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That appears to be a Bulldog Electric Pushmatic circuit breaker panel. The bus bars for the breakers in that panel are flat, straight, and run vertical, which means all the breakers on one vertical row are connected on one straight bar. The double pole breakers (the one at the top and another...

Yes, the intent is to have one DPST contactor (relay) for every four 1000 watts ballasts, thus you will be using two contactors for eight ballasts, and should you have the urge to add more ballasts, you will be using three contactors for twelve ballasts. This will allow you to use double pole...

I've done some research on BACG. Simple enough to do on anyone in this forum by using your computer mouse to left click on the person's name in the upper left of their post. Seem to me BACG has a 4'x8' grow tent in a spare bedroom, or at least was planning on doing one. Am I correct BACG? Based...

Your original plan to run two 12/2 with ground NM-B (Romex) cables to 120 volts outlets as you described is very safe. You may even be able to plug in a 5,000 btu air conditioner (nothing larger than 5,000 btu) to one of the outlets if needed. A sub-panel is only necessary when you are running...

You started out with a good plan to run two 120 volts branch circuits, why all the sudden you have the urge for 240 volts? Two 1000 watts ballasts @ 240 volts will have the same sum total current (amp) draw of 10 amps through a sub-panel as would be with the ballasts placed on two 120 volts...

Why don't you try it and give us your feedback. I've seen people using 100 feet of 12 gauge extension cords to power a 1.5 hp pump motor to their above ground swimming pool on a 15 amp breaker, until an inspector one day happen to be driving by and notice it. Although you will be pulling a few...

Hot Tubs and Spas most commonly have a 5500 watts 240 volts water heater, controlled by a contactor (high power relay) rated at 40 or 50 amps that would be perfect for switching on your lights. Another style contactor with the expose contacts as seen in this link...

The amperage of the ballast is usually stated on the ballast. In absent of that data, the rule of thumb is: one amp per 100 watts @ 120 volts, or .5 amp per 100 watts @ 240 volts. Thus for every 1000 watts ballast operating on 240 volts it would be 5 amps per ballast. Now many of you may think...

I think you are nuts if you think you can power ten to twelve 1000 watts HPS lights from a 60 amps panel, although I like your idea of using two 30 amps relays with each relay having its own separate timer staggering the start-up time of each relay. Try to limit the number of 1000 watts ballasts...

You are ignoring an important part of Ohms Law...the resistance of the load (ballast). In order to maintain the exact same wattage, the impedance (resistance) of the ballast had to be increase four times the amount of resistance (ohms) when the input voltage was double (from 120 volts to 240...

First you must understand how a residential 240/120 volts circuit breaker panel is wired, and more importantly how to balance the load on the 120 volts branch circuits, so that for every 120 volts load on a branch circuit using hot wire L1 to neutral, you should try to place an equal 120 volts...

Interesting point made by Total.Hydroponic.Control. I often did wonder, considering that most ballast power cords uses 16 awg wires, how those store bought lighting controllers can get by using 30 or 40 amps supply cords without over current protection inside the controller to the controller's...

This raises many questions to readers. Assuming you are using the four 1000 watts hps lights for flowering in the same room, how are you controlling the lighting cycle (12 hours on, 12 hours off) to each light? Generally most growers prefer to use one lighting controller to control four 1000w...

When LocknessMD said "doing all the wiring in the attic", I was assuming the feeder to the sub-panel was being run through the attic. I admit I may have err on the side of caution in my post when LocknessMD mention the attic was hot as fuck, not knowing just how much hot will that attic get...

Please be advise that the Allowable Ampacities Table formerly called Table 310.16 prior to 2011, is now Table 310.15(B)(16) in the latest edition of NEC codes.

I think you made a wise decision to use Romex 6/3 protected by a 50 amp breaker to feed your sub-panel. Even though the wires in the Romex cable are THHN rated, and considering that the NEC wire ampacity table (NEC Table 310.16) is based on an ambient air temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit...

Yes, stating that "the sub-panel is like another device box" is a good way of phrasing it. I didn't elaborate on the branch circuit wiring originating from the sub-panel because I wanted to keep my post simple and sweet ( I was accused of being verbose in a previous post). Whether NEC allows it...

In a sub-panel the neutral wires are mounted on one bar that is mounted on plastic insulators so that it will not bond with the enclosure. This is refer to as "floating the neutral wires". This step alone has created only one pathway for neutral currents to travel to the main panel (we want only...

The first sentence in that paragraph sounds like a perfect description of a "floating grounding system". Why would you not bond the enclosure to the grounding wires? It should be the neutral wires that get isolated from the enclosure. The only example I can think of off the top of my head to...

The words "parallel grounds" and the words "parallel pathways" can take on two different meanings when taken out of contexts. Should someone illegally or inadvertently bond the neutral wires to the grounding wires in a sub-panel, I'll leave you with this food for thought: Current flowing through...