Grow Room Electrical

[SodaLicious]

quick question -

I have a 20 amp breaker that i want to throw approx 16-18 amps in, but im afraid of overloading it. i know it may not be code or whatever, but could i throw a 30 amp breaker on there instead, just so it wouldnt trip if there was a bigger flux over 80% of 20?? i know 30 amps run bigger gauge wire, but im not trying to run 30 amps, just 18 safely...

thanks!

18 amps on a 20 amp breaker is 80%. You should be fine. I run 2 600's off one 20 amp breaker with 12/2 wire, and have had only one issue, the plug/receptacle was only rated for 15 amps with the 2 600's plugged into a power bar then the bar plugged into the receptacle, it melted a bit :oops:. Now I have a 20amp rated receptacle and have no issues.

PS

i ran my on 12/2 wire straight from the breaker to my plug box, no junctions anywhere. Make sure your 20 amp actually has 12/2 otherwise you will be loading the 14/2 past its capacity.

 

[fishwhistle]

I see you cut math class to smoke a hooter huh:) soda,80% of 20amps is 16amps.The calculation would be 20x.80=16

 

[SodaLicious]

How'd you guess!! LOL My bad.

 

[Classic Remix]

which leaves my question re open! lol!

 

[SodaLicious]

Are you sure the breaker was never a 15 and been switched to a 20?

 

[Classic Remix]

yeah its always been a 20. it was originally in the house for the freezer in the basement.

i understand the gauge wire issues like i said, but if its rated for 20 amps a 30 amp breaker should simply just stop it from tripping right? cause it would never hit 20, it'd be a 1k digital ballast and a portable AC thats about 8-8.5 amps when fully running.... on every 12 off 12

 

[SodaLicious]

This is what I would do. I would run everything on the 20amp breaker as is for a week. If it doesn't trip by then it never will.IMO

 

[Classic Remix]

sounds good. i moved all my fans and bullshit to another breaker, just in case 100 watts helps here and there. which is will.

thanks mang!

 

[SodaLicious]

ya man, that 100 watts will make the world of difference. sorry not the watts, its the amps that add up.

 

[fishwhistle]

 

[SodaLicious]

what's that hooked up to it? no Breaker on there either. The purpose of your breaker is to protect that wire from something catastrophic like that from happening!

 

[fishwhistle]

what's that hooked up to it? no Breaker on there either. The purpose of your breaker is to protect that wire from something catastrophic like that from happening!

Yeah well thats not going to happen if you have an oversized breaker hooked up to it right?The wire becomes the weak link and even if you dont replace the breaker with a larger one You are still here telling classic "go ahead and run an overloaded circuit'',A 1k digital ballast on 120v is gonna be 9.5-10 amps,his a/c he says is 8-8.5amps but both are going to spike on startup too and what about if/when they both startup together?You are not leaving ANY margin for safety at all,What if he has his kid sleeping in the next room when that shit lights up in the middle of the night?BAD ADVICE!
Couple things you can do here A)Use the 80% rule which limits you to sixteen amps on that circuit B)Run another circuit if you have the room/capacity in your panel,Preferably 240 which will cut your amp draw in half.
Electricity is an unforgiving bitch,you can pay now and do it right or you can pay later when your shit is ashes on the ground.

 

[Classic Remix]

ended up throwing the AC on its own 15A....

so its all worked out... thanks guys!

 

[jkbeing]

Now imagine that wire doing that inside your wall! That happens to growops a few times a year where I live.

 

[SodaLicious]

Yeah well thats not going to happen if you have an oversized breaker hooked up to it right?The wire becomes the weak link and even if you dont replace the breaker with a larger one You are still here telling classic "go ahead and run an overloaded circuit'',A 1k digital ballast on 120v is gonna be 9.5-10 amps,his a/c he says is 8-8.5amps but both are going to spike on startup too and what about if/when they both startup together?You are not leaving ANY margin for safety at all,What if he has his kid sleeping in the next room when that shit lights up in the middle of the night?BAD ADVICE!
Couple things you can do here A)Use the 80% rule which limits you to sixteen amps on that circuit B)Run another circuit if you have the room/capacity in your panel,Preferably 240 which will cut your amp draw in half.
Electricity is an unforgiving bitch,you can pay now and do it right or you can pay later when your shit is ashes on the ground.

I get where your coming from, but I never said up the size of the breaker, I was just saying if it's 12/2 with a 20 amp fuse, plug your shit in if it blows the breaker then you need to find a solution. if it doesn't then your good. If there is 18 amps on the breaker at all times, and it doesn't heat up and trip, does that mean the wire is sitting in the wall getting hotter, and hotter until catastrophic failure like in the video?

 

[SodaLicious]

When you buy a new lamp for the living room and it trips the breaker, do you think to yourself I must have exceeded 80% of the load capacity on the circuit? No probably not you plug it into another outlet. If you aren't supposed to run 18 amps on a 20 amp breaker, why isn't the wire being protected by an 18 amp breaker?

 

[fishwhistle]

Soda,im sure olyver will chime in here sometime,im a contractor not an electrician so i know just enough to be dangerous,lol.
One last time,here goes,For safetys sake you should only load a circuit to 80% which in this case was 16 amps.You may well be able to load it past twenty for all i know but its stupid to exceed the safety factor and not expect a bad outcome.
As for your lamp scenario,If i plug in a lamp and it throws the breaker and its not overloaded i would look for a short or possibly a weak/bad breaker that needs to be replaced,its rediculous to just plug it in another outlet which may in fact be hooked to the same breaker,how does this solve the problem?I want to know WTF is CAUSING the problem so i can fix it.
The reason you dont run a circuit drawing 18 amps with an 18 amp breaker is because you would be running that circuit at 100% and have NO safety factor at all,Imagine if you drove your car at MAX rpms from the second you started it until the second you turned it off,how long do you think it would last until you had a problem or it failed?

 

[BCrocker]

Question...

Shop transformer on pole is 25 KW, ... Although we pull consistantly 150-170 amps out of it 24hrs a day. Why doesn't it blow?

I dont understand how kva, or kw works... except that 25 kw would be 25000 watts, would be divived by your voltage to give the ampage..? In this case it should be 113a.

 

[Dr.stickerdick]

BCrocker, your's has had me scratching my head. Where do you get 113 A ? 25 KVA single phase tranny @ 480v. = 156 amps. @ 240v. = 312 amps. With 75 KVA three phase @ 480 v.= 94 amps, with 240 v.= 181 amps. Peace Classic Remix, You really should know whether it is 16 or 18 amps. To determine wire and breaker size 18 a. @ 125% = 22.5 a. too much for 20 abreaker and # 12 ga. wire. 16 a. @ 125% = 20 a. ok for 20 a. breaker / # 12 ga. wire if not continuous load, but not with 80% rule on 20 a.breaker if continuous load. Going to 30 amp breaker ,,,,,,,,NO PHUCKING WAY Y Y Y Y.. Please never even think this way. Please. Peace

 

[SodaLicious]

Soda,im sure olyver will chime in here sometime,im a contractor not an electrician so i know just enough to be dangerous,lol.
One last time,here goes,For safetys sake you should only load a circuit to 80% which in this case was 16 amps.You may well be able to load it past twenty for all i know but its stupid to exceed the safety factor and not expect a bad outcome.
As for your lamp scenario,If i plug in a lamp and it throws the breaker and its not overloaded i would look for a short or possibly a weak/bad breaker that needs to be replaced,its rediculous to just plug it in another outlet which may in fact be hooked to the same breaker,how does this solve the problem?I want to know WTF is CAUSING the problem so i can fix it.
The reason you dont run a circuit drawing 18 amps with an 18 amp breaker is because you would be running that circuit at 100% and have NO safety factor at all,Imagine if you drove your car at MAX rpms from the second you started it until the second you turned it off,how long do you think it would last until you had a problem or it failed?

after this i will never speak of it again:-)

If your average joe, that isn't growing mj, or have any experience with electricity, moves into a new house, sets up his tv in the living room, and a couple of lamps, turns on the tv, and the breaker blows, does he panic and think that he must be running that circuit over 80%? Or does he simply unplug one of his lamps that is beside the couch, and now the tv doesn't pop the breaker. If he continues to use that TV on that circuit, that a 60watt light bulb added will blow the breaker, is he in danger? I am just saying that you can't tell me that every 15 amp breaker in your panel is drawing only 80%. How does the average joe know the difference between a freezer at 7 amps and a washing machine at 7 amps plugged into the same circuit, is over 80%, he knows it's safe because the breaker doesn't trip.