Experienced Electrician! Here to Answer Any and All Growroom Electrical Questions

steelheadguy

steelheadguy

Member
I have a light controller box that I wired to my dryer plug. It is 30 amps. I have two questions.

1. Im about to flower with 2 600w lights. They need to be 12/12. I also have have a 600w for my mothers. How can I keep the moms on 18/6? Right now I have a simple timer on the 120 trigger of the light controller, but it controls them as a whole.

2. Hypothetically how many lights can be used on this light controller? 30A x 250 v = 7500watts of light... Is that about right?
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
Remi1 said:
Hey snaps thanks for all your help.
Is this the wire you are talking about? http://www.homedepot.com/p/Southwire-8-2-NM-W-G-By-the-Foot-28893699/204632778?N=bm7vZ1z0ukz9#

Also you mentioned a 4" box..... Can't I just hard wire the controller to the line or would it be better to make a plug at the end of the line then plug the controller in?

* after thinking about it I am going to do a plug in case other things come up that need the plug
Click to expand...

Go to an electrical supply house. They will stock it. If they ask say your making an extension cord for a welder. If your doing a three prong use 8-2 if its a 4 prong use 8-3. The SOOJW is flexible (stranded conductors) then nm cable you linked will be very stiff.
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
steelheadguy said:
I have a light controller box that I wired to my dryer plug. It is 30 amps. I have two questions.

1. Im about to flower with 2 600w lights. They need to be 12/12. I also have have a 600w for my mothers. How can I keep the moms on 18/6? Right now I have a simple timer on the 120 trigger of the light controller, but it controls them as a whole.

2. Hypothetically how many lights can be used on this light controller? 30A x 250 v = 7500watts of light... Is that about right?
Click to expand...
5760 watts. 240v x 30a x 0.8

More than 80% and your going to start having breaker trip issues.
 
Zeke92

Zeke92

Member
Hey, how important is a surge protector ? I read a guide and it said that no matter what light u get, make sure you get a surge protector.
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
Zeke92 said:
Hey, how important is a surge protector ? I read a guide and it said that no matter what light u get, make sure you get a surge protector.
Click to expand...
Only worry if your ballast is digital. The magnetic ballasts arent sensitive.

I just pop an intermatic panel gaurd on the load center to protect the whole house.
 
ScoobyDoobyDoo

ScoobyDoobyDoo

Well-Known Member
Nookies said:
Will I have problems running a 400 watt light, 6 inch inline fan, and a circulating fan or two on one socket?
Click to expand...
probably not assuming your house has 15-20amp circuits. older homes might have 10amp circuits. just be careful what else you put on that circuit; remember that electricians usually put several outlets on one circuit so any other outlets nearby are most likely on the same circuit. i.e. don't go plugging the vacuum in a circuit in the same room.
 
N

Nookies

Well-Known Member
ScoobyDoobyDoo said:
probably not assuming your house has 15-20amp circuits. older homes might have 10amp circuits. just be careful what else you put on that circuit; remember that electricians usually put several outlets on one circuit so any other outlets nearby are most likely on the same circuit. i.e. don't go plugging the vacuum in a circuit in the same room.
Click to expand...
Well, I have 3 sockets total in my room. One socket furthest away has a surge protector that powers my 500 watt powersupply computer and monitor. The second socket has my 5,000 BTU window AC unit.

The 3rd socket is the one ill be using to plug everything up. However, the bathroom is literally on the other side of the wall. But nothing is ever plugged into that.
 
ScoobyDoobyDoo

ScoobyDoobyDoo

Well-Known Member
Nookies said:
Well, I have 3 sockets total in my room. One socket furthest away has a surge protector that powers my 500 watt powersupply computer and monitor. The second socket has my 5,000 BTU window AC unit.

The 3rd socket is the one ill be using to plug everything up. However, the bathroom is literally on the other side of the wall. But nothing is ever plugged into that.
Click to expand...
most likely all 3 of those sockets are on one breaker. plug something into each socket and go shut off the breaker to check. if so; then check the size of the breaker (will be a number on the breaker, either 15 or 20). that is how many amps you have to carry on the three breakers combined. you don't want to go over 80% of that number (so 16amps on a 20amp breaker) cause you run into overheating problems in the wiring. you might be lucky and the one furthest away could be on another circuit. double check though. if they are all on the same circuit you probably don't have enough juice to run all of that. bathrooms and kitchens are usually 20amp gfi circuits which is great to plug your ballast into.
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
In most jurisdictions NEC requires a 20 amp bathroom circuit. You might have more to play with on the bathroom feed depending on how old the home is.
 
S

spek9

Well-Known Member
SnapsProvolone said:
In most jurisdictions NEC requires a 20 amp bathroom circuit. You might have more to play with on the bathroom feed depending on how old the home is.
Click to expand...
In at least parts of Canada, upon my last update on the Code, it is 15A in the bathroom as long as the hot coming in was ground-faulted. Nobody in their right mind would run anything beyond that, but it was legal if they wanted to. This is going back about 7 years.

Bathrooms are good to bounce off of, because they're usually dedicated, and most won't run circuits from them.

Don't let your wife run a hair dryer that looks like an oven at the same time as lights-on though.

-spek
 
SnapsProvolone

SnapsProvolone

Well-Known Member
2008 NEC - 210.11(C)(3) requires a 20A branch circuit in the bathroom to supply only receptacles. The exception says: where the 20A circuit supplies a single bathroom, outlets for other equip within the same bathroom shall be permitted in accordance with 210.23(A)(1) and (A)(2)
 
ScoobyDoobyDoo

ScoobyDoobyDoo

Well-Known Member
SnapsProvolone said:
2008 NEC - 210.11(C)(3) requires a 20A branch circuit in the bathroom to supply only receptacles. The exception says: where the 20A circuit supplies a single bathroom, outlets for other equip within the same bathroom shall be permitted in accordance with 210.23(A)(1) and (A)(2)
Click to expand...
spek was talking about Canada...they don't use NEC codes.
 
N

Nookies

Well-Known Member
ScoobyDoobyDoo said:
most likely all 3 of those sockets are on one breaker. plug something into each socket and go shut off the breaker to check. if so; then check the size of the breaker (will be a number on the breaker, either 15 or 20). that is how many amps you have to carry on the three breakers combined. you don't want to go over 80% of that number (so 16amps on a 20amp breaker) cause you run into overheating problems in the wiring. you might be lucky and the one furthest away could be on another circuit. double check though. if they are all on the same circuit you probably don't have enough juice to run all of that. bathrooms and kitchens are usually 20amp gfi circuits which is great to plug your ballast into.
Click to expand...
Ok, I went to look at our circuit breaker. It appears each room is on it's own breaker, if anything mine is shared with the bathroom.

It has Breaker 1: Bedroom #1 Breaker 2: Bedroom 2,etc.

I looked on the side of the panel where theres a graph and didn't see a number. However on the switches themselves to turn it on or off there's a 15 for the bedrooms, 20 for kitchen/bathroom and a 30 I believe for the fridge/stove.
 
S

spek9

Well-Known Member
ScoobyDoobyDoo said:
spek was talking about Canada...they don't use NEC codes.
Click to expand...
Yep, but honestly, I haven't done bathroom electrical in many years as stated above (other than replacing the actual receptacles, switches and lights in my Mom's condo), so it could have been changed here as well. I put that little disclaimer in there about the seven years just in case.

Canada and U.S. are more-or-less aligned on a lot of things, and when I was into electrical a lot more than I am now, I noticed that each time a new revision of our code here came out, U.S. had changed as well. Kind of bounces back and forth I found.

-spek
 
ScoobyDoobyDoo

ScoobyDoobyDoo

Well-Known Member
Nookies said:
Ok, I went to look at our circuit breaker. It appears each room is on it's own breaker, if anything mine is shared with the bathroom.

It has Breaker 1: Bedroom #1 Breaker 2: Bedroom 2,etc.

I looked on the side of the panel where theres a graph and didn't see a number. However on the switches themselves to turn it on or off there's a 15 for the bedrooms, 20 for kitchen/bathroom and a 30 I believe for the fridge/stove.
Click to expand...
that means you only have a 15 amp breaker running all 3 outlets in your bedroom. which means you really only have 12amps to play with safely. i'd put some stuff on the circuit in the bathroom.
 
S

spek9

Well-Known Member
Nookies said:
Ok, I went to look at our circuit breaker. It appears each room is on it's own breaker, if anything mine is shared with the bathroom.

It has Breaker 1: Bedroom #1 Breaker 2: Bedroom 2,etc.

I looked on the side of the panel where theres a graph and didn't see a number. However on the switches themselves to turn it on or off there's a 15 for the bedrooms, 20 for kitchen/bathroom and a 30 I believe for the fridge/stove.
Click to expand...
The 30 is for the stove. By code (at least in Canada), the stove is dedicated, and the fridge must have its own circuit (other than allowing you to connect a wall clock plug, which don't really exist anymore).

It wouldn't surprise me if your bathroom is the same as your bedroom, especially in an older home.

Easy way to test. Plug something into the bathroom and something into each plug in the bedroom and turn the breaker off.

-spek
 
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