My Initial Plan.

[Thedillestpickle]

For your electricity you can either run a 220V line to the room and use a water heater timer for your ballast, and run the other things on a 110 line. Or you could just use multiple lines to feed off seperate breakers, just make sure those lines only go to the tent and you know exactly what is being run off each line and you shouldnt have a problem. Since your only planning to burn 1000watts on your lights you should be able to run everything with just 2 110V lines. If you were going to run multiple 1K lights then you should start thinking about bringing a 220V wire to the room, and buying a water heater timer

 

[Gr8ness]

Craigslist........my box.....i mean cousin Alfredo's box.......was built on the cheap. what really cracks me up, is when i see a 17 y/o kid at Home Depot, in line, with a "Grow Cannabis at Home" kit. when its all on one cart.....its obvious.

That was a fear that was buzzing in the back of my head as well. But in my case I'm buying my light & fan off eBay (shipped to a different mailing address), and I'll be buying various components from local stores (at different times). As far as the seeds are concerned, I'll probably visit a local shop as well; further down the line.

 

[Gr8ness]

For your electricity you can either run a 220V line to the room and use a water heater timer for your ballast, and run the other things on a 110 line. Or you could just use multiple lines to feed off seperate breakers, just make sure those lines only go to the tent and you know exactly what is being run off each line and you shouldnt have a problem. Since your only planning to burn 1000watts on your lights you should be able to run everything with just 2 110V lines. If you were going to run multiple 1K lights then you should start thinking about bringing a 220V wire to the room, and buying a water heater timer

Water heater timer? I didn't realize I'd need a water heater even.

 

[FootClan]

It'll be a while before I actually start growing. The last thing I wanted to do with this project was rush in and make mistakes. Granted, mistakes are part of the learning curve but I'd rather be armed with knowledge before getting my feet wet. I'm researching the hell out of this and my next step is to purchase some lumber (or possibly leech some off the old man; he's always working on some projects) and build my grow box. THEN I'll purchase the light fixture and the fan.
So now my next step is to get that grow box up and running! I'm going to shoot to have it completed by mid-February. I'm on a bit of a monetary crunch right now. I'm starting a new job which starts on Monday so I won't get paid for a couple of weeks. One thing I've come to appreciate in my quest for growing my own weed is it's a costly endeavor if you wish to do it right. I am not interested in cutting corners and posting "live and learn" types of messages later on (as a result of buying cheap/the wrong supplies). If I post a "live and learn" type of message, you'll know it wasn't because I cut corners but because I need more experience in growing.

I do have one more concern though and that is plugging in the light fixture and the fan. Won't that put too much of a load on the circuit breakers/fuse box? What are your suggestions in that respect?

depends on how many amps your breakers are...... 1000w is about 9.5 amps and an 8inch fan is about 1.5-1.75 amps usually..... At my house im in an apartment so i cant run two 1k lights off the same breaker or it would flip off... So i run one 1000watter and my 8'inch fan on one breaker and i run my other 1000watter and the rest of my stuff off the other breaker in my apartment....I have a third breaker for ketchen stuff that i dont use much.....

Now heres where it gets tricky in my apartment all the outlets in my sparebed room(room my grow is in) are all on the same breaker... This means i must access outlets that arent in my grow room...... So to do this i must use an extention card....

Yes i know i know its not ideal and i dont wanna see all these people jump in to tell me my apartments is going to catch fire.......Yes if you use a 14 gauge and up cord it will most likely start breaking down and eventually catch on fire....... To help against this i use a heavy duty 12 gauge 20amp cord...... And yes i know its not ment for CONTINOUS use but more for short periods of time....... However The end of the cord is not really hot so i know its not breaking down and it seems to do the job JUST FINE....

ok if your in a house then you have a few more options..... You can wire up new outlets that are from a seperate breaker then the main one closest to you grow.... You can install some 240volt breaker and that would allow you to run almost everyting on one breaker......240 breaker will cut all your amps in half.....so if a 1000w is 9.5 on a regular breaker it will be 5 amps half what it will be on a 120v......even though you amps are cut in half its still the same amount of watts so your Power bill will still be the same....

 

[FootClan]

i use a cheap "speedster" controller its like 25 bucks and you plug your fan into the controller then plug the controller in the outlet......You can then manually turn up or down your fan...... Only thing about those cheap fan controllers is when you turn it down you are still using the same amount of PG&E it dosent stop the power from coming to the controller the rest of the energy and heat is dissapated off.......

I have seen nice ones for over 100 bucks that claim to not only reduce fan speed but also lower energy used to run fan......

 

[FootClan]

also with these big fans noise can be a very real issue...... One good thing about bigger fans is you can slow them down to the speed of a smaller fan but it will run more quite.... let me give you an example....If i have a 4inch fan running full blast its about 150 cfm and its pretty load at full speed......But i can take a 8'inch at 700 cfm and slow it down to 150 cfm and at 150 cfm that 8'inch fan is barely moving and MUCH MUCH more QUITE and its till pushing the 150 cfm that the 4" is but its much less noisey because the air is moving much slower in a much bigger opening...... So getting a BIG fan and slowing it down is MUCH less noise then getting a small fan and running is full blast.....Also I use a 4foot duct silencer and i use only insualted ducting and i put egg crate foam padding around all my walls in my spare bedroom that my tent is in...I also use rugs on the flowers of my bedroom that the tent is in...So between the insulated ducting , the duct muffler, and the foam egg padding on walls my grow room makes less noise then my regular bathroom fans in the ceilling.....also if you attach a scrubber to your setup that will quite things down alot too.....


ps heres a pic of my 4 foot duct silencer on top of my grow tent..... if you look close you can also see the egg crate foam padding on the wall on the right side.....

 

[Gr8ness]

depends on how many amps your breakers are...... 1000w is about 9.5 amps and an 8inch fan is about 1.5-1.75 amps usually..... At my house im in an apartment so i cant run two 1k lights off the same breaker or it would flip off... So i run one 1000watter and my 8'inch fan on one breaker and i run my other 1000watter and the rest of my stuff off the other breaker in my apartment....I have a third breaker for ketchen stuff that i dont use much.....

Now heres where it gets tricky in my apartment all the outlets in my sparebed room(room my grow is in) are all on the same breaker... This means i must access outlets that arent in my grow room...... So to do this i must use an extention card....

Yes i know i know its not ideal and i dont wanna see all these people jump in to tell me my apartments is going to catch fire.......Yes if you use a 14 gauge and up cord it will most likely start breaking down and eventually catch on fire....... To help against this i use a heavy duty 12 gauge 20amp cord...... And yes i know its not ment for CONTINOUS use but more for short periods of time....... However The end of the cord is not really hot so i know its not breaking down and it seems to do the job JUST FINE....

ok if your in a house then you have a few more options..... You can wire up new outlets that are from a seperate breaker then the main one closest to you grow.... You can install some 240volt breaker and that would allow you to run almost everyting on one breaker......240 breaker will cut all your amps in half.....so if a 1000w is 9.5 on a regular breaker it will be 5 amps half what it will be on a 120v......even though you amps are cut in half its still the same amount of watts so your Power bill will still be the same....

Ok....let's try to break this down. I do not have anything in my grow area. Nothing's been done yet except that I just had the dryer vent installed (I realize that's kinda risky but seeing as how nothing else is down here I don't see it being perceived as being a grow room). If I have an electrical outlet installed, how many amps/watts should it support if I tell the installer to run it on a dedicated breaker?

 

[FootClan]

ok one light =9.5 amps .. 8" fan 1.75 amps... how abou small oscilating fans figure 1.5 amp for small fans... so right there you are almost at 13 amps..... so you would want atleast a 20amp breaker....But if you run 240volt then you would cut that number in half.....But remember not everything will run off 240 like fans so maybe 240 only for lights and 120v for the rest of your stuff..... If you dont know what 240v looks like its the same outlet plug for your dryer....

 

[FootClan]

im not sure about this "water heater ballst and timer stuff hes speaking of" i dont know anyone who uses water heater anything for anything grow related..... Id just use regular grow equipment if it was me

 

[Gr8ness]

ok one light =9.5 amps .. 8" fan 1.75 amps... how abou small oscilating fans figure 1.5 amp for small fans... so right there you are almost at 13 amps..... so you would want atleast a 20amp breaker....But if you run 240volt then you would cut that number in half.....But remember not everything will run off 240 like fans so maybe 240 only for lights and 120v for the rest of your stuff..... If you dont know what 240v looks like its the same outlet plug for your dryer....

Ok, so we're talking 240 volts for one thing 120 volts for something else....break it down so a shmuck like me can understand. I'm going to have a contractor come and install this for me.

My understanding is this is how I should word it : I wish to have an electrical outlet with 4 plugs (inputs) running off a dedicated breaker (not being shared by anything else) installed.

Would that suffice?

 

[FootClan]

yes but i would think you would want more then 4 .... I use 7 with 1 extra incase i add something else... also are you going to do all 120v or 240? or both?

 

[Gr8ness]

yes but i would think you would want more then 4 .... I use 7 with 1 extra incase i add something else... also are you going to do all 120v or 240? or both?

I don't see the need for more than 4 plugs. I'd have my light and my fan. What else is there?

 

[fslashthroat]

clip on fans, water pumps etc, but tbh stick with 4 plugs you can always buy a decent splitter later on, I use 2 plugs and a 6 way splitter

 

[phishtank]

In case no one mentioned this...since I only read the first page...you may want to change your ducting configuration. It should go....Carbon Filter>Fan>Light>out of the tent. If you put the fan at the end of all of the ducting and after the light it will create negative pressure which will cause any spot in your system that isnt perfectly sealed to pull air in through cracks and what not. If that happens then smelly air that hasnt passed through the filter has the chance of making its way out of the grow area. On the other hand...if the fan is before the light and ducting...it creates positive air pressure and it will blow a little air out of all of the cracks and leaks in your system....which will keep stinky air from getting into the system

 

[2dogs]

In case no one mentioned this...since I only read the first page...you may want to change your ducting configuration. It should go....Carbon Filter>Fan>Light>out of the tent. If you put the fan at the end of all of the ducting and after the light it will create negative pressure which will cause any spot in your system that isnt perfectly sealed to pull air in through cracks and what not. If that happens then smelly air that hasnt passed through the filter has the chance of making its way out of the grow area. On the other hand...if the fan is before the light and ducting...it creates positive air pressure and it will blow a little air out of all of the cracks and leaks in your system....which will keep stinky air from getting into the system

i dunno if i agree with you here bro...you definitely want to by pulling and NOT pushing air through your carbon filter. you were drastically cut down on the lifespan of your filter if you are pushing air through it. if there are small holes that air can get through...the should be found and sealed. i still need to use an industrial air freshener or two because my ladies stink. pull air, not push air.

 

[FootClan]

i dunno if i agree with you here bro...you definitely want to by pulling and NOT pushing air through your carbon filter. you were drastically cut down on the lifespan of your filter if you are pushing air through it. if there are small holes that air can get through...the should be found and sealed. i still need to use an industrial air freshener or two because my ladies stink. pull air, not push air.

+rep you are right sir......You want to PULL air through the hood......keep your fan on the other side of the hood

 

[FootClan]

I don't see the need for more than 4 plugs. I'd have my light and my fan. What else is there?

just because you dont see the need now dosent mean you wont have the need later....If you are paying the guy to come in and wire it then i would have him put aleast two more outlets in there just in case.....Just like with the bigger fan its usually better to have more then you need espicially if you are planning on growing long term.... Do you know how many times ive changed my grow or upgraded it over the years? what you think now may change and probably will, you will learn new tech. and new skills new products will come out and things will progress over time and if you limit yourself now then it only makes it hard later...... So if the cost isnt much extra i would consider putting in an extra outlet for later down the road ........

just giving you something to think about.....

 

[2dogs]

+rep you are right sir......You want to PULL air through the hood......keep your fan on the other side of the hood

thanks man...funny to see how many typos there were since i used my cell phone to post that comment.

 

[Thedillestpickle]

The reason I'm suggesting you run a 240V line is because if you have just 1 240 volt line you can plug in many 1000watt bulbs, in case you decide to upgrade to something larger later on it will be really handy to have that option. The suggestion for a water heater timer is really just a simple way of saying get a timer that can handle the 240V load. It doesnt have to specifically be for water heaters but a water heater timer is pretty much what youll be needing to time your lights with 240V. That's only if you want to run your lights on 240V, but if you dont forsee yourself ever wanting to up the wattage in the future than you can use a 110V line and just have 2 lines, one for your light and 1 for everything else. Don't underestimate how much power your going to need in there, if you find you need to use a small space heater at night to keep it warm then that could easily be another 1500watts right there

 

[Gr8ness]

Well,

The guy is coming tomorrow and he's installing two 120v lines. I have to watch my costs too, so....for the time being this will have to suffice. If I need to upgrade in the future I will.

*Excited* Tee-Hee.

After this is done, it's on to getting the lumber and building that damn box!