Need help with installing some new 20A breakers

[Guest]

I sure would appreciate some help from anyone who knows a little (or a lot) about breaker boxes and how to install new breakers. Here's the situation. I'm setting up a closet as a grow room. It's in a bedroom that I use for my office and currently this bedroom is the only room on a 20 amp breaker.

For lighting in the closet (2'deep X 7.5' wide X 8' tall) I'm going to use a 600w switchable HPS/MH with a coolable reflector. I've also bought a 200W CFL and reflector for seedling stage. When I light up the 600 watt light, I don't like the footprint it makes when I hold it over the center of the closet floor. The plants at either edge aren't going to get the same amount of light as those in the center, so I'm going to buy a 400W switchable and place it over one end of the closet. By doing that, the overlap from the 600 plus the light from the 400 should even out the light. I'm also going to have blowers, exhaust fan, a blower running air through the two reflectors, and a window a/c unit to cool the rest of the room which is where my grow room will be sucking air from and returning it to btw.

I don't want to keep tripping the breaker to my office, so I've decided to install some more 20A breakers. I've bought the breakers at Home Depot and I made sure they were the same brand as my breaker box. When I looked inside the breaker box in the garage, I noticed that as you look at each breaker that is already installed, one will have a red wire going into it and the next will have a black wire going into it. They alternate like that down each side of the panel. My question is why? I'm used to red being hot, black being negative and white being ground.

I know I'll have to flip the main breaker in the box to kill power to the box so I don't die in the process. But where are the other two wires. I absolutely don't want to hire an electrician to come to the house and install all this wiring to a closet in my 3rd bedroom/office. I don't think he'd believe I want to install 4 new breakers for a giant salt water aquarium I intend to build into the closet. If it's not to much trouble for someone here to answer this for me, I would appreciate the help.

I'll be happy to answer more questions about my setup if need be (except where it's located, hehe). I need to know what kind of wire - 3 wire/insulated maybe and all the other stuff? Please, if you're not sure what the procedure is, don't tell me what you think should be done. I need to know from someone who is qualified so I don't kill myself.

Thanks in advance
mojo

 

[clowntown]

I don't think he'd believe I want to install 4 new breakers for a giant salt water aquarium I intend to build into the closet.

I can't answer your questions about the electrical, but for future reference you can always tell them it's for running a computer farm.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, some of the locals around here might just believe anything. I went to hammerzone.com and found the answers I needed. It's gonna be a snap to do. Hardest part is going to be pulling the wiring cables through the attic and that won't be too difficult.

 

[Guest]

Mojo the black and red wires are both hot the are different legs of 120V,you must utilize two breakers next to each other to get 240V,another words two reds or two blacks will not give you 240V,not that you'd be able to find a breaker that utilizes the first and third space lol

 

[Pops]

mojo, are you running 120v or 240v? A 120v system will have a bare copper wire that is your ground. The black wire is hot and the white wire is neutral/return. On a 240v system, as Skeletor said, the red and black are hot and the white is neutral/return, with the bare copper wire being ground. For 120 volt, the breaker draws power from one side of the main box, giving it 120v. For 240v, you need a 240v breaker that draws power from both sides of the main panel. The red wire draws 120v from one side and the black draws 120v from the other side to give you the 240v. You cannot draw 240v by hooking the red and black to 2 breakers on the same side.

 

[Guest]

mojo, are you running 120v or 240v?

I'm wanting 120v at the moment. I've got six extra spaces (three on each side) available in the panel and I think I understand everything, but... I read that there are separate buses, one for the neutral and one for the ground. When I look in my box, both neutral (white wire) and ground (bare copper wire) seem to be connected to the same bus. Don't know what's up with that.

I know that once I pull the wiring (I'm going to install 4-20 amp breakers) I'll need to throw the main 200 amp breaker in order to disconnect power to the lower part of the box. I realize that there will still be two hot wires coming into the box on the IN side of the 200a main breaker and I need to stay away from those!!! I'll be working at the bottom of the box, so that shouldn't be too hard to do.

I'm going to install the 20a breakers in a 3 on one side and 1 on the other side fashion so I can still have room for a double breaker if I ever need to pull 240a.

Thanks guys for coming to help me. It's appreciated!!! This will be my first grow and if any of you would like to know what I intend to do so you can kind of coach me (really more like mentoring), I would really appreciate that help too. My equipment has been coming in and my wife's out of town for the next few days so I've got time by myself to do all this.

My wife is very supportive of the grow. When she met me, I was drinking about 2/3 of a liter of rum a day and had been for years. I got a DWI about a year ago and have completed my year's probation, community service and paid all the fines so that's all over. Alcohol had caused me problems that I wasn't going to admit but can see clearly now. I quit drinking in October of '05 and haven't even thought about doing it again, but smoking "grass" (sorry but I'm an older guy and it was called "grass" when I smoked my way through the 60's) doesn't affect me in a negative way like alcohol did.

I started smoking again when I had two blown discs in my neck and the doctors couldn't find anything that could ease my nerve pain and help me sleep. Grass saved the day for me so after my surgeries, I continued to smoke.

I just realized I've been rambling so I'll stop. I'm out of stash so I can't even blame it on the pot, hehe.

Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me know if anybody would like to help me by looking at what I've bought to do the grow to make sure I'm going at it the right way.

Pops, move over, I get sort of pissy too and I'm over the age of 50.

 

[Guest]

I remember when I started growing seriously about 5 or 6 years ago joking with friends and family members that if I had all the erb I needed,I'd quit drinking.This coming from a lush that drank daily for 25 years and got 3 dui's.This christmas will be close to 3 years without any of that shit,watching my retired father drink himself to death probably has something to do with it.What a lousy drug

 

[Pops]

Funny how the legal stuff can kill you and the illegal stuff can help you. Mojo, I'm in my 60's and started smoking in the late 60's. Sounds like you have the wiring down pat. Yes, there are some boxes where the neutral and the ground go the same place. Usually they put the neutral up top and the ground at the bottom, but it doesn't matter. If you need any more help, just yell. pissy old men need to stick together. Good luck on your grow.

 

[HeadyPete]

Hey, hey! Us pissy younger guys are here to help too!

So inspiring to hear how you've turned your life around off the booze (skeletor. too!) and for the better.

You have definitely come to the right place for help and support. We will make sure that you do things right the first time! That's why we are family.

Merry Christmas and welcome. Glad you are here.

Peace!

 

[Guest]

Sounds to me like you have it pretty well under control but come back here if you have any questions at all.When you drop the wire down the wall after you've cut your hole for the box the wall be either be insulated or not.If its not insulated its a breeze,just aim the wire towards the light coming into the hole you cut.If its insulated you're going to have to "fish" it.You could use a "fishtape but I've found a ceiling wire used to suspend dropceilings in office bldgs work great to fish through insulation.Another thing that goes through insulation good believe it or not is a 3/4 in. or 1 inch wide tape measure,I wouldnt use a new one though.Come back if you run into any problems

 

[Guest]

That electrical can be a bit scarey when you dont do it all the time....

The wackiest thing I ever did....

I was remodeling a house and the elect box needed an upgrade to handle the house....

So I got all the stuff ready to do the work....

Then didnt pay my electric bill till it got disconnected for non-payment....

I replaced the box.... that night....

paid my bill and it all worked just fine.....


lol.....

 

[Guest]

Looks like all I have to do is leave town for a couple of days and I get more help than I can shake a stick at, hehe. I got the wire from home De Pot - you gotta love shopping at a store whose name, translated from Spanish is "the pot." Picked up outlets for the closet and registers for the holes I'm about to cut in the walls for intake and discharge for my air I'm going to run throught my two light reflectors.

While I was coming back into town, I passed through... well I better not say the name of the city, but anyway, I picked up another light at a hydro shop. Found it at texashydroponics.com. It's a 400w, digitally ballasted, HPS/MH with an air cooled reflector, totally sealed with double pane glass on the bottom. Paid too much for it probably, but I'm kinda tired of ordering from all over the US, and waiting just to find out that a reflector had to be ordered from the manufacturer and will be shipped out of Florida and I'll get it in about another week. That happened to me right before Christmas with a 200w CFL. Got the bulb really quick but am having to wait for the fixture, hehe.

I found out after plugging in my 600w HPS/MH conversion lamp that the footprint didn't quite make it to either edge of my grow spot. So I figured I'd scoot it a little further to the right so it'll cover all the way to the baseboard on the right and stick the 400w HPS/MH I picked up today on the left side. Figure the overlap from the 600 with the augmentation of the 400 would take care of the left side. I sure didn't want to buy another lamp. Now I've got 1000w total in a 2.2' deep X 7.6' wide closet. Best I can figure that gives me 140,000 lumens of HPS for 16 sq. ft. or 8,750 per sq. ft., and 62.5 watts per. Nice to have all the light but I had to buy a vortex inline fan to pull enough air through the hoods so that the place wouldn't burn down. Also picked up a 465cfm exhaust fan I plan to put on a rheostat to throttle it where I need to in order to exchange the air in the closet fast enough to keep the temps down.

If I can grow half as well as I can spend money, I'm set.

Oh buy the way, the light I bought today is a Project X (brand name I think) light and it's just funky enough to look good. It's got a stamped reflector inside the hood and the hood is black on the outside. Cooling flanges - 6" - are on either side so there isn't any interference of air flow. Kinda cool but that means my ducting has to curve into one side and curve out of the other in order to make the run over to my 600w. Go figure. Guess I could mount the damn thing sideways to keep it in line, he he.

Here's a link to the mfg site. http://digitalgrowlight.com/

Later folks.