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electrical question

M

McChris421

Member
let me start off by saying i am new to the electrical world but am trying to learn as much as possible. I have a 20 amp breaker running to the rooms i need powered. This will not be enough for the electricity i plan to use. So my question is can i have an electrician upgrade the 20 amp to like a 40 for the room and not have to change the wires running from the breaker box to the outlets in the rooms? i have a lot of available space on the breaker box since it is 200amp total. If this cannot be done i imagine i will just have to run new lines to the room on a new breaker or two. how much would it cost round abouts to hire someone to do either of these? electricity scares the shit out of me and i would rather just hire someone who knows what they are doing. thanks for the time


-McChris-
 
madpenguin

madpenguin

Member
No, you can't just change the 20 amp breaker for a 40, but, I think you already know better since you asked the question. :wink: Especially since you brought up the wire.

240v appliances will allow you to run more on that circuit but it doesn't save you any money.

How much someone will charge you depends on how far the room is from the panel and how hard it is to run the wire there. ie - What floor is the room on? The panel is in the basement? Do you have exposed ceilings in the basement? Do you have an accessible attic? No one can give you an accurate quote until they do a walk thru.

More info needed. Especially all the equipment you will be running in this room along with their respective nameplate ratings (how many amps/watts @ what voltage).
 
G

grady

Member
240v cuts your amperage in half vs.120 ie 1000 w=10amps 120v & 4.9amps ........ how is that not saveing power mad journeyman
 
madpenguin

madpenguin

Member
grady said:
240v cuts your amperage in half vs.120 ie 1000 w=10amps 120v & 4.9amps ........ how is that not saveing power mad journeyman
Click to expand...

How is that saving power? Sure. Half the amps. Great. Who cares? Power = Watts. Your not saving power. Your not really "saving" anything. Your merely reducing your amperage draw by half along with any voltage drop. A nice bonus but certainly no reason to specifically buy 240v equipment....

All my equipment runs @ 120v. I have the same bill as I would if it were all 240V.

BTW, you might want to double check your math on that one.
 
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grady

Member
multi tap ballast, rewire ,don't buy 240v............

no math involved just name plate

10a vs 4.9a umm....... huh which one would save me on my power bill mr. licensed JW
DRAWING 10A OR 4.9A???????????????????

I WANT PEOPLE TO SAVE ON ENERGY
 
D

DrunkenMessiah

Member
madpenguin said:
How is that saving power? Sure. Half the amps. Great. Who cares? Power = Watts. Your not saving power. Your not really "saving" anything. Your merely reducing your amperage draw by half along with any voltage drop. A nice bonus but certainly no reason to specifically buy 240v equipment....

All my equipment runs @ 120v. I have the same bill as I would if it were all 240V.

BTW, you might want to double check your math on that one.
Click to expand...


You are 99% correct madpenguin! You are charged for electricity based on kilowatt/hours and so doubling your voltage indeed does nothing to the actual load. However, for HID ballasts (ESPECIALLY magnetic ones) there is an efficiency advantage, albeit a small one, in running 240v. HID lamps run at extremely high voltages, measuring in the tens of thousands of volts. This means that the supplied voltage from your house has to be 'stepped up' via a transformer. Stepping up voltage is inherantly inneficient and wastes a little power in the form of heat every incremental 'step' where the power is converted from flowing electrons to lines of flux and back again. So, running your ballasts (like I said, especially magnetic ones) on 240 volts does present a slightly smaller overall load on your electric meter due to lower heat loss. I have no idea what this number actually is, if its 1% or .0001%, it may or may not be worth the added expense in running whole seperate 240v lines. I simply prefer 240v for my HID ballasts when convinient for this reason. Even if the power savings are small I feel that it is worth it in added life from the ballast. As with all electrical equiptment lower temps = longer life.
 
D

DrunkenMessiah

Member
grady said:
10a vs 4.9a umm....... huh which one would save me on my power bill mr. licensed JW
DRAWING 10A OR 4.9A???????????????????

I WANT PEOPLE TO SAVE ON ENERGY
Click to expand...

That would save you on energy if your power company charged by the ampre/hour. Sadly, they are not as retarded as you and therefore charge by the kilowatt/hour. You can run as many or as few amps as you damn well please, you have to multiply them by whatever voltage you are running in order to get WATTAGE which is the true measure of power. By your logic my computer should draw more power than just about anything else in my house. Its main power rails are rated for 40 Amps EACH! However, these rails run at 12 volts, resulting in a relatively modest 600 watts of peak power draw total. This is electricity 101 kiddo, get it right!
 
madpenguin

madpenguin

Member
grady said:
multi tap ballast, rewire ,don't buy 240v............

no math involved just name plate

10a vs 4.9a umm....... huh which one would save me on my power bill mr. licensed JW
DRAWING 10A OR 4.9A???????????????????

I WANT PEOPLE TO SAVE ON ENERGY
Click to expand...

Oi..... What fantasy world do you live in anyway?

Actually, I lied. I use Zero Point Energy to power all my equipment.


@ DrunkenMessiah. Thanks for the low down. Good info to throw out but I knew it already. Akin to iron/copper/watt/power loss. I could run my entire house in #6 AWG as well to save on power but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it. We are talking a pennies a day on a large scale grow with 120 vs 240.... It's not even worth the time to think about it, much less do it.
 
D

DrunkenMessiah

Member
madpenguin said:
@ DrunkenMessiah. Thanks for the low down. Good info to throw out but I knew it already. Akin to iron/copper/watt/power loss. I could run my entire house in #6 AWG as well to save on power but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it. We are talking a pennies a day on a large scale grow with 120 vs 240.... It's not even worth the time to think about it, much less do it.
Click to expand...

Indeed! I knew it was a small number and is generally not much to think about. The effect is simply amplified greatly in magnetic HID ballasts as the iron piles they have contain a HUGE number of iron laminates. When you start making several hundred voltage step-ups in a single go it really starts to mean something. I've never measured the power draw difference, but I have measured the temps and I know for a fact that the surface of the aluminum casing which contains my 400 watt magnetic HPS ballast runs no less than eight degrees cooler when on 240 volts compared to 120. I can't help but think that is a shitload of BTUs over time which is an expression of pure electrical waste. Maybe that's just because I've never actually seen the load difference measured on a multimeter (if you can even see it!)
 
madpenguin

madpenguin

Member
grady said:
wOW, I don't think McChris421 ever expect this:wallbash::dueling:


:moon::moon::moon:drunkin
Click to expand...


Look... I wouldn't expect a stoner high school kid to go around saying that he's an electrician on a forum full of people he doesn't even know either... But apparently it happens. Get over it. It would also be nice if you didn't give anymore advice on topics that you are completely oblivious about.
 
Elite

Elite

Active member
Looks like your question got answered thoroughly...
You say you want to learn as much as you can about electricity, check out the thread in my sig.

I'll be able to except PM's soon, once I can you, I'll be happy to help you with your electrical needs.

:cool:Elite
 
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