DIY grow box vs Fire

[nachomama]

For about one year I have watched , read and learned from all the DYI indoor growers here on 420 and on Youtube , looked at garbage grow boxes offered for sale for idiot amounts of money and also at YT videos of from horrible to totally awesome grow boxes .
BUT FIRE SCARES EVERYBODY !
My 1st question was , which Growbox material burns the easiest :
Metal , Wood , Plastic , Canvas Cloth , Cardboard . Well they all burn , get hot , disintegrate and add to a general house fire . Yes all of them . So Fires are here to stay whatever material you use . ( The only fire proof homes are made out of dirt , rock and water . )

My 2nd question : what causes most fires ? Oxygen and SPARKS cause MOST fire . Everybody in the MJ sites always say HEAT , well a 400 degree heat source will cook a nice steak . Sparks and oxygen and combustible materials all start most fires .

My 3rd question : What starts the sparks ? Electrical connections short out , spark and connect to a flammable surface with oxygen to start fires .
YOUR BOX electrical systems start fires NOT THE MATERIALS .

So my concensous was How the hell do I to prevent oxygen from accessing all electrical surfaces ( wiring ) .
How ?
You encase the wiring and cover the wired connections completely with fire resistant/proof silicon caulking .
No.... electrical tape is not good enough to use for this , it still allows sparks .
In the backs of the bulb sockets where the positive and negative wires are wired to the socket completly cover with silicon fireproof caulking . Cover evenly and remove ALL air from the connections .
ALL Fan, pump etc connections to wirings should be encased with caulking OVER the solder and elect tape .

I even am encasing the complete wiring system in my box ( wires ) with caulking to prevent sparks due to wire coating cracks .
NO SPARKS ALLOWED .

USE A POWER STRIP : When fans short out or a short occours the power strip will shut off before the wiring heats up .
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That's my opinion on hundreds of comments studied and videos looked at , oh by the way I melt metal for a living , yes metal burns . I am a Welder .

 

[Hosebomber]

Nachomama, while much of what you say is good general information you are incorrect in a number of areas. First and foremost, to get any type of metal to burn it needs to be beyond its melting point, same with most plastics. It is generally oxidation or a paint/chemical coating that burns not the metal itself. If the room or heat source is hot enough to cause the metal to burn, the room is probably already on fire. A spark by its self (even in the presence of oxygen up to a saturation point of ~60%) will not cause a fire. It requires a combustible material to be hit by the spark while in the presence of oxygen. Heat WILL cause a fire. Paper (most types) combustion occurs at ~412 degrees F, no spark required. House fires caused by grow rooms is often a combination of a number of things all happening at the same time. Mostly from poor wiring and drawing too much of a current, this causes the wall wiring to start the fire. This is not something that covering all of your connections in your grow room will fix. Another common factor is a hot HSP lamp falls from it's hanger, a oxygen enriched air source from poor venting, and a highly combustible material that the hot light fixture lands on.

Be very careful telling people to caulk electrical components. Not all caulks are dielectric and may actually cause the short you are trying to prevent. Likewise, when the caulk is applied it IS conductive and applying power to the component before it cures (cure times will be listed on the caulk) WILL cause a spark and a possible fire or electrocution.

 

[nibec]

always do things to code, and then some

if im wiring anything, i will always wire it with proper code aproved box's, connectors, and wires.

im im running my system on a 15 amp breaker, ill wire the whole system with 12 gauge, which is rated up to 20 amps.(max 41amps) that way, the breaker would trip 5 amps (550 watts) before the wire even hits max (safe) capacity.

this also means the wire wont get warm, hot wires = weaker rubber that isulates them , and if you go too low in wire rating, they may melt... a common issue with electric space heaters and starting fires actually.

if you go with connectors, box's and wires that are way overrated for your purpose, you dont run into these kind of problems. (the boxes also allow you to ground everything properly, therefore tripping the breaker before things were to short out and start shooting sparks.)

 

[PrairiePoet]

Most fires inside are caused by.......
Humans

We didn't wired it properly
We didn't have proper protection by using the proper materials
We didn't take our time and do a better than normal job of it
We didn't make sure heat sources are kept away from combustibles
We didn't do routine maintenance and check everything to make sure it hasn't degraded
We didn't invest enough to over engineer the project

The only time I've caulked wiring was in walls of fire protected vaults. Most fire regulations require you run power wiring in conduit in commercial settings, not a bad ideal in a grow room.

 

[nibec]

well, as an update, i almost had a bad situation...

it had nothing to do with my grow cab, but, here is some food for thought.

i had a breaker that would trip too easy.. i didnt really think too much of it, but.. i definetly should have.

last night, i got home, and went downstairs to do some laundy, and smelt burning electrical, and a loud humming/buzzing.

the kind of sound you hear when something is arcing out...

adreneline hit, and i ran towards where i heard it from.. It was coming from inside my breaker box... I ripped the door off it, to find a breaker with the switch vibrating around, and sparks shooting from it.. without thinking i grabbed the switch and flipped it off, which thankfully powered down the breaker as it should.

glad i didnt accidently electrocute myself, i probably should have grabbed some gloves before touching it, but, in panic mode, thats what happened.

next i went and bought a new breaker, and was going to install it, but, decided to give an electrician a call, to come in and look at it, as i have no idea what to look for.

he ran some tests on the box, and checked all my outlets hooked to that breaker etc, and found nothing wrong. But, he did say that this breaker, should have been replaced looong ago, when i first noticed it tripping under loads that it normally should take (set to trip at 1800, and was tripping around 1300. as he said, probably 10 more min of that, and the breaker itself probably would have melted and caught fire.

talk about good timing to do laundry.

so, if anyone else has weak breakers, learn from this, and get them replaced.

 

[Greenhouse250]

well, as an update, i almost had a bad situation...

it had nothing to do with my grow cab, but, here is some food for thought.

i had a breaker that would trip too easy.. i didnt really think too much of it, but.. i definetly should have.

last night, i got home, and went downstairs to do some laundy, and smelt burning electrical, and a loud humming/buzzing.

the kind of sound you hear when something is arcing out...

adreneline hit, and i ran towards where i heard it from.. It was coming from inside my breaker box... I ripped the door off it, to find a breaker with the switch vibrating around, and sparks shooting from it.. without thinking i grabbed the switch and flipped it off, which thankfully powered down the breaker as it should.

glad i didnt accidently electrocute myself, i probably should have grabbed some gloves before touching it, but, in panic mode, thats what happened.

next i went and bought a new breaker, and was going to install it, but, decided to give an electrician a call, to come in and look at it, as i have no idea what to look for.

he ran some tests on the box, and checked all my outlets hooked to that breaker etc, and found nothing wrong. But, he did say that this breaker, should have been replaced looong ago, when i first noticed it tripping under loads that it normally should take (set to trip at 1800, and was tripping around 1300. as he said, probably 10 more min of that, and the breaker itself probably would have melted and caught fire.

talk about good timing to do laundry.

so, if anyone else has weak breakers, learn from this, and get them replaced.

I had something similar happen to me. So the first time the breaker blew i thought i was the reason, was playing with my light mover. On/off on/off eventually the breaker popped never thought anything of it, turned it back on and all was good. Happened a few times after that then said to myself i'm going to stop now.

Well almost a year later i'm revamping the room and was using an electric pin nailer after two shots the breaker blew. I thought that was very strange? went to the box and flipped the breaker back on, nothing? I was very puzzled, so grabbed my plug tester and there was power but very little. Not enough to run anything. I decide to try and track this down opened all the plugs in the room and all the light boxes.

Nothing jump out at me so went and bought a voltage meter, well all that did was confuse me even further. The plug was reading something like 30volts.

Now i'm like WHAT THE FUCK?? Now i open the panel scratching my head for hours. Finally i found the problem, the ground to that breaker was completely loose and the wire had been arcing this whole time. The end of the wire was burnt and very brittle. I'm so glad that this issue was resolved and didn't burn the place up! My main concern when i was trying to resolve the problem was i did not want to hire an electrician, for obvious reasons.

 

[nibec]

that also means its probable that you were loosing a ton of power, and being billed for power you werent acutally using. , and me too.

im just glad it was caught before i went up in flames. cause 10 to 1, if something happened and there was a fire, it would be blamed on the grow cab. even though it wasnt even on the same breaker, and had nothing to do with it.

 

[Greenhouse250]

Seriously loosing power! Man that sucks bad. Well i won't tell wifey about that.lol So why would this cause the power loss? where did it go?lol I'm not very electrically knowledgeable. cheers

 

[nibec]

from your arcing ground. maybe not a LOT of power, but still a loss.

 

[HiTimes4Me]

AFCI & GFCI is always helpful for fire protection and electrocution...just a small insurance policy when Murphy's law kicks in...

 

[Robo Jester]

hAVE ANY OF YOU MADE USE OF marine FIRE EXTINGUISHERS?
tHE NORMALLY HAVE A PUG THAT (caps loc sorry) melts at a certain temp then discharges the whole thing at one. They keep them in the engine room of boats.

I was thinking one of those either mounted in the top of you cab or on the top could be a good insurance policy in case the worst happens.

Better to lose a crop than the house....or have the fire dept/popo snooping around.