Grow Room Electrical

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Natural

Natural

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labud said:
I'm renting a 3000 Sq ft. , 5 bdrm house with 200 amp panel . I want to run 20 flowering lights ,1000s or 600s and 10 veg. Lights 400s ...i know i have to go 240 for the lights , what's the best way, sub panels..?
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subs will be you're only way..get a pro to build them for you. The idea is to try to stay within code to avoid probs, most appliances should be getting their own circuits within a "sub" or load center.
For any circuit breaker or the panel itself we employ the 80% amp usage for safety. You're looking at around 120 amps already just in lights...add 20% on each circuit and you're running out of room for AC..Fans..etc etc. This is all considering you live in a warm climate and can basically shut down the rest of power usage in the house.
 
Natural

Natural

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oh and...you could save some amp space if you use some flip-flops ;)
 
Natural

Natural

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labud said:
Flipping seems the way to go ...any recommendations? Or links?

Thanks
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The controllers from powerbox are pretty dope..some have led screen of how many amps are being used. You could get away with running a hard-wired controller connected to a breaker in your panel sins sub-panel if you wanted to. I would dedicate A/C's to their own circuit's though, going this route. If you wanted a load center to handle all ballasts, A/C, etc..in a certain area, then go with a custom built subpanel/load center with lights and A/C separated to their own breakers. The idea is the more closely sized your breakers are to an appliance the more likely a problem will trip the breaker.

toquer said:
http://www.horticontrol.com
I've used a few of these with great success. Had a pair of 6's and an 8 at the other place.
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Those look nice man..the ballasts stay on 24/7 with these huh? I know with some flips the ballasts have to be powered down for 20 minutes or something like that.
 
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toquer

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When I was using the flip digital ballasts needed a down time. Lumateks didn't but solistek and phantoms had trouble firing the flip. I had an MLC connected to the ballasts and cycled fifteen minutes off during the flip so my light cycle was actually 11 hours and 45 minutes for some of the lights. The magnetics just ran all the time. They do get hot. I had it on wire racks suspended above the rooms.
 
Olyver

Olyver

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powerbox and horticontrol are not CEC or NEC compliant. They are not permitted by ESA in Canada.
 
Frostynugman

Frostynugman

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I have a powerbox flipper for 8 lights. Works like a g and you never turn off the ballasts which means no initial amp draw. save power in the long run they work great
 
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toquer

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ok so i'm trying to clean up the main panel and add a sub panel here at my spot. when we first got here, we replaced the main but didn't rewire the existing, just connected the hots to new breakers and the neutrals to the neutral bar. there is no ground rod, there is EMC running overhead to the water supply and a neutral connected to the water supply line.
what i'm running into is this...
the lights overhead, t-12's are wired directly into the main and to turn the lights on i've got to walk through the dark warehouse and flip the breakers. they are on 5 breakers. there are 4 additional breakers that run the existing outlets in the building. so of these 9 hots i have 5 neutrals and no grounds as everything is grounded via emc. there are 3 emc pipes running out of the main, one of them carries 2 circuits and one neutral, the neutral is shared and split at the first junction box, this one is easy. the other 2 conduits have 2 neutrals each, one has 3 hots (1 light, 2 outlets) the other has 4 hots (3 lights, 1 outlet).
now i'd like to leave the outlets directly connected to the main and put my lights in a sub panel so that i can add a remote relay to them.
what i don't know how to do is determine which neutral is going to which hot. i'm going to assume that the lights are on one neutral in the emc and the other neutral is for the outlets.
if i use a multimeter and run from hot to neutral in the breaker box it says OL and then reads 120v.
neutral is bonded to ground so it reads the same for ground bar, OL and then 120v.
any thoughts? i don't really wanna plug an extension cord into the outlets and check for continuity over 100 feet but that is an option.
Resolved...
so i shut off the breakers and disconnected one neutral. then turned the breakers back on one at a time. the lights that didn't come on correspond to that neutral. so by process of elimination we determined what wires go where. now to bend pipe and cut it without damaging the wires inside!! fun!
 
Last edited:
Natural

Natural

2,536
263
toquer said:
ok so i'm trying to clean up the main panel and add a sub panel here at my spot. when we first got here, we replaced the main but didn't rewire the existing, just connected the hots to new breakers and the neutrals to the neutral bar. there is no ground rod, there is EMC running overhead to the water supply and a neutral connected to the water supply line.
what i'm running into is this...
the lights overhead, t-12's are wired directly into the main and to turn the lights on i've got to walk through the dark warehouse and flip the breakers. they are on 5 breakers. there are 4 additional breakers that run the existing outlets in the building. so of these 9 hots i have 5 neutrals and no grounds as everything is grounded via emc. there are 3 emc pipes running out of the main, one of them carries 2 circuits and one neutral, the neutral is shared and split at the first junction box, this one is easy. the other 2 conduits have 2 neutrals each, one has 3 hots (1 light, 2 outlets) the other has 4 hots (3 lights, 1 outlet).
now i'd like to leave the outlets directly connected to the main and put my lights in a sub panel so that i can add a remote relay to them.
what i don't know how to do is determine which neutral is going to which hot. i'm going to assume that the lights are on one neutral in the emc and the other neutral is for the outlets.
if i use a multimeter and run from hot to neutral in the breaker box it says OL and then reads 120v.
neutral is bonded to ground so it reads the same for ground bar, OL and then 120v.
any thoughts? i don't really wanna plug an extension cord into the outlets and check for continuity over 100 feet but that is an option.
Resolved...
so i shut off the breakers and disconnected one neutral. then turned the breakers back on one at a time. the lights that didn't come on correspond to that neutral. so by process of elimination we determined what wires go where. now to bend pipe and cut it without damaging the wires inside!! fun!
Click to expand...

glad you have it figured out. I don't like that your ground from the panel has to travel a pathway of EMC to get to the copper plumbing..it would be better if the ground was attached to copper plumbing that was closer to the panel and went directly underground. Look into getting a ground rod put in..it's pretty easy.
 
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toquer

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Natural said:
glad you have it figured out. I don't like that your ground from the panel has to travel a pathway of EMC to get to the copper plumbing..it would be better if the ground was attached to copper plumbing that was closer to the panel and went directly underground. Look into getting a ground rod put in..it's pretty easy.
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Got the ground rod. It's going in this weekend. The existing is traveling through rigid not EMC. I was wrong initially, but it's still gotta go. 10' is a lot to pound in.
 
Natural

Natural

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toquer said:
Got the ground rod. It's going in this weekend. The existing is traveling through rigid not EMC. I was wrong initially, but it's still gotta go. 10' is a lot to pound in.
Click to expand...
hope it goes smooth..have hit bedrock before..what a drag.
 
twist1

twist1

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Hello Farmers!

I'm looking to find out how to daisy chain 240V receptacles. I would like to put 4 ballasts on one 30amp breaker.

Thanks in advance!!
 
Oldmanstoner

Oldmanstoner

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I am back with a new place. Needing to add a 100 amp jump box from a main panel that is twice the size I am use to, its in a large 2 bay garage. Yet the main breaker is only 200 amp yet there is a 440 plus several 50 amp 240 breakers. Unfortunely its not 3 phase, I am planning on running up to 12 1k lights, digital on 240. The 100 amp is for lights only using 3 - 4 light control boxes staggering each one by 5 minutes. I never hooked up a subpanel , just how difficult is it? I figure on using #6 or do I have to use #4 wire?
 
Lurkin4yrs

Lurkin4yrs

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93
My new spot has "3-phase" it's delta with a wild leg. Anyone familiar with 3-phase delta with a wild leg? is the wild leg useless? I'm curious if it can be used for anything?

Thanks
-lurkin
 
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