indoor grow...lighting issue

Okay I ran into a huge problem....so I'm not sure where to go from here. See the house in which I am staying in...well the electrical system is hella old....I found this out when trying to install just one 100w fluro (one of those corkscrew looking ones).....the lights in the house dimmed so much that I thought the fuse box was going to give out....

So it got me to thinkin'...maybe I should scrap the whole indoor grow...use a shed instead....and run the four sets of fluro tubes (8 bulbs in total)(which I found around the house) with a generator???.....then again I might be better to scrap the whole idea entirely.....

I have some sketches as to what I wanted to do for my own hydroponics grow (28 gal storage bin, fish tank pump, etc).....but because it was done in pencil, the pictures never really turned out well when using a webcam....

I thought I had an ideal setup for my situation, I think am totally screwed...

Thanks for any insite,

BW

your place has fuses instead of a circuit panel? that is rough for a lot more than just growing!

If the whole house dimmed from adding one bulb, I'd say the system is more than old, but unsafe.

Seriously think about getting it checked out by an electrician.

I am an electrician..among other things....There were a lot of homes built prior to 1950 that have a 60 A supply to the house. From around 1950 until about 1975-1980 a 100 A supply was common. Today most homes have a 200 A supply. The house I live in was built in 1935 and had an original 60 A supply that was fused. I upgraded the home to a 200 A supply for about $500. If you hire someone to do it will be about 2 grand. I recommend you get this done ASAP for safety. The house probably also has old corroding aluminum wiring! I would not be able to sleep at night!

GhanjaBuck said:

I am an electrician..among other things....There were a lot of homes built prior to 1950 that have a 60 A supply to the house. From around 1950 until about 1975-1980 a 100 A supply was common. Today most homes have a 200 A supply. The house I live in was built in 1935 and had an original 60 A supply that was fused. I upgraded the home to a 200 A supply for about $500. If you hire someone to do it will be about 2 grand. I recommend you get this done ASAP for safety. The house probably also has old corroding aluminum wiring! I would not be able to sleep at night!

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thanks for that great advice!

I think you need to check you bulb installation, no way that 100W bulb (really it is probably a 25W bulb that is equal to a 100W incandescent) should make the lights dim. I don't care if you have a 30A service, if you can turn on a TV without the lights dimming, and if a fuse or circuit breaker doesn't blow you shouldn't have had any problem with that bulb.