Growroom Electricity and Wiring

[nightridda]

Rives I seen your pretty knowledgeable in led as well. I am looking to make my own led light for my (2) flower rooms. The rooms measure 10ft by 8ft. What's a good site to get quality but cheap supplies. And what direction would you go in to get that type of footprint. Mind you I am a fast learner specialy with electrical and electronics. But I have no experience in led YET. I can't seem to find any leds diy or not that cover a footprint this large so I'm figuring I might need multiple lights ? The biggest I seen is a lightship Galactica something or other.. can you or anyone point me in the right direction here please

 

[rives]

Rives I seen your pretty knowledgeable in led as well. I am looking to make my own led light for my (2) flower rooms. The rooms measure 10ft by 8ft. What's a good site to get quality but cheap supplies. And what direction would you go in to get that type of footprint. Mind you I am a fast learner specialy with electrical and electronics. But I have no experience in led YET. I can't seem to find any leds diy or not that cover a footprint this large so I'm figuring I might need multiple lights ? The biggest I seen is a lightship Galactica something or other.. can you or anyone point me in the right direction here please

I haven't been following the LED developments closely for the last couple of years since I got so involved with the 315w CDM lamps, but if I was going to build something now, I would be looking at the COBs. Take a look at tenthirty's thread on them.

Yes, you are going to need numerous LED fixtures to cover that area well. One of the problems that I had with LEDs was the uniformity - the light was incredibly intense immediately below the fixture, but lost power rapidly when you got away from the main footprint.

For parts suppliers, I like Mouser and DigiKey. HeatsinkUSA is a great source for custom heatsinks. Onlinecomponents.com has a narrower selection, but frequently has excellent pricing if they have what you want. AutomationDirect has a great selection of standard electrical components and some of the best pricing that I've found.

 

[nightridda]

Do you prefer the 315s over led? In my situation of course. With the space I'm trying to work with .. and trying to keep power down some

 

[rives]

I vastly prefer the 315s, but I haven't used any of the COBs. For me, the heat is easier to control and the light color is much better. There are white-light COBs. Tenthirty went from GreenBeam's 315s to them, and reportedly prefers them. If you are trying to uniformly light the entire rooms, you should check out the GreenBeam thread and my 315 thread. Your rooms will be very expensive to do it with LEDs, and the efficiency over 315s is marginal. For a commercial-level grow and that size room, I would probably go to the Gavita DE if you have the headroom.

 

[nightridda]

Can you post a link with witch one .. the gravita .. and can I put those on a light rail ?

 

[rives]

http://growershouse.com/gavita-pro-1000-de-complete-fixture

You need to read up about the required head room. I can't help you much other than to point out that there have been lots of complaints about burning plants up with 8' ceilings and people that have had to go to a different fixture because their growrooms didn't have enough elevation to work with.

There is also a 600/750w version available.

I don't see why they wouldn't work with a rail, but again, I've never used either them or a light rail.

 

[nightridda]

The problem is I wanted to cut back on electricity, Right now im running 4 1000s for flower, 16 t5s for veg and misc for seed/clone room.. my bill is almost 1000 a month, Thats why i was thinking leds, and the gravitas prob arent much better then my hortalux in xxl hoods. even if i went to 1 1000 per room on a rail would prob cut down my bill alot. plus the heat / ac on all the time is killing my bill. I would love to see my bill in half, or less if possible. what other methods are an option.

 

[Jhhnn]

The problem is I wanted to cut back on electricity, Right now im running 4 1000s for flower, 16 t5s for veg and misc for seed/clone room.. my bill is almost 1000 a month, Thats why i was thinking leds, and the gravitas prob arent much better then my hortalux in xxl hoods. even if i went to 1 1000 per room on a rail would prob cut down my bill alot. plus the heat / ac on all the time is killing my bill. I would love to see my bill in half, or less if possible. what other methods are an option.

My very limited experience is that two 315's are the rough growing equivalent of a single 1000w. You can cut power consumption & total heat by ~1/3 or slightly better by making that substitution.

I think you could do somewhat better than that with quality LED's but the upfront costs are very high for good equipment.

I'd suggest trying a commercial 630W CDM system (twin 315's) in the place of a 1000w to see if you want to go further in that direction. If you're good at DIY then even cheaper ways can be had.

 

[HorseBadoritiz]

I have a T5 ballast question. One of my veg tents has 2x 2' x 4 tube Sunblaze fixtures. 1 fixture is plugged into a mechanical timer on a power strip. The other fixture is is daisy chained from the 1st.

A year ago, the ballast in the 1st went out, and I replaced it with a Fulham 5 Workhorse. About a week ago, 1 tube went out, I replaced it, and that went out in 2 days. I ran it it with 3 tubes, then they all stopped working.

I replaced the ballast with just a Workhorse, not a 5. The 3x tubes that didn't go out at first, still work. Both the first one to go, and it's replacement don't.

I have 4x more of these fixtures which have been running for 5+ years with no problems.

I have reversed the way I power the 2 lights, and put on another timer. Is there anything I can do to check, or prevent this from happening again, or am I just lucky, lol?

 

[rives]

Horse, you may have had a bad run of luck, but I would suggest that you check all of the connections at the lamp sockets. The sockets normally use spring-loaded push-in connections, which frequently are marginally functional to start with and get worse with age and vibration. Usually you can take the covers off, install the lamps, power up the fixture and manipulate the wiring around to see where the problem lies.

 

[nightridda]

What ways to you suggest for diy because yes I'm good with diy. I'm all ears on every suggestion. I have even been looking into solar panels

 

[nightridda]

What do you guys think about this beast lol

 

[HorseBadoritiz]

Thanks @rives! It must be the way I hold my mouth when I put in the new tubes, lol! I've had to re-socket another, older fixture, so I know what you mean... it's like the plastic they use on those things sucks up UV, instead of resisting! At least I'm lucky in love, ha!

 

[rives]

The problem is I wanted to cut back on electricity, Right now im running 4 1000s for flower, 16 t5s for veg and misc for seed/clone room.. my bill is almost 1000 a month, Thats why i was thinking leds, and the gravitas prob arent much better then my hortalux in xxl hoods. even if i went to 1 1000 per room on a rail would prob cut down my bill alot. plus the heat / ac on all the time is killing my bill. I would love to see my bill in half, or less if possible. what other methods are an option.

If you are after the same levels of production that you are currently seeing, you have a difficult question to answer. The 1000w DE fixtures have a definite edge over the standard 1000w versions, but certainly not double. Using the GreenBeams is potentially a good option, but the room needs to be built to suit (the walls become part of the lighting system), the fixtures are expensive, and you are still probably going to see about a 33% reduction in power at best. I think that the best of the LEDs are going to offer a similar or marginally better savings, and will easily be more expensive than the GreenBeams. If you are serious about pursuing the GB/315's, then you should spend some time on the Cycloptics web site learning about how they work, check the threads out on here that deal with them, and perhaps have Cycloptics model your rooms so you can get something tangible to chew over.

 

[nightridda]

Sounds good I appreciate the right direction. I'm going to do some research for sure.

 

[eebbnflow]

Hey Rives , so I have a 30amp breaker for a dryer plug and a 20amp GFCI breaker for a chiller . We had two very hard rain falls and both times the GFCI tripped , understandable considering this can be common with GFCI breakers and heavy rain . But today when my lamp relay made the flip it also tripped the 20a GFCI breaker. :/ I'm not sure what to do . The breaker was bought on Amazon I'm wondering if I have a faulty breaker or some other problem . The unused neutral wire on the GFCI is terminated to the neutral bar if it matters . Thank you in advance

 

[rives]

Hey Rives , so I have a 30amp breaker for a dryer plug and a 20amp GFCI breaker for a chiller . We had two very hard rain falls and both times the GFCI tripped , understandable considering this can be common with GFCI breakers and heavy rain . But today when my lamp relay made the flip it also tripped the 20a GFCI breaker. :/ I'm not sure what to do . The breaker was bought on Amazon I'm wondering if I have a faulty breaker or some other problem . The unused neutral wire on the GFCI is terminated to the neutral bar if it matters . Thank you in advance

Has the GFCI circuit been in use with no problem for some time?

Yes, the neutral wire on the GFCI breaker is critical, and it shouldn't be "unused". A GFCI basically functions by comparing the current supplied with what returns on the other connection, and if there is a difference, it trips. The neutral wire from the field circuit MUST come back to the breaker, and the pigtail on the breaker is what ultimately completes the neutral circuit back to the neutral buss. There can be no parallel connections from the circuit that bypass the neutral connection on the breaker and go directly to the buss - anything fed by the breaker HAS to come back to the breaker neutral connection.

If the circuit has been working as installed, then it is likely that you have a ground in the circuit somewhere. This could be from a wire with skinned insulation that is now in a damp location, or any other circumstance that would allow the circuit to leak to ground.

 

[eebbnflow]

The neutral connection on the breaker would be for a 4-wire 120/240v circuit, not for a 3-wire 240v only circuit like you have. Although it isn't needed for your current installation, connecting the pigtail to the neutral bar is the safest place to terminate it and the breaker would be ready if you ever need to go with a 4-wire circuit, .

Hey rives . The circuit has been working but it's flipped 4 times over 30 days and controls cooling . The circuit is straight 240v without a neutral . I thought the neutral was not being used here . These GFCI seem sensitive . I have no idea where I messed up sorry I wasn't more clear in my post . Does it matter that it is straight 240 with a groud ?

 

[rives]

Hey rives . The circuit has been working but it's flipped 4 times over 30 days and controls cooling . The circuit is straight 240v without a neutral . I thought the neutral was not being used here . These GFCI seem sensitive . I have no idea where I messed up sorry I wasn't more clear in my post . Does it matter that it is straight 240 with a groud ?

Yes, it matters if it is straight 240v, I was thinking that it was 120v. The neutral connection on your breaker would be for a 120/240v circuit (like 120v controls on a 240v device). It sounds like you might have an intermittent ground, a weak breaker, or the chiller is running too close to the breaker rating and tripping now and then. Have you taken a current reading on it while it is running to see what it is pulling? If the chiller can run over three hours straight, the maximum that it should be pulling is 16 amps (80% rule). I would think that it would be far less than that, particularly on 240v, and would probably start and stop frequently. If a bearing is going out or if it is trying to start against high pressure, the current would be higher than it should be.

 

[eebbnflow]

My first guess was a weak breaker only because it was bought online . Never kmow where it came from or if it's a dud . I have not taken a current reading yet but I am going to look into each thing you mentioned ! Thank you . The unit normally runs for 20 mins or up to 30 min in the hot heat outside , I have been timing it. I also know that I am using the units capacity in btus . It is working normally to me other than the breaker is tripping . Today the breaker tripped as my light relay did its flip . Lights are on a different non GFCI breaker .i will re check my work

About high pressure are you referring to the water pressure coming into the unit ?