Electrical question(s) CFL grow newbie

"High" everybody, I'm new as a shinny penny here. I'm on my first real grow (bag seed) using CFL's, I had another grow a few years ago, that didn't even make it past seedlings before i had to destroy to move. blah blah blah. Long story short, I'm not too sure how many things are drawing off the breaker I've been using (single plug for everything). But currently off of one extension cord into a muti tap, I have my box fan, a small tube FL, a few ghetto rigged sockets that are relatively unused because they dont even look safe lol... Then my lighting which is currently I believe is 15, 23 watt CFL's 5000k spec (using for both veg and flower/ although still in veg). Which is 345 watts of cfl's. Im using a space about 3' /4' foot in a unused shower, was planning on adding a shit load more cfl's, not to mention a second level above it for a flower room. or visa versa. The 15 i have rigged up to a thick power cord (the kind with the ground wire). The socket adapters say max load is 660 watts, now this is where i get confused. If The socket adapters (Y spliters) say 660, does that mean not to draw 660 though it, or have more than 660 on the whole circuit (wired into same chord) ? If So I could rig the other's to 1-2 more chords. I planned on having about 40 of these 23 watt bulbs for just the 3/4 veg area (overkill?) that's 920 watts. Anyway's, at what point would you say I really need to have a big ass circuit breaker put in designated and wired just to the grow area? I'm not to savvy on my electrical shit, but I figured out after reading a bit how to wire the lights together with wire nuts etc. Was going to read up on installing another large breaker into the box, but if its not nessassary It will be a waste of time. Also on wiring up another breaker, if nessassary, should i even attempt this by myself or get my gf's dad "who is hip to whats going on" to wire it for me, hes an electrician.

Here are a few pics, have not sexed yet, some are like 2 months in. This started out as a rubbermaid tub grow, and just sort of kept building and buying shit as i needed it. Ran out of shit to put them in so started using trash bags. At first i thought this was just ghetto but after looking around, i guess for many this is a common growing method.

Super easy to check what is on which circuit. Turn off the breaker and note all the appliances, lights, etc. hooked up on it even if they're turned off.. If you want to calculate amperage then add ALL the watts used on that circuit and divide by 110 and that's the amount of amps used. Advice, maintain a safety margin of 5% to 10% or so for surges to prevent circuit failure. Don't forget to add in electrical devices that aren't hooked up permanently like fans, vacuum cleaners, anything.

Hi.

When it comes to electrical wiring in your house - Leave that to the electrician, trust me. I have been in the Tech industry for over 8 years and messing with mains supply in-house and breakers - stay away! You don't wanna burn down your house just because you messed up installing your breaker, leave it to the professionals.

Now personally I would use a UPS, - Uninterrupted Power Supply to run all your gear from it - This is entirely up to you but for your area not really needed. They are relatively cheap, but don't buy the cheapest! Make sure of guarantee on unit so in the event that they fail you can send then back for guarantee related repair, they can fail for no particular reason. Besides it supplying power in the event of a power failure, it also filters your incoming power from your socket. And great cable management on the back, what the industry calls "Kettle Plug" adapters - male and female plug inserts.

Ok so you got about 700watts draw on that plug, the average wall socket can handle that no problem. And since your using CFl's the amperage draw is low too, but it's worth checking in your breaker box what Amperage that particular breaker can handle - stay below it and no prob. Obviously if the breaker trips here and there than you have an issue, but if not the breaker is not tripping its handling fine. - You can go into depth and measure your amperage draw, wattage and calculate all the nitty gritty's but for you don't need. When opting to go HPS ro HID then it's a damn good idea to check your power supply to your gear - high wattage draw.

When your gear consumption goes beyond 1kw, try not to use extension cable, unless you have cable that has been certified it can run it. Otherwise get the thicker gauge wiring that is used to wire the plugs in your house - can't remember the name for it now. This wiring is usually comprised of solid copper cables, thickness vary from .5mm and up, I prefer the 1mm minimum.

Stay away from as much adapters as you can and keep it as simple as possible. When using extension cords make sure the are not "rolled" up or coiled as they would for storing - A big no no, coiled extension cables powering energy loving stuff tends to melt quite spectacularly, so don't leave it coiled up when using and Wire in that Earth on the extension to be safe.

Hope this helps and sorry for all the details. Good Luck!

BTW, them plants look great, keep goin!

mtgeezer said:

Super easy to check what is on which circuit. Turn off the breaker and note all the appliances, lights, etc. hooked up on it even if they're turned off.. If you want to calculate amperage then add ALL the watts used on that circuit and divide by 110 and that's the amount of amps used. Advice, maintain a safety margin of 5% to 10% or so for surges to prevent circuit failure. Don't forget to add in electrical devices that aren't hooked up permanently like fans, vacuum cleaners, anything.

Click to expand...

Safety margin is 20% for new wiring, or more if the wiring is more than 10 years old, per standard.. many solar setups use 35%. 5% with a high current spike will BBQ wires, as an aside.

Went out and got 12 more lights, 3 more sockets, 9 more Y adapters, a timer etc. Divided the space, just going to flower with those and use these 12 for an additional veg space. Want to see if i can score these bitches. Took some clones a couple weeks ago keeping in veg, mean while I'm flowering everything large enough just to see which ones of the clones I need to keep cloning. Going to have the father in law put in the breaker if this gets any bigger than it is. The veg area will only have 276 actual watts but its the smaller portion. Damn this shit is driving me crazy trying to do everything on the fly macgyver style. Already invested 200-250 is supply's and materials for this, want to see if its going to pay off before I crash n burn and have to start from the ground up negative my whole bank account hahaha.

electrician every time....not even a doubt in my mind it's the ONLY advice if you're not sure...

yip,,, defo ... sparkys r defiantly the way 2 not cremate urself in ur sleep .. if u hav 1 in ur family,,,,u hav won half the battle ,,u cnt really call the electrician out of yellow pages nd say ' cum help me set up my growroom'' ur plants look sweet tho from here,,,hope u get females m8 ...good luck matey.