Electrical concerns

[WanderingSoul]

Seen the subject touched in elsewhere but i still had a few questions.
Will be setting my first grow room and want to plan ahead. Eventually as i grow more experienced i would like to run 3 600hps, 400mh and all the pumps, timers that go along with it.
My question is; how would you break down the circuits? 3 15 amp lines? 3 20 amps?
My space is bare, so i can build it exactly the way i want it worth no shortcuts needed.

 

[Graytail]

Most lights will run on 240V too, so I'd suggest running a line for that. 240V is a little more energy efficient. It can also be broken into two 120 circuits - lotsa flexibility. If you run a 10-3 gauge line, you'll have 30 amps at 240V, or two 30 amp 120s. That's two lines at 3600 watts each, or one 240V at 7200 watts.

Add a couple 15 amp 120V, and that's all you should need.

 

[WanderingSoul]

Thank you for your help Graytail.

 

[Graytail]

You're welcome.

Now that I've thought about it a bit ... you want three lights at 600 watts for 1800 watts. That's 5 amps each at 120V, or 15 total. So you could run them all on one 20 amp 120V. I'd want more flexibility, so I'd run more lines, but there probably isn't a good reason to go with 30 amps.

Maybe just run three 12-3s? That'd give you one 240V and four 120V, all 20 amps. You could easily run all the lights on the 240V. Makes everything simple, too - same breakers, same cable, same outlets, etc.



[Edit] I just remembered that hps runs more like 680 watts draw, so you can't run three on a 20 amp 120V. Two is the max for a 15 or a 20.

 

[WanderingSoul]

That's what i was wondering.
Read on a IEEE forum that a 15 amp line is actually rated for 1440 watts, but you lose 20% if it is a continous draw.