Need electrical advice on grow room!

Shanepr1313

Member
I have a 5’9” x 8’6” room and a 1000 watt hps/mh a 400 hps/mh as well as mars hydro ts 1000&tsw 2000.I have 14 seeds on the way,ff soil in 5 gallon airpots.My question is can I use a spare 30 amp 2 pole breaker to power this setup and would I run two 120 volt circuits rather than one 240?I also have 4 fans and a smaller dehumidifier?Also do you think I will need additional light during flower or at all?And should I use gfci outlets?I have 10-2 wiring.
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
I'd just use a standard dual pole breaker 15 amp with 14 2 wire (standard house wire) and nema 615 outlets and run the whole setup on 240 volt. Get a hot water heater timer too.
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
I wouldnt put a 30 amp breaker for an led setup I think the line maximum for most of those is 15 amps. Buy a 15 amp breaker. It will make life easier your whole wiring fiasco will be under a 100 bucks. It's not the wattage it's the amperage the max wattage is like 2860 watts on 240 volts and I doubt your there with all the lights you mentioned. And when I say 2860 is the max it isn't its 3600 watts. But it's a continuous circuit (always on) anymore than 2860 is a potential fire hazard.
 

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
I would wire up a 30A subpanel with a 15A 240V and 15A 120V breaker. Get a 240v 4 light controller with 120v trigger cord to hardwire the 15A 240v to run your lights. The light controller is so you can safely run your lights with a cheap timer. The 4 light controllers say to hardwire to a 30A breaker but that is because they are intended for 4000w, you will only be running 1850w so 15A 240v will be fine. Run the rest of your stuff off the 15A 120v.

You should be pretty good on lighting, you are about 40w per sq foot.
 

Shanepr1313

Member
Ok I have a spare 30 amp 2 pole 120/240 breaker,I don’t know much about a sub panel but can I run both circuits from this breaker ?
 

Shanepr1313

Member
I'd just use a standard dual pole breaker 15 amp with 14 2 wire (standard house wire) and nema 615 outlets and run the whole setup on 240 volt. Get a hot water heater timer too.
No grow stores here and I’ve never heard of nema 615 outlets are they gfci?Also this works out to 17.8 amps at 120 so 8.9 plus fans and dehumidifier will be ok?Also I use 3 digital timers now what is the hot water heater timer for?
 

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
Ok I have a spare 30 amp 2 pole 120/240 breaker,I don’t know much about a sub panel but can I run both circuits from this breaker ?
You need separate breakers for 120v and 240v. You would wire up a 30A 240v breaker in your main panel, and then from that breaker you would run wire to a sub panel where you have a 15A 120v breaker and 15A 240v breaker.
 

Shanepr1313

Member
I wouldnt put a 30 amp breaker for an led setup I think the line maximum for most of those is 15 amps. Buy a 15 amp breaker. It will make life easier your whole wiring fiasco will be under a 100 bucks. It's not the wattage it's the amperage the max wattage is like 2860 watts on 240 volts and I doubt your there with all the lights you mentioned. And when I say 2860 is the max it isn't its 3600 watts. But it's a continuous circuit (always on) anymore than 2860 is a potential fire hazard.
Ok I’m at about 2200 watts and 17.8 amps + fans at 120 so can I run 2 15 amp 120 volt circuits off of a 30 amp 2 pole breaker or just run 2 separate 15 amp breakers to divide the 20 amps?
 

Shanepr1313

Member
You need separate breakers for 120v and 240v. You would wire up a 30A 240v breaker in your main panel, and then from that breaker you would run wire to a sub panel where you have a 15A 120v breaker and 15A 240v breaker.
Ok so I would run 10-3 from 30 amp 240 in main to a 30 amp sub panel,what gauge would I need off of the 15-120 & 15-240 breakers?
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
If you don't understand call someone who does, you can buy nema 615p wires online cheap. You should know what I'm talking about. You don't need no sub panel for a 2200 watt system. Two hots and a ground sir.
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
Once you figure out 240 volt there's little chance on going back. Some even find acs and fans that run on that voltage. 120 volt has severe limits
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
Just wire it up like a normal 240 volt circuit and dont over load it. You'll fry your leds if you put more than 15 amps on the line (any where on the circuit)
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
Oh and just to be safe keep it around 12 amps. No more electricity advice from me after this make sure you disconnect the panel b4 service. It doesn't matter where you put the black and white wire on the breaker. Hot water heater timers are rated 10 amps @240v for ballast so it should fit your whole op on one timer. Those are a bit more trickier to install than a reg timer, (jumper wires n shit) Def do some research before you go touching shit you don't know what it does.
 

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
If you don't understand call someone who does, you can buy nema 615p wires online cheap. You should know what I'm talking about. You don't need no sub panel for a 2200 watt system. Two hots and a ground sir.
A sub panel just makes things much easier being able to run power hungry stuff such as lights, AC, Dehu, etc on 240v and all accessories (fans, air/water pumps, timers, etc) on 120v since the majority of them are 120v.

You can also just run a 120v & 240v breaker from the main panel but I prefer sub panels.
 

igrowpot87

Active Member
Yea depends on the grow room size. 120v acs just don't do the job for some. The more shit you got running on the higher voltages the more efficient you'll be. 8000btu ac barely keeps 10x10x10 cool with 1800 watts of hps going.
 

Shanepr1313

Member
Oh and just to be safe keep it around 12 amps. No more electricity advice from me after this make sure you disconnect the panel b4 service. It doesn't matter where you put the black and white wire on the breaker. Hot water heater timers are rated 10 amps @240v for ballast so it should fit your whole op on one timer. Those are a bit more trickier to install than a reg timer, (jumper wires n shit) Def do some research before you go touching shit you don't know what it does.
Ty,I do apppreciate the help.
 
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