Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

IAm5toned

IAm5toned

Well-Known Member
how about a branch circuit for an air conditoner. thats pretty normal.
so aernt motors, but thats a whole nother ball game.
and a list of definite purpose equipment that is too long and pointless to list here.
ampacities are affected by an almost infinite range of variables, insulation type, ambient temp, duty cycle, frequency, voltage drop, skinning factors, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc

the beauty and curse of the NEC is that is intended to be an established set of guidelines interpreted by a competent person to provide the minimum safety requirements to prevent personal injury and/or property loss.

Everyone skips article 90. you should give it a read. but in case you dont have access to a codebook, here's an outline typed up by an associate of mine:
NEC Article 90 draws boundaries around the National Electrical Code—boundaries many people fail to understand. For example, Article 90 has long made it clear the NEC is not intended as design specification or instruction manual. The National Electrical Code has one purpose only.
NEC 90.1 has four subdivisions:
(A) says the purpose of the NEC is the practical safeguarding of people and property "from hazards arising from the use of electricity."
(B) distinguishes from the adequacy concept (provisions necessary for safety) and other concepts. The Code is a minimum standard. Further effort may be required for an installation to be efficient, convenient, or adequate for good service or future expansion. This is a fundamental concept upon which many Code disagreements arise. The Code is not a target you’d like to hit. It is the minimum you can do.
(C) clearly states the Code is not intended to be a design specification or instruction manual.
(D) ties the Code to international standards. The Code-making panels do have members who are in countries other than the USA. The intention is to draw on the collective wisdom of the international community. Many people who make the Code what it is are also members of the IEEE. Standards published by the IEEE frequently get review from people who serve on NEC committees and vice-versa.
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D

DnaK

Member
codes vary as well between different parts of the country and by local regulations.


anyways, lets stop discussing stupid shit like that and help these people find reasonable solutions for the inept grower with no electrical experience.

no bad blood :D Everyones right:eyesmoke:
 
OGKush00

OGKush00

Active Member
wyteboi said:
Look at the side of the wire, it says the guage all the way down it. if its 14 wire then its good for upto 15 amps. you dont wanna use anymore then 75% of the total ......so you would not want to run no more then 11 or 12 amps/ or 1500 watts, topps.
and thats only if the circuit is by itself (its not)
and as long as your wire and breaker sizes match then who gives a fuck what kind of outlet..... a 15 is fine and so is a 20. that might not be code but its common sense.
the easy way would be to wire up your outlet to a couple small pieces of wire........then climb up and take the light down and use a plate that will hold an outlet or u could take down the whole box and replace with a outlet box (dont matter) and just take the wires from the light off and replace with the wires from the outlet u hooked up.

sorry i dont explain things worth a shit....

wb:eyesmoke:
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the three wires going into the pull string light are marked 14/2 W/G. Guessing that is what I need? So this will be able to run my 400 watt hps and a fun np?
 
buggin69

buggin69

Active Member
OGKush00 said:
the three wires going into the pull string light are marked 14/2 W/G. Guessing that is what I need? So this will be able to run my 400 watt hps and a fun np?
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the wire should be fine... you really should try to figure out what else is on that circuit though...
you never know what people will do... just because it's over the bathroom and laundry room doesn't mean it isn't daisy chained all over the place
you're probably fine but you could be on the same circuit at the washing machine and two other rooms... or more

just turn stuff on and flip that breaker... see what goes off
 
D

DnaK

Member
You can always test it with a hair dryer. It will trip within a minute if something else of value is running on it.
 
wyteboi

wyteboi

Well-Known Member
buggin69 said:
the wire should be fine... you really should try to figure out what else is on that circuit though...
you never know what people will do... just because it's over the bathroom and laundry room doesn't mean it isn't daisy chained all over the place
you're probably fine but you could be on the same circuit at the washing machine and two other rooms... or more

just turn stuff on and flip that breaker... see what goes off
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Yes i agree the 14 wire is fine BUT you really need to find out what else is on that circuit. when you run your 400 , you dont wanna plug in the vacuum and pop the breaker, so it really helps to know what is where.

wb:bigjoint:
 
sixstring2112

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
i have an old hps light 400 watt the was given to me. it is the kind that has the ballast, bulb, big shroud all together and hangs from a huge hook. i took the socket out and took the hanger and shroud off to make it smaller. i'm going to build my own reflector out of sheet metal and i want to keep the ballast housing away from my grow. when i took out the socket i had to re route the wires and i used 14 2 for that. when i took the ballast housing apart it had this oldschool looking thick brown paper seperating the transforer from the ignitor. all the wiring ran through a large hole in the center of the paper. it pretty much crumbled apart when i first touched it. is there anything to worry about , i assume this paper is so the ends of wires and terminals do not touch each other. i have used electrical tape to cover things up as best i can but now i am thinking it might get too hot and melt the tape? is there anything else i might have or could buy to replace this paper or no big deal. there is about a 3/4" gap between the two sides when they are screwed together.
 
stelthy

stelthy

Well-Known Member
Hi STELTHY here, I have a question (urgent), I am putting a thermostat into my growroom because my nights temps are falling as low as 12oC, so I have gone and bought a small fan heater and modified it to work well in the sized room I have, I plan to connect this fan heater to a thermostat, and a cpu intake fan connected to my chimney, drawing in fresh cold air, and also have this plugged into the thermostat, my problem is..... :- The bloody heater has an auto shut off if it gets to hot, I want to bypass this function, because the fan will only need to run for a tops of 5 mins when the thermostat informs it to! PLEASE HELP ME BYPASS THIS ASAP, my night temps are so low due to the cold nights were having and its slowing things down big time! I ll post a couple of pics on this topic but really need to get it sorted yesterday if you know what I mean - STELTHY - cheers!
 
buggin69

buggin69

Active Member
i personally wouldn't bypass that feature... if it's only running for a few minutes then that feature shouldn't bother what you are doing... and if it's getting too hot do you really WANT it to keep running?

doesn't seem safe
 
one11

one11

Active Member
Hey folks. Im amidst setting up my growroom, and I've run into an issue. Im clueless when it comes to electricity so here it is. I bought a trailer plug for a 30amp 120v outlet. The trailer plug directions said it can hold 12/3 or 10/3 wire. So I bought 12/3. Thing is the trailer plug holds three wires. One black, one white, and one green. As I was stripping the 12/3 wire, I saw it had 4 wires. One black, one white, one red, and one without a jacket, just a plain copper wire. What do I do with these? Did I buy the wrong thing? The package of the wiring says it comes with "grounding" which I dont know what that means. Any and All help is appreciated.
 
buggin69

buggin69

Active Member
one11 said:
Hey folks. Im amidst setting up my growroom, and I've run into an issue. Im clueless when it comes to electricity so here it is. I bought a trailer plug for a 30amp 120v outlet. The trailer plug directions said it can hold 12/3 or 10/3 wire. So I bought 12/3. Thing is the trailer plug holds three wires. One black, one white, and one green. As I was stripping the 12/3 wire, I saw it had 4 wires. One black, one white, one red, and one without a jacket, just a plain copper wire. What do I do with these? Did I buy the wrong thing? The package of the wiring says it comes with "grounding" which I dont know what that means. Any and All help is appreciated.
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I assume they intended for you to use 12/3 or 10/3 extension cord type cable. You probably got the 12/3 romex simpull or something like that... solid copper cable... it will work i guess but will be pretty rigid and might work loose if you're going to be moving it around a lot

i bet if you didn't strip it back too far they'll take it back or exchange it for you... unless it was a custom cut piece or something...

like i said.. basing this on guesses and assumptions ...
 
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