a 600 watt light and air conditioner on a 15 amp circuit?

[sampson456]

Would a 600 watt lamp and a small 3000 btu air conditioner be too much for a 15 amp circuit? I am building a 48*24*63" grow room and its in the middle of the summer so i figure i will need an air conditioner to keep the room cool. Wont the combination break the circuit exspecially with the exhaust fan and the wall fan too? I was thinking i could run the lights at night and blow the cool night air in from the window. Also should I exhaust the air right out the window or into the room that the tent is in? I live in this room also so I dont really want to be trying to sleep in a 100 degree room every night. The only growing i ever did was with flourescents in a closet extremely low budget so I am very new to this whole thing. Thanks for the help.

 

[donniemcm]

you need to check the actual draw in watts of both ... I believe a 15 amp circuit can handle 1440watts.... so I'm guessing when the compressor kicks in on the ac you may have issues... assuming your lamp is drawing an actual 600w

if you have a dimmable ballast perhaps you could find a sweet spot.... but I'm not even sure about that to be honest

 

[charface]

I had 1000w
2box fans
1 44o cfm fan
1 100ish t5

When I turned my shopvac on it blew so I think you would be pushing it

 

[sampson456]

I just double checked and its actually a 20 amp circuit. Well it sais '20 A' on the ciruit breaker switch so im guessing that means 20 amps. Also will it get hot in my room if I am venting the air from the grow tent directly into the room?

 

[tranka32]

Depends how many total watts you are drawing from the circuit. Everything I have read indicates that Don was correct 1440 seems to be the max recommended draw. I think a 15 amp circuit can actually handle 1800 watts MAX. Write down the total wattage of all devices attached to the CKT not only your growing equipment to make sure it is no more than 1440. There is an excellent sticky thread in the grow room design and setup forum that has a good knowledge base on electricity.

 

[RIPLouDogg]

Why dont you just put the light and the air conditioner on different circuits? I usually draw an extension cord from another room into my grow room, just to be safe.

 

[tranka32]

I just double checked and its actually a 20 amp circuit. Well it sais '20 A' on the ciruit breaker switch so im guessing that means 20 amps. Also will it get hot in my room if I am venting the air from the grow tent directly into the room?

I am currently venting into my bedroom and as long as the AC is running it doesn't get HOT but it really isn't very efficient. I shut the AC off on cooler nights and open my door to direct the exhaust into the main house. It works but is kind of a pain. Not sure max wattage for 20 amp ckt. but you are def. better off.

 

[charface]

I think the rule of thumb is to not excede 85% of your rating

 

[sampson456]

Thanks alot for the help everyone. I guess im just going to have to experiment a little. Ill check that thread on electricity in the grow setup forum Tranka. I have another question should I start a new thread or continue this one? Not sure what protocol is here on these forums. I am ordering premade grow tent and I have a choice of a 48"*48"*78" or a 48"*24"*63". It seems like the larger one would be too big for 600 watts of light thats only 37 watts per sq. ft. If I got the smaller one it would be around 80 watts per sq. ft. That seems alot more ideal but will my harvest be smaller with the smaller space? Also its almost a ft. and a half shorter how will that effect the end result? I mean 5 ft. total means I got the light then i need a good foot of distance from the plants so that leaves only about room to grow a 3 foot plant. If im supposed to start a new thread when I change the subject let me know. Thanks again guys for the help.

 

[fir3dragon]

idk what my stuff is.. i use a 400w light a 450 cfm fan 2 6 inch clip fans with a 1000w 10k btu ac with a tv and computer in the same room. no problems at all the fuse should blow first before anything happens.. and if you keep fliping the fuse on well.. expect problems because your trying to force it when it simply cannot do it.

 

[sampson456]

idk what my stuff is.. i use a 400w light a 450 cfm fan 2 6 inch clip fans with a 1000w 10k btu ac with a tv and computer in the same room. no problems at all the fuse should blow first before anything happens.. and if you keep fliping the fuse on well.. expect problems because your trying to force it when it simply cannot do it.

Thats alot of power for one circuit. I didnt realize you could put that much on one circuit. Im sure i could run a small ac and the 600 watt light with the fans if you can put the 10000 btu with the 400 watt plus the other appliances on yours. If its 1800 watts on a 15 amp circuit then probably theres at least 2000 watts on a 20 amp circuit and the ac cant be more than another 800 watts if its a small one. Il try it and see what happens. It gets pretty cool at night maybe down to 60s so i could just put a fan in the window and blow cold air into the room at night and blow the exhausted air out the top of the window? The only thing that worries me about that is wont that be putting off a heat signature outside my window that a po could detect with a heat gun or whatever it is they might have.

 

[tranka32]

All UL listed electrical devices should have the specs. printed on or near the motor. My window unit AC is listed at 260 watts, read the stickers.

 

[sampson456]

All UL listed electrical devices should have the specs. printed on or near the motor. My window unit AC is listed at 260 watts, read the stickers.

I didnt realize an air conditioner would only take around 300 watts. That dosnt seem like much. It seems like I could definitly run the 600 watt light, a small ac and all the fans easily. How much heat does a 600 watt light produce? I mean, the tent will be in a 8*9' room with 9 ft. ceiling. The bedroom door will be closed for security reasons. If I am venting the hot air from the tent into the room itself how much will it raise the temp in my bedroom? Just trying to get an idea of how much the light is going to affect the temp in the room. Maybe I dont even need an AC if I just run the lights mostly during the night with cool air being blown into the room? Will it heat up the hallway area outside my room because of the air flow under the door? My roomates dont mind me growing but if it makes the usptairs area really hot and starts affecting them they might start having problems with it.

 

[tranka32]

Not exactly sure how much it will perform in your particular situation. I have a 4x4 tent with a 400 watt hps and a 432 watt 4' 8 bulb T5 that I run overnight . To vent I have a single 170cfm inline pulling air out the top and through a stealth box 1 air cleaner. I am running the flowering tent overnight and only use the AC on really hot nights above 85f. On most nights however I open my door and vent into the main house. The area is open so it's not like I'm on the second or third floor blowing hot air into a small hallway. If it were it may be too much. When I run the AC overnight I vent directly into my room and don't have a problem with heat, it stays around 75 on the low setting. I was hesitant to run an hps for fear of the heat but after trying out a friends 400 I am def. going to purchase my own 600 watt vented hood ASAP! Of course I still didn't receive last months electric bill yet either!

 

[sampson456]

Wow a 432 watt t5. They make fluerescents that produce that much light? How does it do? is it as good as a 400 watt hps? Thats a really good idea you could switch from one to the other depending on the temp. Does the t5 take up alot of room?

 

[NotoriousBUD]

just real quick are you 120 or 240 power?

if you have 20 Amp circuit breaker youll get 16 Amps safely til the circuit trips

On a 15A you get 12A

the breakers are rated to trip at 80% may take a bit but once you exceed that it will trip and the greater amaout you exceed it by the quicker it will trip(as long as its not faulty)

if you use 240 power you cut your amperage draw by half but 120 is a lot more common

also be careful with power bars rated for 15 amps max on a possible 16 amp circuit if you overload any single power bar you could technically have problems potentially fires

be sure to split the 16 amps safely even if it means 12 amps on one power bar on one half of the plug and another 4 on the bottom of the socket possibly on a powerbar or splitter

 

[NewGrower2011]

I just double checked and its actually a 20 amp circuit. Well it sais '20 A' on the ciruit breaker switch so im guessing that means 20 amps. Also will it get hot in my room if I am venting the air from the grow tent directly into the room?

Make sure the wire in the wall is actually a 20a circuit and that someone didn't just pull a 15a and swap in a 20a breaker... that could burn your shit down... The breaker is really there to protect end-to-end that the wiring, the outlet, can handle what is "allowed" to be drawn...

I won't swear to this, but I think if you pull the outlet out from behind the faceplate and see yellow wiring - that is a good sign all is well... But the wire should have print on it stating its actual capacity...

Just a heads-up if you didn't know...

 

[sampson456]

just real quick are you 120 or 240 power?

if you have 20 Amp circuit breaker youll get 16 Amps safely til the circuit trips

On a 15A you get 12A

the breakers are rated to trip at 80% may take a bit but once you exceed that it will trip and the greater amaout you exceed it by the quicker it will trip(as long as its not faulty)

if you use 240 power you cut your amperage draw by half but 120 is a lot more common

also be careful with power bars rated for 15 amps max on a possible 16 amp circuit if you overload any single power bar you could technically have problems potentially fires

be sure to split the 16 amps safely even if it means 12 amps on one power bar on one half of the plug and another 4 on the bottom of the socket possibly on a powerbar or splitter

Im pretty sure its 120 volt power. Its a newer building with all new wiring in New England. How do I check to see? Thanks for the heads up about the power bars.

 

[tranka32]

Wow a 432 watt t5. They make fluerescents that produce that much light? How does it do? is it as good as a 400 watt hps? Thats a really good idea you could switch from one to the other depending on the temp. Does the t5 take up alot of room?

Each bulb is 54 watts (54 x 8 = 432) It throws a lot of light "not sure exactly how it does I would assume a 400 watt hps is better). The T5 takes up around half of the 4x4 tent. Not sure exactly how wide it is but it's 4 feet long and around 3 or 4 inches thick. I swapped out half the veg 6500 k bulbs for the 3500 k flower bulbs.

 

[sampson456]

Thats sounds like a good idea that way i can have some vegative ready to go into flowering when i harvest