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

Quick question: I have a sub panel in basement, 100 amp , 15 amp breaker already in place for sump pump, base lights & 1 recepticle. I'm trying to figure out how many 1000 wt hps lamps running 240 I can put in flower room that is 17ft x 32ft. I have had to nix 400wt MH for veg, due to amps they would pull, and having to go T-5 route. I would like to get (10)- (12) 1000 wt hps 240 volt, along with (6) t-5's but not quite sure exactally what amps they pull on all of them, and if I have enough leftover to run can fans, pumps, timers, ect. Any thoughts you could share, would be most helpful! thanx. SG

thats roughly 70 amps of power your talking about.
the subpanel can accomodate that load, however, i would be worried about your service entry equipment....(wires in from power co)

IAm5toned said:

thats roughly 70 amps of power your talking about.
the subpanel can accomodate that load, however, i would be worried about your service entry equipment....(wires in from power co)

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IAm5toned Thx for your reply, House is (3-4) years old, panel box is outside, what is it that I should be concerned about? Thx SG

I have an 11' x 15' room that I am going to be growing in soon. The main light and switch are on their own circuit.

However all four of the receptacles in the room are on one circuit with a 15A breaker.

Could I use two 1000w lights safely?

So the 'solution' I've come up with for the time being is running a 15 amp, 12 gauge 25 foot extension cord from a 20 amp circuit, carrying ~9 amps on it. Both plugs of the cord feel cool to the touch after a day of operation, would you consider this safe IamStoned? Or am I still risking an electrical fire?

A Gentleman said:

I have an 11' x 15' room that I am going to be growing in soon. The main light and switch are on their own circuit.

However all four of the receptacles in the room are on one circuit with a 15A breaker.

Could I use two 1000w lights safely?

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Im no electrician but I highly doubt that you could pull that off with only a 15 amp breaker.

This should be a STICKY.

great knowledge in this thread.

I have two rooms that are both on the same 15 AMP circuit. I'm already running two 600 watt lights @ 120V in one room and an inline 400CFM fan so roughly around 12 AMP'S are being used on that circuit. Is there a way to upgrade that 15 AMP circuit to a 30 AMP using the existing wiring? From searching around it seems the wiring needs to be changed out to a different gauge wire and the circuit breaker as well. I did notice the other room has a ceiling fan that is not connected to this 15 AMP circuit so the best way to go about it is to tap into this ceiling fan wiring/circuit and add two outlets into the second room. That is the cheapest and easiest way I can think to get this done without having to have these rooms re-wired or having to run a new circuit two accomadate these rooms.

Let me know what you guys think any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

bratva said:

I have two rooms that are both on the same 15 AMP circuit. I'm already running two 600 watt lights @ 120V in one room and an inline 400CFM fan so roughly around 12 AMP'S are being used on that circuit. Is there a way to upgrade that 15 AMP circuit to a 30 AMP using the existing wiring? From searching around it seems the wiring needs to be changed out to a different gauge wire and the circuit breaker as well. I did notice the other room has a ceiling fan that is not connected to this 15 AMP circuit so the best way to go about it is to tap into this ceiling fan wiring/circuit and add two outlets into the second room. That is the cheapest and easiest way I can think to get this done without having to have these rooms re-wired or having to run a new circuit two accomadate these rooms.

Let me know what you guys think any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks

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what you need to do is change the 120v circuit to a 240v circuit... that would free up the amps you need.
1800w = 15 amps @ 120v
1800w = 7.5 amps @ 240v

of course this would also mean your ballsts would have to be capable of running on 240v....

IAm5toned said:

what you need to do is change the 120v circuit to a 240v circuit... that would free up the amps you need.
1800w = 15 amps @ 120v
1800w = 7.5 amps @ 240v

of course this would also mean your ballsts would have to be capable of running on 240v....

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Does not work that way, you don't magically switch over to 240v. You have to have 3 conductors for American 240 a typical wire only has two. Also it requires a different breaker that will take up two slots. So really switching over wouldn't have much of a difference then running 14/3 and making 2 15 amp circuits that share the neutral.

bratva
I have two rooms that are both on the same 15 AMP circuit. I'm already running two 600 watt lights @ 120V in one room and an inline 400CFM fan so roughly around 12 AMP'S are being used on that circuit. Is there a way to upgrade that 15 AMP circuit to a 30 AMP using the existing wiring? From searching around it seems the wiring needs to be changed out to a different gauge wire and the circuit breaker as well. I did notice the other room has a ceiling fan that is not connected to this 15 AMP circuit so the best way to go about it is to tap into this ceiling fan wiring/circuit and add two outlets into the second room. That is the cheapest and easiest way I can think to get this done without having to have these rooms re-wired or having to run a new circuit two accomadate these rooms.

Let me know what you guys think any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

A new wire would be required to upgrade the circuits load abilities. 15amps is a 14awg wire, while 20amps is 12awg. So you could replace the current cabling with a 12awg for 20 amps. It's also possible to take a 14/3 or 12/3 (2 hots 1 common) and use each hot for its own circuit while sharing the neutral, which would give you either 30amps or 40amps. Now your fan circuit seems like that best way to go, but I have my doubts its actually on its own circuit. Most likley it is feeding from a general lighting/receptacle circuit. (Not to say thats 100% just what I would guess)

im moving into a bigger place. Its an old house. My grow room is going to be in the basement right next to the existing fuse box.

There are no grounded outlets in the house... but the outlet itself has the 3 holes.

the largest fuse in the box is a 20 amp, but most are 15 and 10.

What would be your plan of attack? Should i get a seperate box? How do i run a good ground? Thanks bro

ps.. guess i should tell you about my setup.

Its probably going to have 6 fans. Pobably 6x 600 hps lights, and maybe a couple more. and prob 1x1000, and maybe even 2 of them.

im going to have 3 big water pumps. Also going to have a portable AC, and a space heater. I figure ill shoot high that way ive got the wiring setup just incase.

Well first off are we actually talking about fuses here or circuit breakers? (Sounds like it actually is fuses in this case?) Eitherway your looking at possibly 50+amps (depends on size of pumps and ac/heating units) with what your wanting to run. Personally if I was dropping that much on a setup and I had your electrical I would go to Lowes and buy a new 200Amp panel and replace your current service with it. You would also need to buy an 8ft ground rod and acorn nut. The exact wire gauge required to run from your panel to the ground rod various per state but 4awg or two rods connected with 6awg generally is accepted as safe. Now if your wanting to save some and upgrade your current service you basically going to just want to buy new fuses and run completely new circuits, but the possibility of this depends on how much more your current panel can take. New wire you have a lot of options on how to provide that much juice and an argument could be made for just about any of them, but personally I'd try to keep it 10awg or smaller (preferably 12awg)

how many amp braker do i need for my new room it is going to have 2 1000 waters 1 mh 1hps and 2 400 hps a few fans and a ac unit plus my flouros

I have a question would my electric bill be cheaper with 16 42w(150w equivelants) or a 400w HPS, also which would put off more heat. If the CFLs are cheaper than what is the best sockets to get if I am making my own fixture.

Hi i have a question for you. I have read on the net when using a standared house old timmer with HID lighting i need to have it contected to Contactor? could you please tell me if this is correct. I have a HPS 70w lamp that i need to put on a standard mains timmer would this be safe?

Heres my QUESTION:- IS IT POSSIBLE TO HARD WIRE 5 LIGHTS OF DIFFERENT WATTAGE TO 1 MANUAL OPPERATED TIME SWITCH? I DONT WANT TO DO IT AND THEN IT ALL GOES TITS UP PLEASE REPLY ASAP - STELTHY

CheechD said:

how many amp braker do i need for my new room it is going to have 2 1000 waters 1 mh 1hps and 2 400 hps a few fans and a ac unit plus my flouros

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Just divide wattage by voltage. (So for a 1k light running 120v it'd be 1000/120=8.3amps

IgrowUgrow said:

I have a question would my electric bill be cheaper with 16 42w(150w equivelants) or a 400w HPS, also which would put off more heat. If the CFLs are cheaper than what is the best sockets to get if I am making my own fixture.

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HPS would use less wattage which is what you are billed for.(150watt equivalent means nothing besides lumen output) It would also put off less heat since it's less watts, but as its only one bulb the heat is concentrated and will seem much more then the CFLs. (CFLs heat signature is so small it doesn't penetrate but a couple inches of air)

hendrix123 said:

Hi i have a question for you. I have read on the net when using a standared house old timmer with HID lighting i need to have it contected to Contactor? could you please tell me if this is correct. I have a HPS 70w lamp that i need to put on a standard mains timmer would this be safe?

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Household timer would be fine for a 70watt lamp

stelthy said:

Heres my QUESTION:- IS IT POSSIBLE TO HARD WIRE 5 LIGHTS OF DIFFERENT WATTAGE TO 1 MANUAL OPPERATED TIME SWITCH? I DONT WANT TO DO IT AND THEN IT ALL GOES TITS UP PLEASE REPLY ASAP - STELTHY

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What type of lights are we talking about. A typical Edison base (incandescent, CFLs) then yes its very possible. (Think through-out a house, very rarely is every bulb the exact same wattage)

First i would like to say that what you are doing is great for the users here at RIU and im sure that we are all thankful for keeping us safe and informed.

I need to find out if my breaker box has any free breakers so i can run a dedicated line to my grow room. Do i simply shut off the main 100 amp breaker and unscrew a few of the screws on the panel so it exposes the "guts" and then follow with my eyes to the breaker(s) that i think are unused to determine whether or not i can install a new dedicated line? Basically for now i just want to learn how to find out if there are any free breakers because the labeling is poor, installing the line will be my next question once i know if theres an open breaker i can use...
Thanks in advance

aquafinaorbit said:

just divide wattage by voltage. (so for a 1k light running 120v it'd be 1000/120=8.3amps


hps would use less wattage which is what you are billed for.(150watt equivalent means nothing besides lumen output) it would also put off less heat since it's less watts, but as its only one bulb the heat is concentrated and will seem much more then the cfls. (cfls heat signature is so small it doesn't penetrate but a couple inches of air)


household timer would be fine for a 70watt lamp


what type of lights are we talking about. A typical edison base (incandescent, cfls) then yes its very possible. (think through-out a house, very rarely is every bulb the exact same wattage)

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hi, i am using 2x 25w mini flurescents, 2x 90w led ufos, and 1x150w envirolite (self ballasted) the socket for this one is the same size as a 400w hps screw in, and i can screw a 250w envirolite (self ballasted) straight in when i want to flower, if its not possible to wire in the mini flurescents, thats ok cos i tried them on a time switch before and they didnt switch on... Due to the start up motor i guess, so excluding the 2 25 watt mini fluresents would this work and is it safe ? - cheers for getting back to me - stelthy

my bad, they are circut breakers... they can be turned on and off, and pop when too much juice is through them, and then you just switch them back. (they are sqare and go side to side)

as long as that doenst sound like fuses...

lets keep going with that road then instead, thanks in advance!