House Grow -- How big is TOO BIG!!!

[monsterbuds420]

Hey there,, First time posting.. I always look up good info on here for my grow so mad props to everyone who gives there expert advice from your individual experiences.. Very much appreciated!!

First off a little about my experience & set up.. Been growing for 5 yrs now in Southern California.. Been through about 8 strains and about 1.5 year ago I came across a absolute FIRE genetic and I've been growing this 1 strain for the last 1.5 years.. The demand has been so much I can't keep up & want to go bigger.. I have always done pretty much the same setup with a 2500 sq ft rented house, 12 1k gavita lights divided between 3 - 4 rooms, mini split in the master bed and smaller portable a/c in the smaller rooms, & always upgrade all my electrical circuit breakers.. I get a solid 25 units per cycle & 3 cycles a year.. I don't do a 4th cycle just in case the property management wants to do a year end walk through and the 4th cycle just cuts it to close if the walk through is scheduled a few weeks prior to the end of the lease.. I'm super clean with everything I never do damage to the rented houses, when I leave a house I always return the house to exactly how I received it even if it cost a good amount of money..

Ok my electric is with Edison which I've heard, experienced, and pray it stays true they don't really give a fuck as long as you always make your payments on time they never report you.. I never steal power just to risky and I get top top dollar for my units so I could care less about the electric cost.. So anyway my electric per month is about 7k - 8k kWh and $2100 - $2400..

Ok so now my main question to all you other house growers.. How big is too big electrical wise in your experiences in a single house?? Let's say I go out and on my next rental go for a 4000+ sq ft house on 1 acre of land so neighbors and smell are no issue.. So instead of 12 lights I go for 20 - 24 lights, so that would double my electric output to around 16k kWh and at most $5000 a month.. Has anyone done this much in one house with Edison?? Or one of my friends said something about if you pull to much power you can some how blow out the neighborhood power, but I told him that doesn't seem plausible maybe if you were stealing power but not if its your own, I think maybe he was just bull shitting me..
So I just want to get any thoughts from house growers who have done 20+ 1k light set ups in a single house and any problems you have came across.. To be honest besides this and other forums I don't really know other growers so maybe a set up like this is normal but I just know what I have done so far and am not sure how big I should go on my next house.. Well anyway any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

P.S. --- Not really interested in warehouse grows if that's some peoples suggestions.. I always get good deals on rented houses and I just don't want to do warehouses.. I know I could go even bigger with a warehouse but I will be 100000% happy with 3 cycles @ 40 - 48 units per cycle if that's possible with a single house.. Warehouses are just not my thing..

 

[_tessarecting]

Do you have 200 amp service?
Every 8kw @ 240v = 40 amps

 

[rykus]

You can't just look at your panel, you have to learn to look at the service on the pole, rural properties are good because the houses are further apart so chances are you have your own transformer. Would be worried to run hard sharing a transformer with a neighbour...

In BC the K/va rating is painted in big letters on the transformer.usually 25K/va or better yet a 50K/va but 10K/va are no good for big shows.will blow with only an hour max of over 10,000w.up here they blink a red light when overloaded so best test run at night and be ready to turn off if the light blinks.

Also make sure the wires look thick and aren't to far a run from the transformer or the lights will dim when your AC cycles,lol. Hard to explain to company.thin wires will heat up and melt. The casing if overloaded causing fires and eventually kick the fusable link.

Almost is cheaper to hammer up a purpose built outbuilding or looking for commercial space if you want to go big, but asses all properties by their service at the pole, 50 K/va for the win!

Your buddy is kind of right... If you blow your can anyone in a decent range will know,lol. But unless they share a transformer are likely unaffected, as all the transformers are fusable linked to the 10,000v so problems are localized... Not a good scene if your not in compliance, and fairly loud and public so learn as much as you can about balancing you high amp loads and how to gauge potential before spending $. IMO though go commercial or buy and build, way less hassle and you can design for high usage...

Bought risk from power companies, I never heard of any business that caused trouble for their better clients.... I'd still ask other big local growers but here I have in many years not once seen hydro companies volunteer info....

bottom line is you can pull safely around as many Kw as your transformer is rated Kva... So if there's a big 25 painted on the thing I'd personally stay under 16 flip with AC or so and maybe 2-4 lights pre veg just to quicken up turn around.if it has a big 50 painted on the front then you can run much more... But would have an electrician check the line rating and span if really max'ing it out. The best is 3phase power. You can see those because there will be 3 transformers on the pole. Makes the ballasts like 3 amps though.

 

[monsterbuds420]

You can't just look at your panel, you have to learn to look at the service on the pole, rural properties are good because the houses are further apart so chances are you have your own transformer. Would be worried to run hard sharing a transformer with a neighbour...

In BC the K/va rating is painted in big letters on the transformer.usually 25K/va or better yet a 50K/va but 10K/va are no good for big shows.will blow with only an hour max of over 10,000w.up here they blink a red light when overloaded so best test run at night and be ready to turn off if the light blinks.

Also make sure the wires look thick and aren't to far a run from the transformer or the lights will dim when your AC cycles,lol. Hard to explain to company.thin wires will heat up and melt. The casing if overloaded causing fires and eventually kick the fusable link.

Almost is cheaper to hammer up a purpose built outbuilding or looking for commercial space if you want to go big, but asses all properties by their service at the pole, 50 K/va for the win!

Your buddy is kind of right... If you blow your can anyone in a decent range will know,lol. But unless they share a transformer are likely unaffected, as all the transformers are fusable linked to the 10,000v so problems are localized... Not a good scene if your not in compliance, and fairly loud and public so learn as much as you can about balancing you high amp loads and how to gauge potential before spending $. IMO though go commercial or buy and build, way less hassle and you can design for high usage...

Bought risk from power companies, I never heard of any business that caused trouble for their better clients.... I'd still ask other big local growers but here I have in many years not once seen hydro companies volunteer info....

bottom line is you can pull safely around as many Kw as your transformer is rated Kva... So if there's a big 25 painted on the thing I'd personally stay under 16 flip with AC or so and maybe 2-4 lights pre veg just to quicken up turn around.if it has a big 50 painted on the front then you can run much more... But would have an electrician check the line rating and span if really max'ing it out. The best is 3phase power. You can see those because there will be 3 transformers on the pole. Makes the ballasts like 3 amps though.

Hey Rykus,, Thanks for all the info!! I will definitely look into all of that,, im not to handy with all the electrical stuff, my buddy who usually sets me all up is a electrician so when i show him what you posted im sure he will know 100% what your advice is..

And yea I posted this in a few forums and one other guy told me to be devoted to a veg room and that will get me a additional 1 - 2 more cycles.. That way I don't have to go so big, maybe just add 4 - 5 more lights instead of 10+ and I will be getting the amount im looking for..

 

[rykus]

Yeah I'm sure your friend will know what's up, if he stops at the panel though make sure to check the transformer at least first when looking at new places.my friend had an electrician do his and they assumed because 200amp panel that the service could do that but was 10 K/va and can blew.... Messy...

If you use the gavitas you can't run a traditional flip flop style grow, but you can flip the power into the rooms so your always drawing the max you can and always a big bloom room on.

IMO big well laid out bloom rooms flip flopping, with a nice pre veg and all AC co2 is key for getting high yield and quick turn around... That's the key never more than 15 day between chop and clicking back into bloom.

I posted a thread here about wiring timers for veg in a flip flop, jist is you break the lights in half so more controllable, I do 12 light flips usually, so each set of six has its own timer, one set 12-12 other 6-6 gives both rooms 18hrs with 6 hrs first set 6 hours both sets then 6 hrs second set, then 6 hrs dark while other room is full light...

But yeah 2 12x30' blooms and a 16x16 veg is about right.... 5 ton AC for the blooms just right for a 25k/va transformer.