50amp grow box

could someone set me up with the plans to build a 50amp grow box to run 4-5 lights and have few xtra plugs or even just for lights be fine too if need be.

Hire an electrician or have a friend that knows how set you up. If you do not know what you are doing you can get seriously injured You most likely will need to change one of your breakers out & possibly run heaver gauge wire.

MGT

CRYSTAL ICEMAN said:

could someone set me up with the plans to build a 50amp grow box to run 4-5 lights and have few xtra plugs or even just for lights be fine too if need be.

Click to expand...

im all set thank you done this stuff before just need a list and design so its proper but ty for your concern.

bump.......

Sorry dude, too many stoners not enough electricians lol

Im an electrician...what size wire is the home run for your 50a circuit?

i will look.......im putting new one in...

ok i am currently running a 50amp grow room. When you say box it kind of makes me scared...Cooling anything over 4kwatts requires a lot of cooling which i can help with but to answer your questions. Go buy a 220/40 volt fuse that you would hook up your electric dryer or range to. It should have two poles instead of one. I then took 10-2 gauge wire which is good for 30 amps and connected the power(or common) to each pole. Then I grounded each strand of the 10-2 wire in my fuse box. I ran both strands of wire to my 50 amp water heater timer.(which is like 50 bucks at home depot) this controls when my room turns on and off. They make life simple, its just a relay. Then I took the two sepertae strands of 10-2 wire and bought some simple new construction blue plastic boxes from home depot and ran the wire through those into two seperate plug ins in my room. Therefore each strand of 10-2 wire is powering 2 1,000 watt ballasts with 10 amps to spare before materials start to deteriate. Its one thing to hook it up, but its another to do it the right way. I can take pics if that helps?

im sorry i should have been more specific i have a room set up on the second floor and its all running on the standard 110 or 120 current whatever usealy is. i have a 1000w and 3 600w plus co2 and fans and a/c. i also run a 600 for veg. i want to run them 220? to use less power. i went to home depot and askd a couple ?s and they had no clue! Can you put together a list of the supplys i need to do this switch?? I have done this stuff b4 but i want it all the rite waY AND IT SOUNDS LIKE you know your stuff

You all that help here are awsome!!! I always try to help the newbies w/ anything i can and you guys make it worth the time!!!thank you.

for starters, you will need to get a range cable(220 volt 6 or8 gauge) from the main panel up to your new location. a 50 amp 220 breaker that fits your existing breaker box and a sub panel and breakers for it.
if you are trying to use less power, converting to 220 won't cut your elect bill, 2800 watts of light will cost the same if run on 110 or 220.

how does that figure? so why thy sell the conversion cords and state that it does? less amps means less power rite?

No, you are billed by watts. Watts = Volts x Amps. Ohms law. You clearly shouldn't get so cocky like you know your shit, cause you're gonna burn you house down.

Sounds like somebody's getting ready to burn their house down.

first off thank you too those that try to help....and to those that have nothing good to add...get the fuck off the site!!!!! you have no clue what im doing or what i know so keep your dumb fuck post to your own sites!

WOW.... there are way too many unanswered questions here..

First off... The amps dont matter at all with regards to saving electricity.... like stated above... you are billed on watts consumed, so there is no monetary benefit to running something on 220v vs 110v..

With that amount of lights and other crap running in your upstairs room you need to have additional circuits in your grow room for it to be safe... not cheaper, but safe.

One 15A circuit can hold 12 amps (80% full load is code).... or 12A x 120v = 1440Watts..

Okay, now look at the power consumed in the room.... 1000W + (3 x 600w) + 600w veg light + co2 and fans.... so just on lights you are drawing 3400W.. plus the A/C should be upwards of 12A (or 1440W @ 120v) ..... so now we are at 4840w... you will need four separate circuits.

Now on to the 50A question.... why would anybody run their grow room off a 50A breaker?

- if they had a separate panel in their grow room with 15 or 20A breakers in it.. then they could run one large 3 conductor cable from their panel to their grow room and then the smaller branch wires would have to go from the panel in the grow room to the lights, a/c, etc...
- You cannot feed your lights off a 50A breaker.... the wire needed to run 50A would be too large to connect to the lights... considering the lights are around 9A, 50A wire would be a little overkill...

So you see... the benefit could be the cost of the supplies....

in one scenario, all four breakers are fed off the main house panel with 14/2 wire. all four 14/2 wires travel from the panel to the room with the lights...
in the other, a 50A 2-pole breaker sits in your main panel, a 6/3 (much more expensive wire) runs from your main panel to a separate panel in the grow room area. Inside the panel in the grow room there is four 15A breakers... each breaker must have a 14/2 wire run to the lights.

so technically, if there is enough space in your main breaker panel, it would be cheaper to have four separate runs going to your grow room rather than buying large wire, an extra panel, a 50A 2-pole breaker for your main panel, etc..


Now to the 220V question....

mostly everything in your house runs off of 110-120v.... nothing can change that... that is the way it is made.

Some things like your dryer can run on 220v, some furnace motors, your stove, etc.... these appliances are designed to run on only 220-240v

Rarely you may find something like a light ballast that can run on many different voltages.... why is this? it is to save wire while installing the lights...

you see if you have 10 lights that each take 1.0A @ 110V then we can put all 10 lights on the same breaker.... however what if those lights were 347V and not 110V?

since we showed you above that you r billed on watts... then 10A (10 lights) x 110V = 1100watts....

so 1100w / 347v = 3.17A..

So 10 lights run @ 347v is 3.17A and the same 10 lights run @ 110v is 10A....

Now you see, if the lights are run on 347v, you can fit 30+ lights on one 15A circuit..... if the lights are run @ 110V then you can only fit 10 lights. Therefore you will need three separate feeds to run 30+ lights @ 110V and only one feed if the lights are run at 347V.

However remember those 30 lights will consume the same amount of electricity and thus they will cost the same to run on 347v as then will on 110v...

My brain is farting now... I need a bowl.....lol...

Oh and in case it isn't obvious... I am an electrician too....lol IBEW Sparkies unite! lol

Now thats a responce that all can learn from. I guess when i got this idea and came to post it i should have thought thru how to say what i wanted to know.Thank you greatly and keep helpn all appreciate!