2x400watt HPS require special wiring?

[chemicalcomfort]

If I'm planning on hooking up 2 400watt HPS lights (along with 6 100w CFL's), will I have to worry about wiring? In some of the videos and things I've seen, people wire up their own gray boxes and stuff.

Originally I was just gonna plug em in, but I'm having second thoughts, despite how uncomfortable I am with electricity. What do you guys think?

[knoxis]

Um... do you have ballasts for the lights? need to wire them properly...

[chemicalcomfort]

Originally Posted by knoxis

Um... do you have ballasts for the lights? need to wire them properly...

I'm referring more specifically to running a separate power line so as not to overload the outlets in the room, not wiring up the actual ballast.

im not sure what amps the lights are rated at, but I was pretty sure you're not supposed to draw more than 20 amps from a single outlet. I'm not certain though. Anyone?

[myles117]

I run two 150 watt CFLs, two four foot four bulb t5 lights and 5 fans to keep the air movin, an a/c, and air pumps on one circuit. With that much running, I had the circuit breaker trip every once in a while in the summer. I switched out the 15 amp breaker with a 20 and its been fine but I wouldn't use more then that without its own, higher amp circuit with a thicker gauge wire. You should probli create one since you have two 400 watters plus the high wattage flouros. Thats more then I have and I wouldn't use more then I am without a new one. Hope this helps, I'm not great with electricity so I can't tell you how you would go about doing it.

[knoxis]

Well Im not an electrical guru but I know enough to usually figure out my own problems. This is what I did before I started growing...

Before I started growing to see how much of my grow room was on the same circuit I went and flipped the breaker to my bedroom, I have a grow closet. I went around and checked wich outlets were on the circuit and then did a quick guess how much power I was running... Luckily I wasn't running much normally so I just wired everything up in my cabinet run it out of the closet and plug it into the wall, works fine.

But something like 15-20 amps per circuit before it trips. There are pretty easy formulas to figure out how much electricity you are using if you look them up. For example your using a 400 watt grow light and six 100 watt cfls so your pulling 1000 watts of light. Simply "Amps = Watts/Volts" So 1000watts/115-120(normal light range?) so 1000/115 is like 8.7 amps? Thats not including the fans or anything else... apply this formula to whatever else you use, and gives you a rough idea?

[chemicalcomfort]

oh ok, cool. thanks to both you guys. That really helped me out and get a better idea of what I'm looking at. I'll take a peak at the circuit breakers tomorrow and see what I can see. I'll also see what all it would take to run a new circuit. The circuit breaker box is on the the other side of the wall of the grow room so I can't see that it would be incredibly difficult. But I'll need to check out exactly what that entails.

Thanks again

edit: I found a nice DIY link to wiring up your 120v 20 amp circuit for anyone interested http://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-de...-new-120v.html. There's a bunch others online you just gotta find em.

[chemicalcomfort]

Ok so I played around with the circuit breakers this morning and determined the whole room is on the same circuit which also happens to power the swamp cooler. bleh so not good.

however after I did a bunch of reading last night I determined it wouldn't be that daunting of a task to run a new circuit, especially considering how close the main panel is to the grow room.

thanks again to you guys who replied, you really helped me out.

[myles117]

np, best of luck running the new curcuit. I'm three stories away from my Circuit box haha. Maybe if I get realllly ambitous one day.... nah not gonna happen.