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

jwizzle22 said:

Hey I'm setting up my first in door grow room... I want to ip the anti with my light I currently have 1 400w hps light with a 120v hook up in the shed. I want to go up to 1000w can I do this on the 15 amp breaker it's currently on or do I need a different power source? Also I was interested in keep the cops from being suspicious with the light bill n all.. how can you help me with that?

Thank alot

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You can run a 1000w on a 15 amp breaker. 15X.8=12 Amps . you have lots of room for a 1000w with that setup

Is there an easy way to tell which outlets are on the same circuit? I'm renting this house and the writing on the inside of the circuit breaker box isn't the most detailed.

Babakh20 said:

Is there an easy way to tell which outlets are on the same circuit? I'm renting this house and the writing on the inside of the circuit breaker box isn't the most detailed.

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Shut down sensitive loads.

Start flipping breakers one at a time and go check what fixtures and receptacles stop function.

SnapsProvolone said:

Shut down sensitive loads.

Start flipping breakers one at a time and go check what fixtures and receptacles stop function.

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Genius, thanks!

I have a 400 watt hps setup in my closet. I live in a small 2 bedroom condo. Whenever I run the vacuum or any other powerful equipment, I get a power outage. I then go to fuse box and flip switches to restore power. It tends to only happen a couple times a week, but my next grow I will be using a 1000 watt light. How do I prevent this from happening?

lemmy714 said:

I have a 400 watt hps setup in my closet. I live in a small 2 bedroom condo. Whenever I run the vacuum or any other powerful equipment, I get a power outage. I then go to fuse box and flip switches to restore power. It tends to only happen a couple times a week, but my next grow I will be using a 1000 watt light. How do I prevent this from happening?

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Adding a new circuit is probably your best option.

Great post. Looking into upgrading my grow rooms. I wish to do two rooms 24 1kw lights per room on a flip flop. A veg room of at least 10kw of lights. How much electricity will I need ac and dehumidifiers and fans included. Right now the panel is single phase with 200 amp. Do I need a three phase panel, and if so how do you wire that many lights using 3 phase power? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'm limited to 2 outlets one on each side of the room. There are regular 15 amp breakers in the box. I will be running a 1k with a couple fans and 2 t12's. I was wondering if me changing the 15amp to a 20 or 30 amp will I be able to run these with no issues. Or does it not work that way?

DSinatra said:

I'm limited to 2 outlets one on each side of the room. There are regular 15 amp breakers in the box. I will be running a 1k with a couple fans and 2 t12's. I was wondering if me changing the 15amp to a 20 or 30 amp will I be able to run these with no issues. Or does it not work that way?

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The only safe way to increase the circuit's capacity is by replacing the wire with one of adequate gauge. For 20 amps, 12 AWG copper is adequate for up to about 100 feet.

If you simply replace the breaker, the wire can overheat and ignite the building from inside the walls.

DirtyNerd said:

The only safe way to increase the circuit's capacity is by replacing the wire with one of adequate gauge. For 20 amps, 12 AWG copper is adequate for up to about 100 feet.

If you simply replace the breaker, the wire can overheat and ignite the building from inside the walls.

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Ah thank you. Your only supposed to uuse like 75 or 80% of the allotted wattage or ampage or something like that? I'm gonna have to try to just run a 1000 with a single fan on a 15ampm would that be ok?

DSinatra said:

Ah thank you. Your only supposed to uuse like 75 or 80% of the allotted wattage or ampage or something like that? I'm gonna have to try to just run a 1000 with a single fan on a 15ampm would that be ok?

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The max watts on a 15 amp circuit is 15X120 = 1800 watts. The max continuous load should not exceed 80%, which is 12 amps or 1440 watts.

so you will be fine with one light and one fun even a couple of other fans one for your outtake one for intake and one blowing on your plants all the best

Excellent brother that's exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks

DirtyNerd said:

The max watts on a 15 amp circuit is 15X120 = 1800 watts. The max continuous load should not exceed 80%, which is 12 amps or 1440 watts.

so you will be fine with one light and one fun even a couple of other fans one for your outtake one for intake and one blowing on your plants all the best

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how about me i posted pics a page back i believe

I bought a 600 watt phantom..i dont understand how to make sure to set it up on 240 volts so it doesnt burn the wires...any explanation?

Heiya'll, I'd appreciate some help regarding an electrical safety question, mainly regarding wire gauge:

I plan to connect a new double plug socket by piggy backing off an existing socket. (240V AC, has 3 wires, I assume its a 10 or 15 amp circuit). In parallel right? I have a junction box and 40Amp rated screw connectors and a new double socket wallplate.

Is the wire in the pictures below safe to use for my wiring? The writing on it says -
* Electric Cable 450/750V V90-L 2006 < 001 Meters > F1*


I have a plug in RCD, and also a plug in-line power usage meter which I will use to see how much my grow equipment is drawing. I don't actually know which other sockets in the house are on the same circuit (I may have to start flipping switches on the power board to work this out, will do this when no one else is home)

Thanks in advance guys, ANY advice or comments welcome.

PS: I am running the following in my grow room. at the moment it runs off an extension cable from a different part of the house to the socket I am planning to highjack.
-400W Lumatek dimmable ballast
-60W Canfan drawing 0.7A max
-30W oscillating fan
-pissy 6" computer fan unknown power draw
(all the above on a 2400W capable power board)
+250W dehumidifier which is the reason I am rewiring everything so it can have its own socket

I have a question regarding an HPS ballast. It is a 4-tap (120v, 208v, 240v, 277v) and has a NEMA 6-15 plug on the end of the cord. I have no similar outlet in my house and am not interested in doing any new or re-wiring. Just going with 2 or 3 girls at a time. So....I've opened up the ballast box, and switched it from 240v to 120v inside. Now, my question is: Can I just find a plug adapter to safely plug the cord into a basic 120v outlet? As I understand it, my ballast will, in function, be now just a 120v device. Do I need to wire on a more typical 3-prong, 120v plug onto the cord? I really appreciate any help.

davboz said:

I have a question regarding an HPS ballast. It is a 4-tap (120v, 208v, 240v, 277v) and has a NEMA 6-15 plug on the end of the cord. I have no similar outlet in my house and am not interested in doing any new or re-wiring. Just going with 2 or 3 girls at a time. So....I've opened up the ballast box, and switched it from 240v to 120v inside. Now, my question is: Can I just find a plug adapter to safely plug the cord into a basic 120v outlet? As I understand it, my ballast will, in function, be now just a 120v device. Do I need to wire on a more typical 3-prong, 120v plug onto the cord? I really appreciate any help.

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yes u will need to do this
they are going to need the watts of that ballast to tell you what kind of extension cord to buy gauge wise.
hopefully someone answers you, but i had to do it . i use (1) 400w hps so i bought a 16 gauge extension cord cut it and wired them together.
make sure to keep the nema 6-15 just in case you do plan to use 240 in the future

p.s im no electrician so wait for one to come in and verify with them if need be

Running 5k on 240 to my 6 spot powerbox that's hooked up to a 40 amp breaker ( only thing on it) been running smooth for months the other day it tripped three times in a hour. After turning my ballasts down to 75% that night it made it throw the cycle no problems. Waited a day and now have turned them back up to 100% - ran 12 hrs no problem. Any idea what could have caused this?

Idk if the op is still monitoring this post but Input would be appreciated .... My electrician friend just left here ... Came to look at my room as he will be adding (2) 15amp 240v receptacles and (6) 120v 15amp receptacles on a dedicated circuit in my room. He wants $500 which is a fair price I think for labor and parts. However he offered to connect my entire room above the meter for the house meaning the hall lights and whatever for my apt building (which is a small 3 decker w 3 apts) so I wouldn't have to pay for electricity. At firT I said Absolutely not that's how ppl get caught. And after explaining to me he has 4 other people doing this for 5 plus years one Is actually running baseboard electric heat on a 1200 sq ft house w no worries. And that it would be almost impossible to get caught. Is this true or am I gonna get smoked

MattMA said:

Idk if the op is still monitoring this post but Input would be appreciated .... My electrician friend just left here ... Came to look at my room as he will be adding (2) 15amp 240v receptacles and (6) 120v 15amp receptacles on a dedicated circuit in my room. He wants $500 which is a fair price I think for labor and parts. However he offered to connect my entire room above the meter for the house meaning the hall lights and whatever for my apt building (which is a small 3 decker w 3 apts) so I wouldn't have to pay for electricity. At firT I said Absolutely not that's how ppl get caught. And after explaining to me he has 4 other people doing this for 5 plus years one Is actually running baseboard electric heat on a 1200 sq ft house w no worries. And that it would be almost impossible to get caught. Is this true or am I gonna get smoked

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I would listen to your instincts on this one.