Electrical question

I'm going to install a new circuit, and run a line up to my grow room. It's a new insulated room I'm building in my attic. I plan to have 4 total lights. 1 600w MH, 1 600w HPS, and 2 normal incandescent bulbs. Is it okay to put all that lighting on the same circuit, or should I run a second line up? I'm worried about overloading it since I'll be pulling > 1kw.

Thanks for any help. I'm not an electrician, but have run a line before without burning the place down.

pulling a little over 1200 watts on one circuit should be fine. i hear its normal for a average house to pull 1000 watts at any given time and most rooms from in my experience are one one circuit. they should be plenty safe over that. just make sure you use the right breaker

The two 600's are about 10 amps if my math is correct. I would run 2 15amp runs to the attic. That way you have power for fans and all the other stuff you might need to plug in.

Thanks for the advice. I should probably consult an electrician, but I want to avoid explaining what I need it for. Can I run both 15 amp lines off the same breaker?

No 15 amp for each line back to the box. If it is a long run you could consider a sub panel in the attic. In my spare room I have a sub panel powered by one 60 amp breaker. Then I have 4 15 amp circuits coming out of it .

So, about 1400W total?
115Vac I take it, not 220Vac?

I= W/V

1400w/115v = 12A

As long as nothing else (a TV for example) is on the circuit you will be OK.
Make sure you're using a cable run rated for that much power, ie. - don't use lamp cord.

Do you know the difference between "L1, L2, return, and ground"?

If you do, I have something you can do.

plantmagic said:

No 15 amp for each line back to the box. If it is a long run you could consider a sub panel in the attic. In my spare room I have a sub panel powered by one 60 amp breaker. Then I have 4 15 amp circuits coming out of it .

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Now there is a great idea! I hadn't thought about a sub box up there. That will solve all my issues. Thank you very much!

No problem.

Organic Ghost said:

Now there is a great idea! I hadn't thought about a sub box up there. That will solve all my issues. Thank you very much!

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Hold on OG. A 60 amp sub panel ran over that distance will require romex 6/2 wire from your panel to the sub panel. 6/2 cost here $5 a foot, can be costly to run that wire. IfI was tou I would run 12/3 wire from a 20 amp breaker. On 120v those lights they will take 680 watts each on digital ballasts. That puts you over the amperage safe zone, but on a 20 amp you would still have room for an outlet for additional equipement.

If you are on a budget then I agree with Sir. Ganja except I would put a 30amp breaker and 10/3 Romex or THHN to a GFCI outlet. If you are running 2 600w lights that's roughly 11amps. With inline fans, oscillating fans, pumps, etc... you can easily push that to 15-16amps which would be the max recommended load on a 20amp breaker. This would leave no room to safely add equipment or an a/c or dehumidifier if you needed it in the future. You'd also need to stagger the startup load of your lights by 1 second to not blow a fuse.

If you have the extra mooney and would like to leave the possibility open to expand on the room in the future then I would do the sub panel. Like it was said; a 50-60amp subpanel would be plenty of power. Just make sure you can pull that kind of draw off your main panel or else you are just wasting your money.

i ran a 10/3 wire to my grow room that is dedicated for just my lights/inline fans, i am using x2 30A circuits sharing a neutral wire this works great for x2 1k,s and x2 inline fans. running a sub panel is great if like, phil stated, you have the main service/panel to accommodate it. for example my parents have a pretty old house so there main service only has a 60A main breaker so for me to run a 60A sub panel i would have to upgrade the main service to at least 100-200A to accommodate the extra 60A that will be pulled from the panel. if i switched my ballasts to 220v my line right now would be plenty sufficient for even x4 1k's. everything runs more efficient on 220v and most all ballast's are capable of running that voltage with a different cord.

You need to be careful if your houses main is an older 60amp. Has the service been upgraded to the house? You can usually find the amp rating for the service to the house on the meter. Just be careful and dont run the stove and dryer at the same time as the lights. Your getting up there in amps if all is running.

damn i wana do the same thing , i got plenty of space in my attic i wonder if there is a good you tube vid that would take me threw this process

what are you trying to do? sure i could walk you through the process. electrical is pretty easy you just have to keep from shocking the fuck out of yourself

drgreentm said:

what are you trying to do? sure i could walk you through the process. electrical is pretty easy you just have to keep from shocking the fuck out of yourself

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The number 1 rule to remember when doing electrical work...don't lick the wires.


Seriously..it is pretty easy. Especially to wire up a sub panel.

phillipchristian said:

The number 1 rule to remember when doing electrical work...don't lick the wires.


Seriously..it is pretty easy. Especially to wire up a sub panel.

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I saw a guy cut a cord on a circular saw and his friend from africa was there and was gonna help him splice it back together. He tried to use his teeth to strip the insulation off of the wire while it was still plugged in. Well the funny part was that the fucking fuse had not blown and it shocked the fuck out of this guy that only spoke broken english. I asked him why he didn't have those wires stripped yet, lol. He looked shocked. Good times....