Is 100amps enough to power my room?

[Mr.]

Is a 100amp or 125a load center enough to power all of this?

10 1000w lights w/Quantums
1HP water chiller
3 24k btu inverter mini splits
4 oscillating fans in corners of room
10 vertical fans underneath each vertical bulb
3 dehumidifiers
1 natural gas co2 generator
All the undercurrent plug ins - water and air pumps
nutrient meters
5 or 10 UVB lights

This is what I told my electrician that I would be running and he is saying that a 100 amps is enough. The lights are going to be 240v. The 100 amps is dedicated just to the grow space. Oh, and the load center box said 125amps on it which confuses me because he is referring to the load center as a 100amp panel. Is 100 just the max I can run a 125a center?

He has already started the job so if you guys think I need to tell him to go larger then let me know, please. Hopefully not, though

 

[ibTheMan]

Yah you should be good for sure with 240v ballast, cause of the amp reduction.
125a is what i was talkn about.

 

[Bobby Smith]

You're gonna be cutting it pretty close, homeboy - is that a 100 amp circuit or do you have 100 amps to play with? Because if it's a 100 amp circuit, you really only have 80-85 amps to play with, and I think you're gonna be wanting for power.

Lights = 45 amps
ACs = 30 amps
Fans = 10 amps (prolly less, but conservative estimate)
Dehueys = 10 amps (at least)
Water/air pumps = 5 amps
Misc. = 5 amps

That puts you at 105, by my math.

Ask your electrician to break that number down to see where the discrepancy is.

EDIT: I'm a retard and didn't fully read your post - if you've got 125 amps to play with, you'll be fine.............and yes, you can't run every single amp available because you'll be putting yourself in serious fire trouble, so 80-85% is a safety range for maxing out a circuit.

 

[Mr.]

Damn, I just looked at my contract and it does say 100amp load center. Is it an easy fix to upgrade it to 125a? He has mounted the 100a center already but nothing is hooked up yet as far as wiring.

 

[ent]

The 100 amps will be at 240volts, right?

I read the lights are 240v, but the whole circuit that's coming into the room is 240v too, right? If so then Bobby Smith's breakdown is accurate.

 

[Nobodynobody]

I personly say NO. The last few relayers i installed was 4x1000w witch needed a 30A@220V and another 8x1000w running at 50A@220V.

AC 2 ton AC 24,000but uses 20A@220V or a 3.5 ton 30A@220V

Everything else can run off 3x 20amp 120V stander with EZ.

All the # i gave you will give you an idea what to might look at for load pull. Also do not pull more then 75% load. Get a person that know wiring up jobs for this so there wont be a house fire...

 

[aleYarok]

im running 8k rdwc on 100 amps so 10k should be no problem.
why so much a/c? (we are doing fine on 1 30,000btu) get some vertical cool tubes a couple vortex instead of all the floor fans. 3 dehueys? u should only need one. and do you really need 1hp chiller? 1/2hp has no problem keeping my ~130 gal cool.

 

[UCtestn]

I've run 10k with 1/2 HP chiller instead of 1HP. It's was fine.

Feel uncomfortable? have him show you the amp draw with an amp meter when it's done. Make sure everything is running and force the air on, even if you have to turn it to 50 degree to get a full read of how much power you pulling.

 

[mrdizzle]

you def dont need 6tons of AC for 10,000w, so that will save you some

 

[dentonland]

The load center your reading 125 amp means it can handle that .... but your breaker feeding your sub panel is what your real amount is. Make sure your using #2 wire for yourincoming feeders. Better to go with a wire thats able to upgrade. 1/0 would have room for upgrade... ITs pronounced one ot.. llike otter. And like Bobby mentioned you want to be at 80% max of your main. Your system will last longer

 

[weedfarm]

continuous loads are loads that run 3+ hours, like your lights, fans etc. AC's, pumps etc will be on and off so they wont fall under the 80% rule.

3 DH will be more than 10 amps. They are around 7A each. Look into a commercial DH or a Santa Fe, they are much more efficient

Every room is different as far as outside temps, insulation etc, but I think 3 AC's is overkill

What about veg?


I think you have some variables, but are on the border. Panels are cheap 100-200 for a 150A panel and mounting them is a snap. So at this point, with no wiring in the panel, it would be easy to swap out.

 

[Farmer Jon]

OHMS LAW says: Watts divided by volts= amps (remember to add 15% for safety)
FJ

 

[antimatter]

Probably over the 80% rule but it doesn't really matter as much as you would think. Run it and see if you have any hiccups.

 

[strictlyOG]

you will be fine. trust me. just make sure he uses proper wiring to handle all of that wattage so your house god forbid does not catch on fire.just remember safety first

 

[Mr.]

Thanks for the all the input. So the electrician convinced me that 100 amps is going to be enough to feed even 105 amps because of the wiring that he used. Supposedly if we have all the lights turn on only a few at a time then there is not much of a risk.

He is also going to splice the wires that were feeding 40 amps into the garage already and hook up 4 outlets in the grow room to that source! Which is awesome because I now have a little more room for upgrades and I am already starting off by adding one extra light.

I agree that 3 A/C's are overkill for only 10-12 lights, but I am not using any ducting, and it is a sealed environment with bare vertical bulbs. I bought 3 a/c's because in case one a/c had an issue or stopped working then I know that I can count on the other two to keep things cool until the hvac guy can come repair it. This also leaves me the option to add more lights later on. If I had purchased Friedrich a/c's then maybe I would feel ok with just 2, but I have Shinco's so I really wanted a back up.

I am not sure if the money saved by air cooling my lights is worth the intitial cost of cooltubes, ducting, time of installation, and more things in my way in the room. Come summer I won't be able to draw a cool air source through them and I will always have co2 going so i can't exhaust the inside air. It just seems pointless to try for my set up, maybe not but seems so.

 

[hiboy]

Make sure when he splices the wires from the 40 amps in the garage that he changes the breakers to the rated wire hes splicing with..