Grow Room Electrical

[Dan789]

Dan, your opinion means nothing to me on my work, I am industrial electrician for over 25 years and never had one issue with my work. As for you not placing the PLC with the contactors, you need to look at industrial panels.

Dog, not to get a pissing match started with whose is bigger but I'm retired IBEW journeyman Electrician and Electrical contractor. So I know my way around the Industrial scene, with over 45 years experience. Just trying to give some mild feedback, if what your doing didn't matter to me I would have kept my mouth shut, but it's no big deal forge on.

 

[Olyver]

Then you know sometimes a customer only has certain budget amount, so panel has to be built accordingly and safe. If I had my way every time for a build, it would only be built one way. You must wonder then why powerbox, titan controls, cap, etc all build such unsafe gear, yet 100s of people buy it, cheerz, sorry for earlier posting, hard to find sparky's these days who share the same build philosophy. Pix of some builds with deep pockets lol.

 

[Dan789]

No worries.

 

[Dan789]

Olyver, hey man props, the back lit panel array are the ones you should have led with. Well done.

 

[hiboy]

Update

Going to build my own "light controller box". Went with a 40a double pole contact, metal box, 20a sockets. All parts should be in after the holiday.

Had the flu 2 weeks
Any help needed let me know
Hb

 

[DemonTrich]

Had the flu 2 weeks
Any help needed let me know
Hb

Still waiting for my stuff to get in to build this thing.

 

[joexblack]

Hey guys, I need some advice. I am in the middle of redesigning my room. I had a dedicated 240v 50 amp circuit run to the room for lighting. I am thinking of buying a Helios 18 12 light controller just for ease of installation. However, from the spec sheet its asking for an 80 amp input. This is a problem as my wiring only supports up to 50 amps. The total max draw on my 12 lights is 45 amps at 240v. Will this be an issue? Is there an alternative to the Helios 18? I have basic electrical skills and I was told that building a lighting controller myself could be cheaper? any thoughts?

 

[DemonTrich]

Rule of advise, never go over 80% draw on any circuit. At 45% of 50 available, your over the 80% threshold. Imo

 

[joexblack]

Rule of advise, never go over 80% draw on any circuit. At 45% of 50 available, your over the 80% threshold. Imo

I guess I could easily throw one of the ballasts on a 120v circuit which would bring me to the 80% mark. However, do you think running a 50amp input circuit is OK even though the Helios is asking for 80amps input?

 

[DemonTrich]

Yes, as long as you don't go over what that breaker is rated for. If you have a 50a 220v line going to an 80a 220v light controller, and NEVER! exceede 40a total you should be fine. The controller can handle up to 80 amps, as long as you have a 80a breaker and lines ran to be able to handle 80a draw.


Where's my dam sig at.

 

[Dan789]

Another consideration the designers of the controller were looking at is having all of those 12 lights come on at the same time, inrush current is what they're thinking of there. If you hit that threshold where the inrush current overcomes your supply breaker, it will trip (even though the connected load is under the rating of the supply breaker). At that point you'll simply have to adjust what you're feeding via that 50 amp supply & controller. Same thing as an A/C only drawing say 20 amps but needing to be supplied via a 30 or 40 amp breaker. Normal operating current doesn't change, it's just the inrush they're trying to account for. Most home distribution systems (home electrical panels) don't have breakers that have different trip curves but industrial panel set ups have breakers that can be sized closer to those constant loads via their trip curves, if you're following me.
The breaker will take care of itself, as it's very singular in design, in relation to the overall controller/ supply situation.

 

[Olyver]

Helios 12 does not comply with NEC or CEC electrical codes or safety. Check this link.

 

[usstoner]

You sure it doesn't say it's rated at 80 amps...im just guessing it's 80 amps max..

 

[joexblack]

You sure it doesn't say it's rated at 80 amps...im just guessing it's 80 amps max..

The info says 80 amp input 60 amp output. That's all it says

 

[usstoner]

The info says 80 amp input 60 amp output. That's all it says

That doesn't make sense..lol..80 in 60 out...well I wouldn't go over 60 amps then...mayb someone else will chime in...

 

[EMC2]

Hey guys I'm doing up a small room for my folks and electrical has always been my shortcoming. My question is in regards to the Titan 8 dual trigger controller. Its on its own 50 amp breaker 240v connection. I'm running 4 DE 1000w 240v and 4 Kessil H380 90w 120v. The DE's came only with a 120v cord. The Kessil as well but the specs say its rated 100-240v on the power supply.

My questions are:

1) Do I need an actual 240v cord from my DE ballast to my controller if the controller is already running 240v? The cable it came with is three pronged but the cord label states 120v.nI asked the guy at my local grow store and he told me I was ok with the 120v which seemed very odd to me.

2) Can I plug my Kessil's into the controller? There are two prongs and I was under the impression its fully 120v until I looked at the specs and it states the power supply is good from 100-240v.

As a side note, I have plugged all of them in and tested them for about an hour without any issues.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dan789]

This will maybe not make too much sense but the link will show you the configurations of both 120 and 120/240 volt receptacles. As long as the controller your plugging into has the appropriate receptacles, and as long as you haven't monkey'd around with the plugs on your lights you should be OK.
The three prong plug the controller has should be of the 120/240 style.

 

[Deplorable]

 

[Fattyog]

Hi i got a old electric panel fuse box (not a breaker) and i am going to replace with a 200amp circuit breakers panel my question is that when i change my fuse box to circuit breakers can i use a bigger panel to run everything on that one panel? (HOUSE HOLD AND MY GROW ROOM) or is better off to use a main panel for house hold stuff than get a separate sub panel for my grow room. please help thanks you

 

[Dan789]

Not sure what size sevice you have feeding your existing fuse box, a hint would be how many fuses are incorporated into what you have now. That said, no matter what you do, you'll be ultimately limited by the size of the original wiring feeding that (fuse box). So even though you'll have more c/b's to feed loads, your capacity won't increase from what you had initially.
To truly increase your capacity (in amps) from what you've got now, you'll need the drop to your house and new service conductors installed to increase the capacity. So if you had a 30 amp service (at 240 volts) that's all you'll still have no matter how many breakers you add. Pm for any questions so I can determine if you're getting me.