Clone, Veg & Flower Room Setup - Help Needed!

[Chazmaster]

Hi Guys,

I have some experience in growing a few plants in a small grow space (hydroponics RWDC), but me and a few guys are considering scaling up our operation.

We are planning on having a clone area with a dedicated veg and a dedicated flower room (Hydroponics RWDC)

Both the Veg & Flower room will be 2.4metre squared tents - with 16 pots in each. Each tent will have 4 lights. 4x400MH in the Veg and 4x600HPS in the flower. I can upload a picture if anyone wants to see the layout. There will be a carbon filter running along with 2 inline fans taking out the hot air from the lights.

The idea is that when we harvest the plants from the flower room, we have plants from the veg room going straight into flowering and cuttings from the clone area going straight into vegging, does this seem fine so far? After the initial cycle im thinking we can get a harvest every 8 weeks? is this right? I normally pull 5 ounces of a plant so im also thinking this will bring in approx. 80 ounces per yield

Now the problem im having is getting my head around the electrics/circuits - what do I need to do in order for this to run without any problems? Im pretty clueless when it comes to amps, ballasts, conductors, breakers etc. So any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm also thinking I will need to get an electrician in to set this up. Also what kind of cost will the electric be through the meter? Will the power company notice the wattage of having 8 lights running?

Many Thanks in advance.

 

[Specialists]

I can help you with the math! I'm not sure if the power company will notice the extra power consumption, though... I think it might depend greatly on the power company itself. Anyways, lets say you ran the lights for 24 hours a day, you would consume 96 kw (kilowatts) per day, which is roughly an extra 2880 kilo-watts per month on your electric bill. Assuming you pay around 12 cents per kw/h (kilowatt per hour), that works out to an extra $345.60 on your electric bill, per month.

Just for fun, lets do the same thing, however, lets change it to 18 hours a day. 18/6 is supposed to better anyways, right? That would be 72 kw a day, an extra 2160 kw per month. At 12 cents, that works out to an extra $259.20 per month. I have no idea if an electric company would notice such a change... but that seems like a hell of a change to me....

Also, on the electrician part... you would be consuming about 4000 watts of electricity if you have all lights running at the same time. We know your house voltage is roughly 120 volts. So we can work out that you are drawing about 33.3 amps if you hooked all those lights into 1 outlet/circuit. This will absolutely blow any breaker in your house, and could set fires. If you don't have any idea what any of this means you should probably either educate yourself, or find someone to get your lights going for you. I hope I don't sound degrading there, I'm just trying to show that you are drawing a TON of electricity... You should take all the precautionary steps before dumping money into a project that catches your grow area on fire. Also, this math only includes your lights...

Hope this helps! If you have any follow up questions, just ask! GOOD LUCK!

 

[Specialists]

You would need at least four direct lines from the breaker box to the grow area with nothing but grow equipment attached to them... the toaster upstairs would risk blowing a breaker if it were on the same circuit as two of those 600 watt lights. Hope this puts things into perspective for you.

 

[Chazmaster]

Good day Specialists,

Many thanks for your feedback, much appreciated.

First and foremost I want to keep myself and others around me safe and secondly, to produce amazing bud!

The bills/math don't really concern me tbh, I can live with the costs, the only concern is any probing by the power company, but according to most, as long as your paying the bills and not complaining, then all is well.

After digging around would I be right in going for a 4 way relay contactor for each tent? (4KW - taking upto 1KW per light) The relay would take the 4 lights and then double wall socket would take the timer and relay plug?

All other appliances will use other sockets, some may have to be created im thinking?

Thanks again for your input.
Chaz