Growroom Electricity and Wiring

[61-50-7]

I have numerous rants on here about their using 120v receptacles and powering them with 240v. Liability nightmare.

The timer itself should be fine with a 50 amp line correct? Everything will be 240v.

I assume you're referring to the possibility someone could plug in a 120v device when the timer is wired for 240v since the outlets take either style plug?

Thanks for your help!

 

[rives]

The timer itself should be fine with a 50 amp line correct? Everything will be 240v.

I assume you're referring to the possibility someone could plug in a 120v device when the timer is wired for 240v since the outlets take either style plug?

Thanks for your help!

I don't think that feeding it with 50 amps is a good option. Their literature says that the relays are rated at 40 amps maximum, there is no intermediate protection for the receptacles which would have a 15 or 20 amp rating maximum, and the wiring from the relays to the receptacles uses blue StaKons. The blue indicates that the wire size is 14 or 16, so they are far too small for the current that could be applied to them.

Yes, I am talking about plugging a 120v device into the receptacles (your wife wants to listen to the radio, vacuum the grow room, or....) or the possibility of forgetting that your ballasts are tapped at 240v, but they use a 120v plug and you wind up plugging them into a different source. If you fiddle around with your lights as much as I do, sometime something is going to get plugged into the wrong voltage if you don't have the appropriate plugs installed. That is why the NEMA standards are designed to be mutually exclusive.

 

[61-50-7]

Fuck everything about that timer then..taking it back and having something else ordered. Running 8 lights hell or high water I'll find a timer designed for 50amps.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Tilt]

2 very good articles on grow room electricity
http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2010...al-safety-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1371

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2010/11/can-i-grow-in-here-electrical-safety/

 

[2stoge]

Sorry. Don't think I actually answered the question. In that instance, you would provide a parallel path for neutral current to travel on. Some would take the neutral and some would take the ground.

Also why you don't want to terminate any neutral wires to the dedicated ground basbar in a sub-panel. You would have objectionable current on the frame of the panel. If you didn't use the bonding bar/strap/screw, then you force the neutral current to travel down the grounding conductor. If you did use the bonding bar/strap/screw, then your back to having parallel paths, along with objectionable current on the frame of the panel.

Thanks for that, I have to go rewire my subpanel now. I just wired it like I seen on the mainpanel. Glad nothing terrible hasnt happened yet. I love ICMag, Im sure this thread has saved hella homes and lives. Thanks madpenguin and everyone contributing. Still havent finished reading the thread but I felt oblige to express my gratitude. THANKS.

 

[61-50-7]

Quick question:

Would extending lamp cords using by splicing the appropriate size wire produce any added RF interference? Are the wires shielded and the splice would interrupt the shielding?

 

[ostrichfarmer]

Hi all-

I just moved to a new house and am a little overwhelmed. I'm hoping someone can help me make sense of this.

I have two circuts potentaily available for my grow. The two fuses pictured on the left in this pic are 20a and 30aa:




One leads to an old water heater that is no longer used. It is a 20 amp fuse wired to a switch (pictured below) then to the water heater. The yellow fuse is a 30amp and is wired to a grounded outlet (also in picture below)

I'm wondering how much power I can run from that pouble plug? How can I utalize the 30 amps? How big of a project is it to run 15 feet of wire off the 20 amp water heater line to a new socket?

Thanks for any help in this project!

 

[White Tee]

Quick question from UK

I have a standard single socket already in my grow room, will it be safe to run a 250w hps light with a timer and a couple of fans from this or will it burn my house down?

 

[61-50-7]

Home depo guy just tried selling me on a 8/2 romax for a 50amp circuit cause they were out of the appropriate wire. "Its only a range, they won't be using all four burners on high and the oven at once..."

They're trying to kill me

 

[whadeezlrg]

I've got a problem- I'm trying to pull a 6/3 wire off out of an old air conditioners circut. problem is that there are only 2 conductors and a neutral wire coming from the main panel out back to the fuse panel that I'm trying to pull power off of (wiring for the ac unit has been taken out of the box) so my question is in order for me to be able to hook up both hots the neutral and the grounding wire to run to my sub panel am I able to connect both the neutral and grounding wire to the same bus in the a/c fuse box? sorry if that doesn't make much sense I tried to elaborate as much as possible

 

[rives]

...am I able to connect both the neutral and grounding wire to the same bus in the a/c fuse box? sorry if that doesn't make much sense I tried to elaborate as much as possible

Not if I am understanding you correctly. In a sub-panel the neutral buss and the ground buss should be isolated from each other and from the panel. They are then carried independently back to the main panel busses. This is to eliminate ground loops (stray currents induced from multiple grounding points). Hope this helps.

 

[whadeezlrg]

Not if I am understanding you correctly. In a sub-panel the neutral buss and the ground buss should be isolated from each other and from the panel. They are then carried independently back to the main panel busses. This is to eliminate ground loops (stray currents induced from multiple grounding points). Hope this helps.

I think were on the same page, so given this scenario what is the solution? If I have a copper grounding rod driven 6+ ft into the ground nearby(a different one than the houses grounding rod) would I be able to pull a ground from that and add another buss to the fuse box to connect the grounding wire(from new sub panel) to then just connect the neutral wire to nuetral buss that goes back to the main panel?


Or do I have to buy another 50+ft of 6/3 and run it from the panel? (keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't my only option)

thanks for all your help

 

[larry187]

quick question for the pros out there.

I have a 30a, 240v line running my room that feeds into a timer box/load center panel. In the panel there is a 15a 240v breaker and a 15a 120v breaker along with 2 contactors that run the 240v line. The line into the panel is 10/3 but but when it comes off the contactor I want it to be 10/2 getting rid of the neutral with the ideal that i can wire normal 120v receptacles by splitting them. Is this an option?? I want to do it like this because my ballasts all have 120v plugs that way I wouldn't have to rewire it.


any comments would be great.

 

[Tilt]

quick question for the pros out there.

I have a 30a, 240v line running my room that feeds into a timer box/load center panel. In the panel there is a 15a 240v breaker and a 15a 120v breaker along with 2 contactors that run the 240v line. The line into the panel is 10/3 but but when it comes off the contactor I want it to be 10/2 getting rid of the neutral with the ideal that i can wire normal 120v receptacles by splitting them. Is this an option?? I want to do it like this because my ballasts all have 120v plugs that way I wouldn't have to rewire it.
any comments would be great.

1 .Are your ballasts 120v or 240v?
2. You need a nuetral to run 120v
3. you can use 10/2 to run 240v but you need to reidentify the white wire with a black marker or tape. 12/2 will work also at 20 amps.
4. most ballasts are muti tap and can be rewired to different voltages
5. if you plan to use the ballast at 240v I recommend changing the plug to the correct nema configuration.

 

[Tilt]

I think were on the same page, so given this scenario what is the solution? If I have a copper grounding rod driven 6+ ft into the ground nearby(a different one than the houses grounding rod) would I be able to pull a ground from that and add another buss to the fuse box to connect the grounding wire(from new sub panel) to then just connect the neutral wire to nuetral buss that goes back to the main panel?


Or do I have to buy another 50+ft of 6/3 and run it from the panel? (keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't my only option)

thanks for all your help

I would not do that. Your 6/3 wire should have 2 hots 1 white wire and 1 bare or green wire otherwise you have 6/2 wire. The green wire is not counted with the wires unless talking about S.O. cord. Your ground bus bar should be hooked in to the point of service ground and can be grounded from a ground rod as supplementary grounding only.

 

[Tilt]

Quick question:

Would extending lamp cords using by splicing the appropriate size wire produce any added RF interference? Are the wires shielded and the splice would interrupt the shielding?

sheilded wire is usually an aluminum wrap around the wire similar coaxial cable. Lamp cords dont produce very much RF but ballasts sometimes do. Grounding the metal parts of your reflector and ballast enclosure usually clears up any rf interference.

 

[Tilt]

Hi all-

I just moved to a new house and am a little overwhelmed. I'm hoping someone can help me make sense of this.

I have two circuts potentaily available for my grow. The two fuses pictured on the left in this pic are 20a and 30aa:




One leads to an old water heater that is no longer used. It is a 20 amp fuse wired to a switch (pictured below) then to the water heater. The yellow fuse is a 30amp and is wired to a grounded outlet (also in picture below)

I'm wondering how much power I can run from that pouble plug? How can I utalize the 30 amps? How big of a project is it to run 15 feet of wire off the 20 amp water heater line to a new socket?

Thanks for any help in this project!

I would get a panel upgrade to bet away breakers and get away from fuses Call and get bids should be fairly inexpensive. 15' is a piece of cake to extend for your ne w location.

 

[Tilt]

Quick question from UK

I have a standard single socket already in my grow room, will it be safe to run a 250w hps light with a timer and a couple of fans from this or will it burn my house down?

Depends. There might be other loads on the circuit. Turn off the breaker to the asssociated receptacle and see what else turns off. Most appliances have a rating on them that says what there amp or watt draw is. I would say you are most likely fine.

 

[larry187]

hey thanks for the reply.

my ballasts are 120v. you say you need a neutral to run 120v but than say you can run 240v with 10/2 so where is the neutral...from what I understand 240v is really two 120V at a different phase so I should be able to split a 120v plug and have both the top outlet and bottom running at 120v. so can I do this or should i open up my wallet and spend the money on new plugs. If i can do it, would I need a neutral wire from the 120v outlet back to the sub panel neutral bus?? i could do a quick wire diagram of what I mean if it would help.

 

[Tilt]

240v no nuetral required. The most simple way to run your 120v is run one hot and a nuetral to 1 duplex outlet and 1 hot and 1 nuetral to another duplex outlet. The circuits need to be protected with a maximum of a 20 amp circuit breaker.