Grow room electrical and general safety

[nivek]

i wonder whom might have input regarding electrical safety in our grow lab operations?

i, for one, am a heavy DIY fella, maybe i just like to see how efficiently and economically i can build a project, maybe i am frugal as all get out, or maybe i am one cheap cheapskate. whichever one i am, i still do not intentionally want to electrocute, poison myself, set my house or the neighbours house on fire or bring any attention to my lab at all, ever.

so i collect my supplies, used as much as possible and 'fit' and 'manipulate' the materials until they do what i require.

it's maybe important to mention i have handy man skills, but no more than the absolute basic electrical knowledge. i.e. i could hook up an electrical outlet maybe.

i also must say that i am a true rookie to all this indoor growing stuff and i am presently renovating my grow lab flower side, and as i renovate, and add lights, lots of lights, i have issues like heat and humidity that must be dealt with as well, which is more things to 'plug in', which got me thinking about safety and asking the 420 community their thoughts. i know there are a plethora of issues i have not come across, yet.

one can only imagine the possibly not so handy man attempts made to cultivate the beautiful weed. in the tiniest spaces, with the worst possible equipment. one would be foolish to think it is not happening,, maybe in your neighbours apartment or house.

so, using my 'logical' mind, i fabricated the following growing space and apparatus.

first off, all my electrical 'in'

i basically have two circuits,, the plug lower left and the red cord coming up from the lower right. each is from a different circuit. the wall plug circuit handles all of the lab room lighting, via the left top power bar, one cord to the veg side and one cord to the flower room. then via another power bar, all the lights are plugged in to it, with each four bulb fixture having it's own home built cord to the power bar

the other circuit, the red cord, handles all of the room peripherals, which i keep having to add to, including the humidifier, which i had to get peyton, thanks,,, the fans, the heaters for the whole studio, three of them and things i have yet to think of. suffice it to say, there is plenty of peripherals

 

[nivek]

the components for the lights are simple as shown,, properly connected of course, least my version of 'proper'.

i knot the cord so it does not pull through the back of the panel

the bulbs are two inches from the closest anything and that anything get's nothing more than slightly 'warm', though the room is now hotter, which is my next issue i will need to 'plug in' to solve

please chime in with your thoughts and ideas and concerns (for my safety), cheers, nivek

 

[Rifleman]

Looking good. Get a fan and move that air around.

 

[Highpotanoose]

You should mount those light fixtures to a metal junction box
So if it arcs at your joints it is inside a metal box and not on plywood

 

[nivek]

thanks folks, nice to know someone cares,, high, please, any way you could give some more info about your comment. is plastic Ok? any other safety issues you might be aware of? great stuff, cheer, nivek

 

[Highpotanoose]

thanks folks, nice to know someone cares,, high, please, any way you could give some more info about your comment. is plastic Ok? any other safety issues you might be aware of? great stuff, cheer, nivek

Those plastic boxes are fine they will contain the arching if it happens,
But if it was me I would get octagon metal boxes put romex connectors in them for the wire to pass through then mount my fixtures to those
Good luck

 

[Radogast]

I am most concerned about the heaters.

The draw from your lights is normal household draw.

Lots of heaters draw around 1200 watts(10 amps.)
Two or three 10 amp heaters on a single 15 amp circuit is more than the official rating of the supply wires and outlets.
When you add in whatever is on the other outlets... a bit scary.

So.... what is the rating of your heaters?

(Not an electrician here, but I have read the national electric code and handbook.
I had the luxury of installing dedicated 20 amp circuits and outlets back to the circuit box for my basement rooms.
I like the extra safety margin.)

 

[nivek]

apparently a lot of heaters draw 1500 watts too

 

[nivek]

terrific information radogast,, very useful. these are the issues that i need to work out, over time,, thanks for pointing that out. electrical just not my bag,, cheers, nivek

 

[Alienpus]

Other than octagon boxes for your lights the only thing that worries me is your orange extension cord. Many are 16AWG and rated 12Amps max for NON continuous loads, may not be your case but check the label if you haven't. Try to keep connections and extension cords to a minimum and as short as possible, they are notorious for resistance and voltage drops increasing amps and are a leading cause of fire. Especially with the heater, I would count up all the watts of everything to see just how many amps you are drawing through the cords.

Here is what the ESFI has to say about them: Extension Cord Safety Fact Sheet - ESFi :: Electrical Safety Foundation International

 

[Auggie]

Electricity scares the hell outta me. When I hit the switch, if the light doesn't work I change the light bulb. If that doesn't solve the problem I call an electrician. Electricity is magic. It is witchcraft. Every time I mess with it I pick myself up on the other side of the room. Some of the wattages we deal with will kill you - outright.
When I built out my room I hired an electrician to do wiring. Got his name from the guys at the grow store. He was licensed, professional and knowledgeable. We got high at the end of each day. He is now in my contacts as one of "my people".
Safety is something I don't compromise on. And electricity even more so.

~ Auggie ~

 

[nivek]

well, Ok then, terrific input, all of it, thank you so much. it has helped, is helping and will help even more as I progress with my grow lab construction and renovation. every inch is a work in progress and thenks to y'all things are definately progressing.

I love to hear the confirmation of important points, that is excellent. not that I don't. trust, well, you know.

might I ask a couple of q's? the red cable, is the warmth of the cable, while under load, any indication of its worth for this use? or lack of warmth?

the building itself has a 20 amp circuit, just additional info. the red cable is plugged into an outside circuit, but not the outside plugs circuit. just information

I would prefer to use plastic boxes for a weight issue only, but maybe metal not too heavy. I will see. the romex connectors, is their sole purpose to make sure the wires don't pull out? again, for weight purposes I would prefer to not use, but could

I don't. have any 'friends' to do this for me. I am cautious, hence the thread, but capable also

I am a bit limited as to what I can do about the red cord right now, thankfully things are warming up and with my flower room half finished, the lights keep things a bit warmer, so the heaters are not as busy. not much I can do for a bit except watch things much closer.

once more,, does the warmth of the cords tell any useful information, or lack thereof,

cheers friends, and thank you

 

[Alienpus]

well, Ok then, terrific input, all of it, thank you so much. it has helped, is helping and will help even more as I progress with my grow lab construction and renovation. every inch is a work in progress and thenks to y'all things are definately progressing.

I love to hear the confirmation of important points, that is excellent. not that I don't. trust, well, you know.

might I ask a couple of q's? the red cable, is the warmth of the cable, while under load, any indication of its worth for this use? or lack of warmth?

the building itself has a 20 amp circuit, just additional info. the red cable is plugged into an outside circuit, but not the outside plugs circuit. just information

I would prefer to use plastic boxes for a weight issue only, but maybe metal not too heavy. I will see. the romex connectors, is their sole purpose to make sure the wires don't pull out? again, for weight purposes I would prefer to not use, but could

I don't. have any 'friends' to do this for me. I am cautious, hence the thread, but capable also

I am a bit limited as to what I can do about the red cord right now, thankfully things are warming up and with my flower room half finished, the lights keep things a bit warmer, so the heaters are not as busy. not much I can do for a bit except watch things much closer.

once more,, does the warmth of the cords tell any useful information, or lack thereof,

cheers friends, and thank you

If you have an extension cord on a 20 amp circuit and it is not rated for 20 amps that is a fire hazard right there, it's possible to overload/melt the cord without tripping the breaker. I'm not saying it's going to happen, it's just possible, and to be up to code it has to be impossible. A warm cord means it's having trouble carrying the load, call it borderline, a cord that is warm enough that it feels less ridged or softer has to go fast. Keep in mind it can also be due to bad contact with the prongs in a loose outlet or any other splitters or power bars plugged into it. A cord that is cool can be considered as doing it's job, the shorter the cord the better.

Metal boxes weigh pretty much the same as plastic ones but are cheaper. If you buy the type on the left in my pic you don't need any connectors, if you buy the type on the right you need something similar to those three, the plastic ones weigh about a gram.

To be sure about your power consumption count up all your amps, it takes 5 minutes, here's how:

Watts = Volts x Amps........so that means that:
Volts = Watts / Amps.........and:
Amps = Watts / volts

Anything that has a ballast or transformer adds 10-15% Watts like HID's and CFL's, it's lost in heat from the ballast.

So if you have sixteen 23watt CFL bulbs, that's 368Watts + 55W (15%) = 425Watts
425Watts / 120Volts = 3.5Amps

A 100Watt fans uses .8 Amps ( 100Watts divided 120Volts )
A 1500W heater uses 12.5Amps and so on. So by looking at the labels you can convert everything to Amps or Watts, they usually list two of the three, if they only state Watts or Max Watts, you already know your household voltage.


While you are at it, if you convert to and count up all your watts you can count how much the power is costing you. If you look at your bill you are charged by kW/h, that is 1000Watts for one hour, here it's 0.07$. If you consume 2200Watts at a time, divided by 1000(kilo) = 2.2 kW/h multiplied by 0.07$ = 0.15$ hour

 

[nivek]

wow, the best electrical explanation i have ever seen, heard, read, anything. super, and thanks. much more to say later,, for now

a q please

on the light above,, there are four lights, and each has it's own cord and plug, plugged into a power bar,, is it better to connect the lights in pairs and have only two cords and plugs?? connected between the boxes i guess. how bout one plug and them all connected together? better still? properly connected of course

i am going to renovate this light, and want to connect the two to the left together and have just the one cord and plug for those 8 23 watt bulbs

peace, and thanks so very much for your help folks, alien esp. cheers

 

[Alienpus]

You are using 18guage lamp wire so you can wire them all in parallel (daisy chain) onto one plug, keeping them separate or in pairs is not an issue either.

 

[nivek]

thank you for the quick reply,, a quote from your first post, i think

'Try to keep connections and extension cords to a minimum and as short as possible, they are notorious for resistance and voltage drops increasing amps and are a leading cause of fire.'

for that reason, is having fewer cords better?

your quote above 'keeping them separate or in pairs is not an issue either. ' cords to a minimum and separate or pairs not an issue maybe contradict a bit, no? am i reading something wrong? i am really not trying to be difficult, just sure.

also, 16 gauge cord wire, bought that way on purpose. and if i daisy chain them, i connect all the boxes with pipes and run the wires through there?

you are extremely helpful, and i thank you

 

[Alienpus]

I was talking only about the lamp wiring. Keeping separate or in pairs was in reference to wiring the lights to one two or four plugs, none of these options is unsafe, there is also difference between an appliance and its plug vs an extension cord used to transport power. Yes fewer cords and connections is always better, if wiring your light to one plug permits you to remove an extension cord than do it. It's the longer ones and/or those that carry more power that are more important, you also want to minimize plugging one extension cord into another. If the top of your lights stays open like that you don't need conduit to run your wire.

 

[nivek]

thank you so much for the terrific input folks. i have done some rewiring and reworking of my veg light panel. installing metal octo boxes and re-configuring my wiring scheme

the old panel, taken apart, metal boxes in place

the pic shows three cords and plugs,,, i had a separate cord and plug for each light fixture,, now i have daisy chained all three lights together and have only one cord to plug in, instead of three, nice.

the cord is hanging there just to show only one, and lights are raised. i feel safer, thanks

all set up, nice and neat, less wires, cords and cables,, and with a bit of rearranging i was also able to eliminate the power bar the three cords were plugged into. the one cord now goes directly into the timer, like it should i guess.

eliminated : two lamp cords and one power bar.

two more panels to be constructed for my flower room, after the inspector comes to look,, cheers

 

[Alienpus]

That will do fine. So you dropped from four lights to three, I'm curious as to why.

Although in this particular case, just like a metal lamp base, a ground is not required for your metal boxes. In your future endeavors use three pronged plugs/wire and ground your metal.

You can use a few feet of inexpensive 14/2 AWG wire to parallel chain your boxes, and a good quality 3 strand extension cord type wire from the first box to a 3 prong plug, this way you are golden.

Often people don't have the feel for the wire nuts, so I like to see them taped to the wire with electrical tape also, keeps things isolated in case of a loose or bad nut.

 

[nivek]

ok then, terrific. all of the adjustments you suggest are simple to understand, and relatively simple to do. great info, get's me where I need to be, thank you.

this panel is my veg panel, the panel you are refering to with four lights is my flower panel. which I will be renovating now, as per your instructions, then I will go back and re do the first one, again, as per your instructions. then I will build one more slightly larger panel for my lower level flower area. guess what.,,, as per your instructions.

my main concern is exactly as mentioned, insurance

cheers to you and your master, niv