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What do YOU do to assure fire safety when leaving your grow unattended?

G

Guest

I'm worried about my fan frying out and causing a fire one day, or something shorting out and causing a fire. It's a slim chance but it could always happen and it's got me paranoid.

Does anyone have any special cutoff switches wired into their grow, or something that will call their cell if something goes wrong? Any other preventative ideas?

I don't like the idea of leaving an HPS on while I'm not home.
 
L

l_d_d

Active member
You can run a dedicated breaker to a plug for your light, if you are worried about overloading the one its on.

You need to find out how many things are plugged in to the circuit you are using. Also what size breaker they are on.

I say just start with safe wiring and safe electricity and you shouldnt have to worry. For me that is the best preventative idea.
 
D

dmcheatw

Member
i heard from an old mod on og that you should add up the amperage of all applicances on that circut, and then check to see that your not using more than 80% of the amperage that the circut is rated for... another important principal is redundancy

it's the same reason why airplanes virtiually never crash excepting pilot error, when one system fails design it in such a way as there are other back-ups to fall back on. try to ensure that any one failure will not cause the whole system to go down, i didn't secure my light with 1 chain, i used two, and in ur case you 2 or three fans instead of one, that way if one chokes some air will still be moving
 
G

Guest

What if a fan is worn out, stops, and the electricity sparks a fire? If a fan failed like that mechanically, yet still had electricity going to it, would a circuit breaker cut off electricity to it? I've tried stopping a fan like that and even though there's a circuit breaker in the house, it doesn't trip any breakers - instead, the fan will just smolder, spark, or melt. This hazard is what worries me the most
 
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G

Guest

somebody recommended a GFCI type surge protector, you can get them at Home Depot, I got one of those since I was worried, if anything overloads then it shuts everything down, I tested it when I was trying to wire a cool tube, I put it in a regular outlet and it fried the outlet, and then I tried it using that GFCI surge protector, and it just shut everything down and didn't mess up the outlet.

you can also schedule your lights to try and keep them on when you're home, you probably have a fire extinguisher and smoke alarm, I believe you can also purchase fire sprinklers at a very low cost. you can also get, but they're really expensive and I forgot what they're called, but they're fire extinguishers for boats and it automatically goes off when there's a fire and extinguishes.
 
monkeyman

monkeyman

Member
Someone mentioned an arc fault. Its better then a regular breaker because it will blow if there is a short circuit of any kind. They're like 31 bucks at home depot. I plan on getting on as soon as I have the money.
 
G

Guest

Does this go in a fusebox?

Isn't there something I can just put in between my fan plug and what it plugs into, in order to act as a fuse incase the fan jams up?
 
DJ Twist

DJ Twist

Member
I have an arc-fault breaker. Code requires them for bedrooms in my area.

It replaces a standard breaker, and works like a GFCI, but instead of just ground faults, it will trip for arc faults. It senses smaller disruptions in voltage that might not trip a GFCI but could still be hazardous.

Have you ever had something turned on and plugged in and pulled it out and a little spark jumped from the socket to the plug? - that's one example of an arc fault. (Although AFCI's usually are smart enough not to trip in this example.)

As far as something between the fan and socket, you could use some type of surge protecter that will trip. Not all power strips do this, even if they have a reset button.

http://www.ul.com/regulators/afci/

http://www.askthebuilder.com/320_New_Arc_Fault_Breakers_-_Small_Price_To_Pay_For_Peace_Of_Mind.shtml
 
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G

Guest

So if a fan was connected to a surge protector, and a fan got jammed up while plugged in, the surge protector would trip?

I'm trying to thing of that happening but I thought surge protectors only protect from incoming surges....so like, if the fan got jammed, the power would still get past the surge, and the fan would start burning up....or am I wrong?
 
DJ Twist

DJ Twist

Member
Yes, that is bacially correct about surge protectors. I'm 100% not sure about the fan and surge protector...

You'd have to find one that has a fuse, and when the fan stops working, the resistance should cause the fuse to blow.

With an AFCI, I think it would trip.
 
G

Guest

Oh, so you're saing an AFCI would be more sensitive to the fan's voltage use/lack thereof, and would be tripped once it jams up?
 
gaiusmarius

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
the best advice for fire safety, is to have perfect wireing aswell as good quality lights fans etc. the correct wireing includes a so called FS switch, which basicly turns off the juice as soon as there is a short circuit of any kind. also remember you have fuses exactly for this reason. but certainly do put a smoke detector, just remember to make it only send you an sms, not the fire department. that way you can still have a chance to save your ass by putting it out with the fire extinguisher which you should have, if the worst does hapen. but again in most cases if you've built sensibly even a melted fan wount cause a fire. also how should this metaphorical fan get blocked? again a proper ventilation setup will not alow anything to block the fan. if you fear vandalism, then forget growing there. other then that i don't see how your ventilation could be blocked. but your right to try and think of every eventuality, thats one of the things people often don't do.
 
G

Guest

The fan gets blocked from being worn out. Over time I've experienced many a computer fan that wears out and stops over time just from being worn out from use.
 
marimbas

marimbas

Member
I was worried about the same shibby... nothing can asure you that your system wont do a short cut or something, check my grow temt. i did it fire proof.
 
monkeyman

monkeyman

Member
Most of the fans used in grows are industrial grade fans. This include Eco Plus and Vortex. These are made to do way more work and for a lot longer then what we're putting them through.
 
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