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

I know nothing about electricity but just got a Spartan 8 light controller. They say I need a 50amp breaker. That’s all I really know. What wire should I get and do I even have the space for it. Here’s my circuit box. Thx

#6 copper for a 50 amp feed. Looks like you will need a homeline style double pole 50a breaker for your box.

You have a picture of the inside of the house behind the panel? If it's easy enough to get a wire in to the back of the panel then it's should be pretty straight forward. If you have a finished wall behind that panel then you will need to cut some drywall.

Shouldn't need the neutral for that controller so 6-2 copper is what you want.

Breaker:

Cable:

Box Connectors:

Thx and the wall behind the circuit panel is just drywall. Here’s a pic of the light controller and wall.

Sleez said:

Thx and the wall behind the circuit panel is just drywall.

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So the controller is right on the other side of the wall from your panel?

Renfro said:

So the controller is right on the other side of the wall from your panel?

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No it’s a finished wall right behind the panel. And I will need to run that copper wire about 25-30ft to my grow room. So are u saying I should run the wire inside my house from the back of the panel?

Sleez said:

So are u saying I should run the wire inside my house from the back of the panel?

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Probably not, thats why I asked, if it was back to back then yeah, stub conduit and THHN... But...

If you want to go surface mount along the exterior wall (any obstructions out there?) you could use some conduit off the panel outside, run along the wall to where you want to enter the grow room (is it located along that same wall?) then go through the wall using a (LB / pull corner) and conduit right into the back of the controller (does it have a back side knockout?) or into the side using a pull corner (elbow with a plate that comes off the corner to pull wires) That would be real pro way to do it. To figure out the absolute easiest and best way to run the cable is the real deal most of the time, terminating the ends is the easy bit lol. If you can stay in the conduit for the whole run box to box then you can just buy some THHN strands green, red and black is probably all you need without a neutral. This all being said, will you ever want more power from that panel into that room for a dehu or AC? If so maybe now is the time to put in a subpanel in the grow room and then feed your lighting controller off that and have ability to add more circuits later without doing any more "home runs".

Hey Bricktown,
I'm trying to wire a remote humistat to my quest dual 105 dehumidifier. Thr remote I'm using is a trolmaster hs-1 and hsc-1. Most quest dehumidifiers seem to have an external 24v bus on the outside of the unit near the controls. These are compatible and easily connected to the external humidistat. My model doesn't seem to have a bus. I'm as far from electrical friendly as you can get so any advice will be appreciated and put to good use.

Renfro said:

Probably not, thats why I asked, if it was back to back then yeah, stub conduit and THHN... But...

If you want to go surface mount along the exterior wall (any obstructions out there?) you could use some conduit off the panel outside, run along the wall to where you want to enter the grow room (is it located along that same wall?) then go through the wall using a (LB / pull corner) and conduit right into the back of the controller (does it have a back side knockout?) or into the side using a pull corner (elbow with a plate that comes off the corner to pull wires) That would be real pro way to do it. To figure out the absolute easiest and best way to run the cable is the real deal most of the time, terminating the ends is the easy bit lol. If you can stay in the conduit for the whole run box to box then you can just buy some THHN strands green, red and black is probably all you need without a neutral. This all being said, will you ever want more power from that panel into that room for a dehu or AC? If so maybe now is the time to put in a subpanel in the grow room and then feed your lighting controller off that and have ability to add more circuits later without doing any more "home runs".

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I’m most likely going to have someone do it for me if I have to add a sub panel in the grow room. Owner of the house doesn’t want me to add sub panel. That’s why I got the light controller. But it’s not on the same wall I will have to run conduit. I’m basically going from one side of the house to the other. And I’m not sure what lb pull corner is but I’ll do some research. I appreciate the help. Don’t wanna get ripped off if I do have someone come in. I was quoted at 800-1000 for sub panel before.

Sleez said:

I’m most likely going to have someone do it for me if I have to add a sub panel in the grow room. Owner of the house doesn’t want me to add sub panel. That’s why I got the light controller. But it’s not on the same wall I will have to run conduit. I’m basically going from one side of the house to the other. And I’m not sure what lb pull corner is but I’ll do some research. I appreciate the help. Don’t wanna get ripped off if I do have someone come in. I was quoted at 800-1000 for sub panel before.

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Honestly the difference between a subpanel and the lighting controller at this point, as far as the home owner is concerned, might just be one size up on the conduit. Since it's a complex run I couldn't estimate the job without looking at it but the 800-1000 number sounds very much inline with normal rates, might even be a good deal if it's a hard run.

delacruz said:

Hey Bricktown,
I'm trying to wire a remote humistat to my quest dual 105 dehumidifier. Thr remote I'm using is a trolmaster hs-1 and hsc-1. Most quest dehumidifiers seem to have an external 24v bus on the outside of the unit near the controls. These are compatible and easily connected to the external humidistat. My model doesn't seem to have a bus. I'm as far from electrical friendly as you can get so any advice will be appreciated and put to good use.

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Sounds like you need to box up a contactor to switch the 120v power for the dehu. A contactor with a 24 VAC coil voltage so you can use the 24 VAC signal from the trollmaster.

Renfro said:

Honestly the difference between a subpanel and the lighting controller at this point, as far as the home owner is concerned, might just be one size up on the conduit. Since it's a complex run I couldn't estimate the job without looking at it but the 800-1000 number sounds very much inline with normal rates, might even be a good deal if it's a hard run.

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I watched one video and now I have a better understanding of what you’re saying but have another question. Does the thhn strands connect to the romex? And why not just use romex with conduit? Is it hard to fish through? And also on the romex wire. Is the black and white wire hot? Those would be the two wires going straight to the breaker right? Sorry for al the questions. Really want to do this myself.

Sleez said:

I watched one video and now I have a better understanding of what you’re saying but have another question. Does the thhn strands connect to the romex? And why not just use romex with conduit? Is it hard to fish through? And also on the romex wire. Is the black and white wire hot? Those would be the two wires going straight to the breaker right? Sorry for al the questions. Really want to do this myself.

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THHN needs to be in conduit where the non metallic cable is designed to be run in the interior walls. You could junction the two in a junction box but usually the THHN/THWN is run from box to box using conduit all the way.

Sleez said:

And why not just use romex with conduit? Is it hard to fish through?

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The additional insulation makes the NM cable very much more difficult to pull through conduit unless you upsize the conduit.

Sleez said:

. Is the black and white wire hot?

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The white is normally neutral so if pulling a feed for a subpanel you would use wire with the extra red conductor so the white can be the neutral. If pulling a 240 volt lighting circuit you can use the white for the second hot since no neutral is required. Just makr both ends with black or red tape.

Is this a sub panel? It’s connected to my ac unit

Or this for my pool. But if I could somehow tap into these it would save me so much hassle.

Sleez said:

Is this a sub panel? It’s connected to my ac unit

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Disconnect. Don't mess with it.

Sleez said:

Or this for my pool. But if I could somehow tap into these it would save me so much hassle.

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I would leave the pool power supply alone.

I need to connect an old sub panel in a storage container I bought . The container is all wired up with outlets everywhere and was previously hooked to the house it was at . Was hoping I could connect it from a panel in my garage that has a double pole 30amp breaker somehow . The container panel is about 15ft away from the panel in my garage .

Any ideas ? Thanks

Bump ... Anyone have some guidance on getting this panel powered ? I have an 18k mini split and hoping to run a room with 2400-3600w of LEDs .

I think I'll be spray foaming inside .

I just had a new baby boy so I'm off work for while and may have time to get this project done and cranking !

Thanks !

ypbiscuit said:

I need to connect an old sub panel in a storage container I bought . The container is all wired up with outlets everywhere and was previously hooked to the house it was at . Was hoping I could connect it from a panel in my garage that has a double pole 30amp breaker somehow . The container panel is about 15ft away from the panel in my garage .

Any ideas ? Thanks View attachment 4756763View attachment 4756764

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Have a question: I had got a fat weatherproof 240v 30ft 50 amp RV extension cord that I cut the end off of and wired into a 70 amp dual breaker slot sub panel from lowes. The RV cord has 4 wires, the 2 hots, ground, and neutral. I put a 50 amp breaker with a receptical to plug the other end into, no problems im only 10 feet from the main panel outside so I didnt put a ground rod. I just split the 240 by running the 2 main wires to each 120 breaker, instead of both of them going into a bigger 240 breaker.


Now, I never planned to pull anywhere near 50 amps let alone the 70 that the box is rated for, it was the smallest they had. Also thought it would be nice to have extra circuits by adding 2 duplex dual breakers for a total of 4 circuits. One with double 20s and one with double 15s. I left the grounding screw out too, and its installed in a trailer.

The question is, is each wire in the cord basically rated for max of 25 amps? And how does the fact they both share a single smaller neutral wire in the cord affect the overall way I set it up, as in.. is it even safe to pull so many amps from one of the 120 legs without somehow affecting the circuits that are also being used on the other 120 because of the single neutral?

Ive been running it that way for a few years and its weird because I never made full sense of it, just hooked it up and it works. Sort of. I purposefully over built the 2 20 amp circuits only to run one 1000w lamp on each, but for some reason plugging a 1500 watt space heater or sometimes a skillsaw alone will trip them, even with nothing else running on any other circuit.

I know 50 amp RVs basically just have the extra wire to constantly run an AC unit, so why is a skillsaw kicking my 20 amp breaker when I should have atleast 20 amps for sure.

Have I created some kind of bad ground loop or something, or is square d just a cheap brand.?