Electricity

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Myzz617

New Member
Does anyone here have any expertise on this topic? The grow I intent on doing is going to be less than 2000w. I want to have a veg and flower method going as well as having a mother plant and clones. Trick is I have one outlet that is close to my closet and one that is outside of my room that is not being used that i could potentially use by running a power cord from. Take a look at the last page of my 420 grow help forum. Basically I want to run a 15AMP (if possible or maybe less) power strip from the one outlet. Then connect surge protectors (daisy chain) and have that as my setup rather than adding another circuit to the box as i live in an apt. Any help is appreciated, i suppose you dont need to be an expert electrician to ans this.

Edit

Grow help forum Help with 4 X 4 Grow area setup. Pics at bottom
 
2000 watts is pushing a 15 amp breaker and if you are in an apartment then there is surely something else on that circuit. Cut the breaker off and see what goes dead.
 
2000 watts pulls over 18 amps so that will blow the 15 amp breaker. Do a google search on watts to amps and look at one of the calculators.
 
Myzz617 said:
Does anyone here have any expertise on this topic? The grow I intent on doing is going to be less than 2000w. I want to have a veg and flower method going as well as having a mother plant and clones. Trick is I have one outlet that is close to my closet and one that is outside of my room that is not being used that i could potentially use by running a power cord from. Take a look at the last page of my 420 grow help forum. Basically I want to run a 15AMP (if possible or maybe less) power strip from the one outlet. Then connect surge protectors (daisy chain) and have that as my setup rather than adding another circuit to the box as i live in an apt. Any help is appreciated, i suppose you dont need to be an expert electrician to ans this.

Edit

Grow help forum Help with 4 X 4 Grow area setup. Pics at bottom
Click to expand...

First thing you want to do is find out if the two plugs are on different breakers. If they are on the same breaker then you only have that breakers amps....usually 15 amps...if you only have that then I suggest running a 150-200w mh for veg with some fluro's for clones and a 600w hps for flower and that will leave a some room for fans and pumps. I would not exceed 1500w.
 
ledtester said:
First thing you want to do is find out if the two plugs are on different breakers. If they are on the same breaker then you only have that breakers amps....usually 15 amps...if you only have that then I suggest running a 150-200w mh for veg with some fluro's for clones and a 600w hps for flower and that will leave a some room for fans and pumps. I would not exceed 1500w.
Click to expand...

Cool, the two plugs are on different breakers. My room is all on one breaker and the outlet outside of my room is on the kitchen breaker. The only thing running in the kitchen is the fridge. Other than that no more current should be running on that breaker for at least 10hrs of the day. In my room I have a TV, PS3 a few computers and a surround sound system but all that is off during the day and most of the night until i get home. I have not put it my AC yet but along with the lights that is the only thing that will be running most of the day. So while the circuits are not in use I would say I have about 11amps on the kitchen and 15 or so within my room? So would a 12-15 AMP power strip such as Amazon: Tripp Lite PS4816 16-Outlet Power Strip (15-Amp, 15-Foot Cord) be efficient enough to run Airpump, Waterpump, 800W of cfl, 400w HPS with 200-300w of cfl for flower and my AC and a few fans? Sorry I have not had the time to add up the amps or I would not be asking. If needed I would buy a 15amp power strip for my room and a 10amp or so one from the kitchen circuit and that would be plenty?

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Thanks in Advance
 
Myzz617 said:
Cool, the two plugs are on different breakers. My room is all on one breaker and the outlet outside of my room is on the kitchen breaker. The only thing running in the kitchen is the fridge. Other than that no more current should be running on that breaker for at least 10hrs of the day. In my room I have a TV, PS3 a few computers and a surround sound system but all that is off during the day and most of the night until i get home. I have not put it my AC yet but along with the lights that is the only thing that will be running most of the day. So while the circuits are not in use I would say I have about 11amps on the kitchen and 15 or so within my room? So would a 12-15 AMP power strip such as Amazon: Tripp Lite PS4816 16-Outlet Power Strip (15-Amp, 15-Foot Cord) be efficient enough to run Airpump, Waterpump, 800W of cfl, 400w HPS with 200-300w of cfl for flower and my AC and a few fans? Sorry I have not had the time to add up the amps or I would not be asking. If needed I would buy a 15amp power strip for my room and a 10amp or so one from the kitchen circuit and that would be plenty?

Thanks in Advance
Click to expand...

Not a chance brother, I would not exceed 1500 watts total and your A/C will use that alone. And you want to use that just in lights too...I wouldn't put more then 750w on each breaker since you have things on them already. Now if you moved back home and there was no power usage then that's a different story...most apartments have 60amps...30 for the stove and 30 for the rest of the place. if you we're not using any other power then what you want to do is ok but you are so you can only use half.
 
ledtester said:
Not a chance brother, I would not exceed 1500 watts total and your A/C will use that alone. And you want to use that just in lights too...I wouldn't put more then 750w on each breaker since you have things on them already. Now if you moved back home and there was no power usage then that's a different story...most apartments have 60amps...30 for the stove and 30 for the rest of the place. if you we're not using any other power then what you want to do is ok but you are so you can only use half.
Click to expand...

So what if i unplug the stove? We barely use it and spring/summer is around the corner. I will be moving in october so I am not sure if i want to go out of my way to hire someone to add another breaker and outlet in my closet.

Also Since I am not using the TV or other electronics in my room I will unplug everything except router and modem. Other than that and my clock there should be nothing else running on my rooms circuit. Would it be worth the time and money to add two breakers to my panel? There are bout 6 open slots, 15 or so total and 11 wired circuits.
 
Myzz617 said:
So what if i unplug the stove? We barely use it and spring/summer is around the corner. I will be moving in october so I am not sure if i want to go out of my way to hire someone to add another breaker and outlet in my closet.
Click to expand...

Is it an electric range? If so, it will be 240 volts. There are some possibilties here...
 
Myzz617 said:
So what if i unplug the stove? We barely use it and spring/summer is around the corner. I will be moving in october so I am not sure if i want to go out of my way to hire someone to add another breaker and outlet in my closet.

Also Since I am not using the TV or other electronics in my room I will unplug everything except router and modem. Other than that and my clock there should be nothing else running on my rooms circuit. Would it be worth the time and money to add two breakers to my panel? There are bout 6 open slots, 15 or so total and 11 wired circuits.
Click to expand...


You can't just add more breakers if you don't have the power coming in....What do you mean by 11 wired circuits? You have 11 different breakers in the panel?..If you dont use the stove then that will free up 30 amps and allow you to put two more 15 amp breakers in the board and then you can run what you want.
 
ledtester said:
You can't just add more breakers if you don't have the power coming in....What do you mean by 11 wired circuits? You have 11 different breakers in the panel?..If you dont use the stove then that will free up 30 amps and allow you to put two more 15 amp breakers in the board and then you can run what you want.
Click to expand...

Sorry, that is what i meant 11 wired breakers in the panel total. Would you suggest that I unplug stove and use the two outlets I have which are both on seperate circuits? Or should I go with adding two more breakers to the panel and designate them for my 420 grow?
 
Get a cord with a plug that matches your stoves receptical, buy a small 2 circuit breaker box and two 15 amp breakers, then do a google search on how to wire it up and you are good to go. You will have 3 maybe 4 wires in the cord, the 2 hots will go to the lugs that are attached to the metal plates that the breakers clamp onto you will have two different metal plates. The 3rd wire or nutral will probably be the center wire on a 3 wire cord. You will need to connect it to the grounding bar along with any green wires that may happen to be sticking out of the cord (4th wire). get some screws and a board and mount all your gear on the board. Buy one two gang box (a box that holds 2 separate household recepticals), two regular recepticals and a cover for the box and your in biz.
 
Thats a lot of work plus I have no idea what I would be doing. I have like two friends that know how to wire sh!t. I will look into it but if I think its too much in the end i will have someone that knows what they are doing rig it. PLus I might be moving before the yr is over.
 
Myzz617 said:
That is a nice find I must admit. 350 is not a bad price but would it be cheaper to get an electrician to just wire two breakers?
Click to expand...

Adding breakers is the easy part. Adding circuits is where the work is. And whatever you install stays when you leave....:grinjoint:
 
Hogdady said:
Adding breakers is the easy part. Adding circuits is where the work is. And whatever you install stays when you leave....:grinjoint:
Click to expand...

Ok, I honestly dont want to do it myself. I am a professional when it comes to computers but electricity can kill you and I dont want to burn down the house either. Sucks trying to figure out am efficient way to start my grow. I think I will just unplug the stove and run a wire from a outlet in the kitchen and a wire from an outlet in my room. If i can get two breakers with the circuits wired for under 150 then i might just do that. I have been looking into school for an electrician license just in case for the future. For now I want to keep it simple rather than wiring my own sh!t and risking messing something up.
 
OilFieldTrash said:
2000 watts pulls over 18 amps so that will blow the 15 amp breaker. Do a google search on watts to amps and look at one of the calculators.
Click to expand...

Hogdady said:
Your electrical loads will exceed the capacity of 2-15 amp circuits....
Click to expand...

So if I have less than 2000w total running on seperate circuits, say about 1000w each your saying that is too much for one circuit? Better yet what would be my best bet for the current setup I have? I want to veg and flower while having a mother plant and a few clones or seedlings. Am i better off just trying to focus on just vegging or flowering with the mother plant and clones? always a Dilemma trying to figure things out. I have all the cash bout 2K ready to buy my growing equipment just need to make sure everything has been planned accordingly.
 
First you need to make sure that the breakers for the circuits you intend on using are 15 amp breakers. If they are (they should be), than you need to limit the load on that circuit to 12 amps (1kw). I would imagine that your a/c is close to that, if not more. By adding up the lamp loads you've chosen, you have close to 1500 watts. You either need to reduce your loads or add another circuit.
 

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