back on with different setting (600/750/1000/Super).
Just wanted to throw that out.

Hey, so I keep tripping the breakers in my room. I don't really know much about electricity except that I know I want to run my lights at 240v and everything else at 120v. I was thinking about having a 30 amp breaker installed next to my grow room but I have absolutely no idea how to go about it. I guess what I am looking for is a very basic electrical guide for setting up a grow room that has 4 1000w lights running. Do I need to hire an electrician? HELP!!

CascadeCannabis

CascadeCannabis said:

Hey, so I keep tripping the breakers in my room. I don't really know much about electricity except that I know I want to run my lights at 240v and everything else at 120v. I was thinking about having a 30 amp breaker installed next to my grow room but I have absolutely no idea how to go about it. I guess what I am looking for is a very basic electrical guide for setting up a grow room that has 4 1000w lights running. Do I need to hire an electrician? HELP!!

CascadeCannabis

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yes. yes you do. for the hooking up the actual breaker part id recommend it. you can pull in the cabling and shit on your own without a problem.

My washer is on a 20a circuit. If I were to run an extension cord to an Apollo 14 surge protector which is rated for 15a and 1800w, would this be safe as long as I stay under 80% of 1800w which is 1440w?

I would not run the washer when the extension cord is plugged in

And if not, how about just plugging the surge protector directly in with no extension cord?

I just got an Apollo dim-able digital ballast. I wanted to buy an inexpensive MH bulb for it at Home Depot, but the box for the bulb I was looking at says it should only be used with an ANSI S5 (don't recall exactly, maybe S5/e) ballast. I checked the ballast and the box it came in, plus looked online but couldn't find anything about Apollo ballasts in connection to the ANSI standards. But the bulbs I'm looking at all fit in mogul sockets, which is what came with the reflector I got from Apollo. Can anyone tell me if these cheaper bulbs will work with my ballast? Or tell me where to look to find out? Thanks.