Very long question bout power

A

Alexthedragn

New Member
So im about to start a grow op, stay with me on this. im going to be using 300 1000w HPS lamps with 300 ballasts of course this includes all the goodies that go with it. IE reflectors/bulbs. my problem however is that i have 208 amps to use. im wondering if i even have enough. and if i dont how much more power would i need to be able to do this. and after that i would still need power for the vents and filtration the fans and all the other good stuff. but having 300 lights runnin 24/7 seems daunting. pretty much what im askin is how much im going to need to be safe and still have some power to play around with.
 
No. not even close.
 
Is this a real question?
 
Well then you will need about 2,500 amps.
 
Ah i assumed 120v.

A watt = voltage * amps. you want to run 300,000w = 208v * amps
 
It come out to 1440ish amps. Which is a lot. It will require an electrician.
 
If you are going to attempt 300 lamps than an electrician is definitely in order( I am one) to determine your amperage take the wattage of the device and divide it by the voltage ( almost all home are 120/240v). Commercial buildings will typical have 120/208v single or 3 phase. So 1000w light running on 208v is going to draw a tad under 5 amps per light, the same lamps running on 120v will draw roughly 9 amps. If you wanted them all to turn on at the same time you'd also have to have a contactor installed because youll be hard pressed to find a switch or time clock to handle any more than say 6 lights.
 
1000 watt lamp needs about 9 amps (rule of thumb here) - the average home owner with 15 amp circuits needed to know this - as the 15 amp breaker will trip at 80% or higher amp loads.

9 amps x 300 = 2,700 amps drawn (considering 120v as well) also consider - you will have about 1500000 BTUs of heat to move lol...

I am sure others can come up with similar math, but you get the idea of why others may not be sure you are serious. You are talking about industrial scale of a grow. The biggest I seen had 30 1000 lamps..

Would that be correct to say that (if 1000 watt lamp draws 1100 watts of power) you would be needing
330,000 watts? (300 x 1100 watts) or 330kw.
Considering the rate of kw they charge here - you are looking at a $7,500 a month electric bill.
I have not even considered the inline fans, oscillating fans, pumps, and heating and cooling.

DN
 
DigitalNomad said:
1000 watt lamp needs about 9 amps (rule of thumb here) - the average home owner with 15 amp circuits needed to know this - as the 15 amp breaker will trip at 80% or higher amp loads.

9 amps x 300 = 2,700 amps drawn (considering 120v as well) also consider - you will have about 1500000 BTUs of heat to move lol...

I am sure others can come up with similar math, but you get the idea of why others may not be sure you are serious. You are talking about industrial scale of a grow. The biggest I seen had 30 1000 lamps..

Would that be correct to say that (if 1000 watt lamp draws 1100 watts of power) you would be needing
330,000 watts? (300 x 1100 watts) or 330kw.
Considering the rate of kw they charge here - you are looking at a $7,500 a month electric bill.
I have not even considered the inline fans, oscillating fans, pumps, and heating and cooling.

DN
Click to expand...



ya so 5000 sqft lot size. moving that much heat in that much space shouldnt be too hard. 300 lamps with all its goodies will have to be considered. so lets double the lights to include everything else that might go with it. 208v 3phase is what i have inside of the base now. "i call it the base". i need to know how much it would cost me to run everything i would need. by that meaning how much money i would approx. have to burn to get this done from what i have to now. thanks so much guys for the replys. i didnt think no one would see this lol
 
well, I guess one would have to sit down and put it on paper. I think for the most part 1000 watt lights I have seen were spaced about 2-4 foot apart (measuring outside the frame of the aircooled light), connected in series with duct work. The gap of 2-4' was still ok to provide lighting to the plants. Remember the goal of minimum of 10,000 lumens - the 1000 watter gives you several feet of usable light.

Your design has to consider vegging and flowering as separate rooms on different times - I assume those will be HID lights too.
So cut that 5000 sq ft for at least 1000 sq ft for a vegging room, with its own lights and ballast - 18 hours on, 6 off (you try to run most of the electricity during off peak hours). This room could use 600 watters instead of 1000 watters. Vegging plants don't need as much lumens.

Then you need processing and drying space - it has to be a room off the main room - you want to keep drying buds in its own environment and keep your grow clean from leaves and trim. so maybe a 500 sq ft space, room - consider a electrical trimmer machine, dehumidifier.

The flowering room is now about 3,500 sq ft. You could mix some 600 watters, some strains are shorter and smaller. One member posted here - you have to design the electrical panel to account for all those lights switching on at once - the lights should come on in sequence so there is no major electrical draw with all the lights timed at once. You will be using several 10" or 12" inline fans to pull the heat from the aircooled lights, have several large oscillating fans.

once you put all this on paper showing its layout - an electrician can begin to calculate the circuit draws and amps - each circuit from the electrical panel can be planned out for what will be on it. He can design the timer panel or bank of relays to switch on your lights in a orderly manner. This design is also what you would sign off on to get the job done - your needs are clearly marked on paper.

I have seen smaller grows with less lights that had $10,000 electric bills. Those that 'went all in, go big!" have sometimes lost out because they went too big too fast. They needed more 'farmers' on hand, they panic and overgrow/crowd, get pest (now its not medical grade $4,000 lb stuff, its commercial shit), they even sell dope to strangers to pay the bills and get busted. You need to make sure you got enough skilled people on hand to see this operation work.

No, not me - I am retired ; )

DN
 
DigitalNomad said:
well, I guess one would have to sit down and put it on paper. I think for the most part 1000 watt lights I have seen were spaced about 2-4 foot apart (measuring outside the frame of the aircooled light), connected in series with duct work. The gap of 2-4' was still ok to provide lighting to the plants. Remember the goal of minimum of 10,000 lumens - the 1000 watter gives you several feet of usable light.

Your design has to consider vegging and flowering as separate rooms on different times - I assume those will be HID lights too.
So cut that 5000 sq ft for at least 1000 sq ft for a vegging room, with its own lights and ballast - 18 hours on, 6 off (you try to run most of the electricity during off peak hours). This room could use 600 watters instead of 1000 watters. Vegging plants don't need as much lumens.

Then you need processing and drying space - it has to be a room off the main room - you want to keep drying buds in its own environment and keep your grow clean from leaves and trim. so maybe a 500 sq ft space, room - consider a electrical trimmer machine, dehumidifier.

The flowering room is now about 3,500 sq ft. You could mix some 600 watters, some strains are shorter and smaller. One member posted here - you have to design the electrical panel to account for all those lights switching on at once - the lights should come on in sequence so there is no major electrical draw with all the lights timed at once. You will be using several 10" or 12" inline fans to pull the heat from the aircooled lights, have several large oscillating fans.

once you put all this on paper showing its layout - an electrician can begin to calculate the circuit draws and amps - each circuit from the electrical panel can be planned out for what will be on it. He can design the timer panel or bank of relays to switch on your lights in a orderly manner. This design is also what you would sign off on to get the job done - your needs are clearly marked on paper.

I have seen smaller grows with less lights that had $10,000 electric bills. Those that 'went all in, go big!" have sometimes lost out because they went too big too fast. They needed more 'farmers' on hand, they panic and overgrow/crowd, get pest (now its not medical grade $4,000 lb stuff, its commercial shit), they even sell dope to strangers to pay the bills and get busted. You need to make sure you got enough skilled people on hand to see this operation work.

No, not me - I am retired ; )

DN
Click to expand...



you sir deserve a fuckin cookie.

so heres what im playin with. i have about 7k sqft now for a canopy space. im thinkin 5k of that will be grow. 500 sqft for the dry (though it will probably be 1000sqft just cause theres room) and 1000sqft for the veg rooms. iv got about 4 guys on this project of mine. the electrician should be here in a few days to draw the plans for the electrical. thank you so much for all the advice your frickin awesome. my buddy recommended these bulbs for my HPS lights that had the spectrums for veging and flowering. so i didnt have to use different lights for my vegging and my flowering rooms. but they were super spendy when its not even a benefit for the plants. do you have a recommendation for some good bulbs? these are the bulbs in question

Ultra Sun® HPS Lamps | Sunlight Supply

thanks so much again for all the help.
 
right on man ; )

I try to stick with brands I know - your buddy picked out a nice low priced bulb -

I tend to go to the premium side - https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop/bycategory/lamps/hortilux-super-hps-high-pressure-sodium-lamp
I have been using lumatek bulbs exclusively - https://www.sunlightsupply.com/shop/bycategory/lamps/lumatek-lamps

but also consider that these bulbs have to be replaced every 8 months, so you want a good price.

No need to mix MH and HPS, many grows simply used HPS in all stages. Fluorescent for clones and some vegging.

I guess in a nut shell most bulbs are the same - as long as they were intended for plants with plant PAR in mind.

remember to avoid using the dimmer feature on the ballast - it can throw off the color spectrum the bulb was designed to emit at proper temp and wattage.

consider florescent or 600 watt HID for the vegging room.

DN
 
do keep me updated, I would like to see more details on this plan - this plan is not outrageous when you consider that dispensaries in Co can grow up to 3,600 plants (for both medical and recreational use - that's COLORADO!) (1,800 was the plant count for medical use only in CO).

DN
 
DigitalNomad said:
do keep me updated, I would like to see more details on this plan - this plan is not outrageous when you consider that dispensaries in Co can grow up to 3,600 plants (for both medical and recreational use - that's COLORADO!) (1,800 was the plant count for medical use only in CO).

DN
Click to expand...

ya im in washington state :) finally legal here too. ill make sure to keep postin back. ill probably start another thread soon for my journal. i hate making mistakes so detailed reports will be posted. hopefully i get as awesome feedback as what you have been giving me

thanks :)
 
That bulb looks like a flowering specific bulb that you mentioned. It will work for veg, but if you already have to buy a bulb anyways for the separate room I would recommend a metal halide. You will get leafier vegged up plants and the nodes will be a little tighter. But that also really depends on the type of system you will be running for all your plants... hydro or soil and how long you will keep your plants in veg. Like digital nomad said t5 is used for some veg systems and would be fine if you were looking for a short term veg for sog style growing.

Also not sure if you considered practicing with just one or two plants in a small scale before you commit to a full warehouse.
 

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