Electrical Issues With Lights, Ballasts, and Light Controller. Totally Stumped.

I've been a member and have perused these forums for years though I'm not sure I've ever needed to post for advice until now. I've read about similar situations like the one I'm about to describe but nothing quite like this and I'm hoping you guys have some insight into what might be the real issue here because I'm at the end of my rope with this.

I understand that the situation I'm about to explain sounds a bit like a math story problem. It's confusing, but it's only to give you a general idea of what's going on so maybe we can diagnose the problem. So here goes:

A little over two weeks ago I had an electrician that I trust come over to connect my generator to my breaker box in case the power goes out. The day after that I go into my flower room and realize that the back two lights are out and two of my ballasts are fried with blown fuses. I had a few spare ballasts so I went to connect one to the light controller and it instantly blew it's fuse as well. Then the second ballast with the same result. So I ordered more fuses. At this point I was only down two lights and ballasts out of seven. The next day another light and ballast were gone. When I got the new fuses I tried putting them into the ballasts and hooked them up again, this time the fuse blew right away but it also instantly blew a fuse on another working ballast that was plugged in so I lost another light. Thinking it might be the light controller I ordered a Helios 8 and installed that.

I ordered three new Apollo ballasts at this point, when I got them I plugged one in without a light attached and it instantaneously blew out one of the other working ballasts bringing me down to two working lights out of seven. Five minutes or so later the fuse on the Apollo ballast blew. I honestly can't remember if I tried hooking that ballast up to a light before it died. So I called another electrician that I know and he came by.

He checked my breaker box with his meter and checked the connections, everything seemed to be legit. He checked the light controller and every socket and it all read right around 240 volts. He took apart the new Apollo that fried and noticed that the capacitor was also fried along with the fuse so that ballast is dead. We tried plugging in another of the new Apollo's into a standard socket on a different circuit and that light went up in smoke up but the ballast remained fine. We tried that same experiment with another light and that also went up in smoke. After two hours he could not correctly identify what the problem was. All we know is that all the connections seem to be right as well as the voltages and wattage. He figured that perhaps everything got completely fucked up all at once and basically needs to be replaced. He couldn't be certain if the generator hook-up had anything to do with it, I wasn't there when it was installed, but he could confirm that however it was hooked up and whatever might have happened during the process it was all correctly hooked-up now as far as he could tell. He noted that this resembles a situation where the house could have been struck by lightning but that didn't make a lot of sense because all my other appliances would also be cooked, not just the lights and ballasts on that one particular circuit.

I'm about to buy all new lights and the amount of remaining ballasts I need. Before I do that I'm looking for your guys' input as to whether you think any of my lights and ballasts are salvageable or if I should just bite the bullet and place an order. This whole ordeal has already cost me $1000+ (that's including the generator hook-up if that had anything to do with it) and I really don't want to go and spend another $1000 on lights and ballasts if I don't need to. I'm also curious if you have ANY input at all as to what could be the real root of this problem because we cannot figure it out. It is an entirely frustrating debacle and my sincerest thanks if you've read this far and have any advice whatsoever..

Im having a hard time understanding what you mean by blowing fuses.... If your running a generator and its wired into your main panel (fuse box) you should have something called an inverter inbetween unless you purchased a generator that already converts the power from DC to AC... And if your electrician would wire a generator into your panel without putting the proper equipment to convert the power thats being produced, or ran the generator straight into your panel without being converted to AC he could have very easily blown all your ballasts... I think you better get another electrician because something is very wrong and by the sounds of it, I'd be stressed in a big way...

You need, and I say that with true worry for another grower.....you need to put your grow on ice, or block it off and get a real electrician/company in there.. Its not gonna cost much for a guy that knows his trade to come in and say this, that and this is fucked up, your prior electrician needs to go back to body work.... On the real... Spend the $ for a service call with another electrician..... A real electrician probably wouldnt even charge you if you gave him the job of fixing it.. I'd also do this without letting the other guy know in order to keep him from getting ass hurt as tradesman who get tunnel vision do.... It can be something very simple, or something thats life threatening so dont be cheap... He may need to add a ground or fix one... but sometimes a second pair of eyes can see what the first set couldnt... Fresh eyes are always a plus.... I just blew $2500 on a new 200amp service because theres no playing games when it comes to the areas your fucking around with...

And right out of the gate it makes no sense to buy new lights when you blew 4 lights (if I counted right) since the generator hook up, they all dont go bad at the same time even when you buy them all at the same time, so somethings wrong... very wrong.... get it fixed, it could save more than your grow... (meaning your or your familys lives)....

whitey78 said:

A real electrician probably wouldnt even charge you if you gave him the job of fixing it

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yeah right first let me say that i agree with everything you said except this 1 sentence. As a guy who worked in the electrical field and having a father brother and uncle that work as master electricians no electrician will do work for less than 60 a hour on a side job and more if he figures out whats happening

What I meant by blowing fuses was the actual fuse on the ballasts, only the ballasts. I fried like 8 ballasts during this entire ordeal not just the fuses but the internal as well. It was an experienced electrician I just don't know if he's ever really had any experience working with someone that has a grow room and didn't really understand what he was trying to power when he fired up the generator to see if everything worked. If either of you are actually curious as to what happened I think the new electrician and I figured it out.

When the electrician switched over to generator power to test it out, and this is purely hypothetical but the best scenario we could come up with, almost everything on that particular circuit that powered my lights surged out and almost everything got fried. Not everything all at once, but the sockets on the lights and a couple ballasts were gone. Then when I'd hook up what I know to be a working ballast to a light that's been fried it would surge back and fry the working ballast, etc. For the lights that were still working, when I hooked up a ballast that was gone it would fry the light. I'm not an electrical expert but this seems to make sense. After running all the voltage and watt tests and making sure everything is putting out what it's supposed to it all came back 100% so we had to assume that something was wrong with the actual equipment and not the circuit itself or the light controller.

Since then I've bought all new lights and ballasts and more or less started fresh and everything seems to be working as it should. That was an expensive lesson to learn, and if any of you guys ever decide to get a generator hooked up to your breaker box in case power goes out make sure you tell the electrician to NOT test it out with everything on.

I totally appreciate your input, this has been the shittiest three weeks of my years growing. Just for fun, here's a picture of my ballast graveyard. I still can't even believe how horrible this entire situation was I'm just glad I'm at the tail end of it.

Okay not sure why that picture came up so small but whatever. Thanks again!

I hear u man... I'm in the trades for 25+ years as 3rd generation plumber and I know how bad that had to hurt the pocket... Your explanation of what went wrong does sound about right though... I can't see the ballasts/bulbs like to start the shut down process and then wham...get hit with partial power and having the voltage/amperage/whatever come up to normal quickly... It's like a spike or brown out or whatever it's called....

But I'm glad everything went safely and that u or no one else was harmed in any of this... Electricity is no joke as you've learned first hand... I do my own wiring but I will not go beyond my knowledge, I know how to wire plugs and breakers etc... I know the importance of proper wire/breaker sizing but when I get to something I don't understand and I can't figure out easy enough, I get the right person for the job.... There's no chancing burning down the farm for me, lol...

I'm glad it went together like it shoulda the first time and your back up n running... Good luck n happy grows...

Is the generator pushing to much power burning up all your shit. Wow you blew 7 ballast I can't blv that shit my electrician would be replacing them lol sorry to hear with I could help I run 4-600 watts and 2 -400 watt and never had a problem or a generator.

how big gen,need a real big one that many lights, so it does not surge.i think what u said is right,u need at least 10.ooo watt? I burn some ballest before reason gen to small 5000 watter