Growroom Electricity and Wiring

[dtfsux]

your wire is rated to 600V. so the same wire can be used for 120 or 240. It just depends on how it is wired and it is quite easy to change as I explained elsewhere.

I have always heard ground and neutral should be separated in a sub panel and that is how I always do my sub panels. I have also heard you should have a separate ground rod for sub panels but I never did that and I do not think most people actually do that.

Your panel will work with the ground and neutral together, not sure what the risks are.


Pumps and fans dont pull much amperage. 1-2 amps each depending on size

 

[rives]

I would turn off the panel until corrections are made.
Not good. In a sub panel the neutrals should be landed on the neutral bus bar as shown. The bare or ground wires should be landed on a ground bus bar that is bonded to the panels enclosure with a minimum 10/32 machine screws. Yours show them double stabbed in the neutral bus bar.

If your lighting is 220v you can turn off the sub panel in put in slim line combo breakers that will give you two 20 amp 120v circuit and 1 240v 20 amp circuit for 2 breaker spaces.they just snap in and out.

Ask your electrician some very frank and serious questions.

Tilt is right - there should be a separate ground bus in that panel. The sum of the breakers vs. what it is fed by is not a concern, the duty cycle on the individual breakers will usually give you plenty of headroom on your feeders unless you get really carried away. A 200 amp service panel can have 40+ breakers ranging from 15 amps up to 100 (or more) and it will work fine. The problem with having the grounds and the neutrals on the same bus is that it can lead to ground loops which will raise hell with sensitive electronics or GFCIs. Of greater concern to me is that you said that you have #8 wires on a 50 amp breaker. NM cable is typically rated at 60 degrees C, so it is only good for 40 amps (very common code violation). The 12/2 won't be a problem on 240 volts as long as you don't need a neutral there to run 120 controls.

 

[sarek]

thanks for the input you all, I got a few other ideas. I think the consensus is a big contactor, perhaps 200A or so. The NO/NC thing I sorta get. I will forward this thread to my friend and to a professional electrician to interpret. will let ya know whats next.

 

[prophecy]

I bought a 1000w lumatek ballast 120v! How hot the ballast come? I've read that a 600w lumatek 120v can be at 120F. I took the information on the lumatek website but they talk about the temp of the 1000w.

Also, they say that an electronic ballast is more effective on 240v than on 120v...it is a lot of difference?

Its safe to plug a 1000w ballast on 120v?

When lumatek say to buy a RF shielded wire its this one?
http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=HLLACOSS&Tp=

Should the wire from ballast to the wall be RF shielded too?

Thank you very much all!

 

[prophecy]

Its possible that my link is old? ON the lumatek website they say that their ballast are internally RF Shielded and we can use standard wire!

 

[Wise]

Does anyone know, or have any experience wiring a similar electromagnetic lock? There are two wires, a red and a black- I'm assuming they're both hot.

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Marshall]

is the lock 120 or 240?

I do not think you could wire it wrong since it is just a magnet

 

[Wise]

I should have been more specific, I want to wire this lock to a cord and socket so I can plug it in.

 

[Marshall]

OK So what is your question? Get a power cord from an old computer, cut the female end off and wire black to black, and white to red. or get a cord from home depot, or get some romex and put a male plug on it. many ways to do it.

Again does this lock work off 120 volts or 240 volts?

I assume 120 volts, so the above directions should work

You say you think both are hot, you dont want to do something crazy like connect both lock wires to one wire from your wall

 

[Tilt]

I believe e mag locks are 24 volt ac you need a transformer.

they sell them by the doorbells at home improvement stores

 

[bostonjorge]

I have a old fashion fuse box with a main line being a #6 wire so i'm guessing a 50-60 amp hot. they are only 3 fuses in there at 15 ,15 ,20 . Now , i wanna add 3 or 4 20 amp dedicated lines to a the room because i'm getting carried away with the wattage (3K) and lord knows the old wiring in these walls aint built for this. Currently i'm using extension cords ( one per fuse) connected to outlets closest to the fuse box. i asked around and a few recommended i switch main panel from fuse to breaker box. i rather not and was wondering if i could just tap/bridge from the main , run it to the room then break it down in there. after all its all temporary for 6 months.

 

[Bubba2]

Very good info. I will bookmark this one.

 

[vannuysorganic]

Does anyone know, or have any experience wiring a similar electromagnetic lock? There are two wires, a red and a black- I'm assuming they're both hot.

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

Thank you.

Looks like 18g wire so it is more than likely NOT 120/240. I agree with tilt probably low voltage. Should have required voltage on the box....

 

[use]

Hi, I'm having a recent problem. I am using this timer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1QSERANAW9X2K1BTC5YH

Using that timer to run my 400w MH light. Just started my 18hr veg cycle on Sunday. I unplugged the lights at noon. And I plugged the above timer into the wall(already setup for 6off/18on) and an extention cord into the timer, and my 400w ballast/light into the extention cord. Came back into the room at 6pm and waited outside my tent. At 6pm the light came on. Everything seems fine. 3 minutes later the light goes out. Tried a few different configuration to no avail. Only way the light would come back on was directly into extention cord, into the wall outlet.

When trying to turn it on via the timer directly into the wall again, the light would just barely start to come on, then turn off after a few seconds. Also tried plugging in a surge-protector and plugging timer into that, same outcome.

For now I'm unplugging and plugging in the light on schedule. Need some help, any ideas? Thank you for taking the time to help out a first timer, peace.

 

[rives]

Hi, I'm having a recent problem. I am using this timer:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1QSERANAW9X2K1BTC5YH

Have you tried the manual over-ride and see if it turns on? From the spec's it should easily handle the load that you are putting on it, so I would suspect a programming issue rather than a fragged timer. It would be easier to plug a standard incandescent lamp into it and get it debugged rather than hitting your HID lamp with a bunch of unnecessary on/off cycles.

 

[Pompey_Monkey]

Looks like 18g wire so it is more than likely NOT 120/240. I agree with tilt probably low voltage. Should have required voltage on the box....

I agree - I bought an electromagnetic catch a couple of years ago and it has a big sticker on the side that says "12V DC".

So be careful wiring it up!

 

[use]

Have you tried the manual over-ride and see if it turns on? From the spec's it should easily handle the load that you are putting on it, so I would suspect a programming issue rather than a fragged timer. It would be easier to plug a standard incandescent lamp into it and get it debugged rather than hitting your HID lamp with a bunch of unnecessary on/off cycles.

I tested it today, on my Honeywell Air Purifier w/ hepa filter. It turned on right on time, it's been almost an hour and it's still running fine. This is baffling to me, any input would be helpful. Thx again, peace.

So the timer seems to be setup, and working correctly, but still won't stay on when running my light.

 

[rives]

I tested it today, on my Honeywell Air Purifier w/ hepa filter. It turned on right on time, it's been almost an hour and it's still running fine. This is baffling to me, any input would be helpful. Thx again, peace.

So the timer seems to be setup, and working correctly, but still won't stay on when running my light.

Do you have a voltmeter? HID's are sensitive to voltage sag's and will drop off line if it gets too low. It then takes several minutes for the gases to condense and the re-strike to take place. Meanwhile, the load on your timer is going to be fluctuating as the light goes through it's cycle. If you have a voltmeter, perhaps you could plug in a small electric heater or equivalent load that draws about 500 watts (roughly the equivalent of your light/ballast load) and monitor the voltage in the unused plug on the timer. Apparently that timer can take multiple programs, if anything is causing a momentary "off" pulse, it will cause your light to act like that. Try deleting any other programs other than just the one with your on/off times to make sure that you aren't getting interference from that.

 

[Tilt]

I've read some timers are not compatible with lights that use a ballast esp. digital ones. Im not sure why possibly the lagging current. I read the reviews on amazon maybe you should get a good mechanical timer.

 

[rives]

Tilt went to the same place I did. The reviews on Amazon are almost 50/50 for good vs dismal, and there are apparently lots of early failures. I suppose I am hopelessly old-school, but I like mechanical timers.