Electricity usage, wiring, saftey, and YOU!

[bakedchef]

How's it going everyone, i recently bought an inline 4 in fan but it has no watt info on it, the only thing it says is 120 VAC/ 60 Hz .3 amps. from this how do i calculate watts.

Thanks for the help.

[13ronin]

the 120 is the voltage. the .3 is your amps. so...

120 x .3= ?watts

[¿Кактебязовут?]

Good post man, it probably should also be in beginners but it is great advice for all types of growers.

[¿Кактебязовут?]

Originally Posted by 13ronin

the 120 is the voltage. the .3 is your amps. so...

120 x .3= ?watts

Thats right man... so you'd have 36 watts being used.

Off this subject thier is something he should have mentioned. Most outlets are wired to a 15 amp circut breaker. This means that they should have no more then 15 amps running to them; you could have them upgraded.

[13ronin]

Originally Posted by ¿Кактебязовут?

Thats right man... so you'd have 36 watts being used.

Off this subject thier is something he should have mentioned. Most outlets are wired to a 15 amp circut breaker. This means that they should have no more then 15 amps running to them; you could have them upgraded.

Ya. This has been mentioned in the thread, I've just been lazy and haven't updated lately. Thanks for stopping by though!

[bakedchef]

Thanks a lot fellas I thought it had been mentioned to but the VAC thing tricked me.

[13ronin]

No prob. VAC stands for Volts Alternating Current. In other words, what's in your house. VDC would be Volts Direct Current which is what you get from a battery. GL!

[stonedK1982]

thank you for creating this sticky. As an electrician I have seen far too many shoddy setups for grow rooms. Some downright scary. I have to say safety should be high up on your priority list when setting up a grow room. Please people electricity is not something to fuck around with. Be safe and make sure your wiring is up to code and clean.

[stonedK1982]

Originally Posted by ¿Кактебязовут?

Thats right man... so you'd have 36 watts being used.

Off this subject thier is something he should have mentioned. Most outlets are wired to a 15 amp circut breaker. This means that they should have no more then 15 amps running to them; you could have them upgraded.

If you are going to upgrade your outlets and breakers to 20 amp You will also want to have your wiring replaced as most residential outlet circuits are usually run with 14 guage wire. For a 20 amp circuit you will need to run rated wire for that which is 12 guage. 14 guage poses a fire hizard. Also breakers ideally can only handle around 80 percent of the marked load meaning if you have a 15 amp circuit and if you pull between 14-15 amps out of it, it should trip out if it is working correctly. For anyone planning to do their own electrical work I would suggest getting a copy of the NEC or National Electrical Code. Or an Ugly's electrician's handbook.

[stonedK1982]

Originally Posted by sccardslax05

I have been looking to putting in a bathroom exhaust fan to exhaust my grow closet. I know that there is some basic wiring involved but i think i can get a handle on that. what i want to know is, should i run the fan to the main breaker of the house and possibly split a breaker already on the main circuit or how should i go about doing this. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

If you are talking about wiring to the main breaker which in residential cases is usually marked as either 100 or 200 amp then NO! You should never connect any type of household wiring directly to the main breaker ever. Ideally what you should do is run a new circuit out from the panel to a switch in an approved box and a line from the switch to the fan. For a bath fan you can use a 15 amp breaker, a 15 amp single pole switch(standard residential switch), and 14 guage wire as the fan itself doesn't draw anywhere near the max rating for the size breaker/wire. However as mentioned earlier your best bet may just be to wire in a cord and just plug it into an outlet when you want to run it. Make sure your connections are good if you are going to do this yourself. Also if you have bolt on breakers and you have to put a breaker in make sure you A)turn off the main breaker b)use an insulated screwdriver like a Klein screwdriver and C) keep in mind that even with the main breaker off there are still live parts in the panel(the line in from the meter to the main breaker). If you are just connecting to a breaker that is already in the panel just make sure the breaker is in the off position before you wire it in. I would suggest hooking up in this order. the ground(the green or bare copper wire) to the ground bar followed by the neutral(white wire) to the neutral bar, and then the hot(black wire) to the breaker. There are other easier options than this but I don't know how your house or your growroom is run electrically so. I'm assuming that your outlets in your growroom are in use by lights or whatever else. However if I was you and you ever plan on expanding your operation I would forget the 15amp crap and just run a new circuit out to a switch box for 20 amps. (just change all the equipment I stated above to equipment rated for 20 amps like instead of 14 guage wire use 12 guage wire) That way if you ever need a little extra power in your room you could always tie into your line in from the panel to your switch box to another outlet or switch. Just my two cents. Just be careful when working around live parts.

[stonedK1982]

Originally Posted by loadman

Hello I am a little confused. I recently decided to take the leap. My question is this: need to hook up something thats meant to be hard wired. Can I hook up a heavy duty grounded plug and just plug it in? Its a 340 cfm panasonic whisperline inline fan. Thank you for all the useful info! Also will a 600w make more heat than a 400w using radiant ac with lens and constant ventilation? Can I keep it as close?

Yes you can hook up a wire with a male grounded plug end. I did a little research and the 340 cfm whisperline inline fan only draw about 1 amp so you can just get the cheap 15 amp male cord end. Just make sure all your connections are good.

[ricard0]

Hey ronin, looks like we've got another sparky to help man the thread.

Welcome to GC stonedK1982, and thanx for contributing.

Keep it safe

[13ronin]

Originally Posted by ricard0

Hey ronin, looks like we've got another sparky to help man the thread.

Welcome to GC stonedK1982, and thanx for contributing.

Keep it safe

Hells ya! Welcome aboard!

[sp23]

Originally Posted by 13ronin

Make sure there is only one meter. I doubt there is. And if the power is included in the rent you better believe your land lord is seeing the bills for the individual units. running 4000 watts is a lot of power and will be noticed by him. a lot of appliances draw a lot of power, true, but they don't run all the time. a dishwasher or a window ac draw a lot of power but only when they are running. And an a/c unit is only drawing the big power when the compressor is on. I think pulling that much juice is asking for trouble dude.

Well I haven't picked out the apartment yet, It will be a residential building though.
I have been doing some research and all the research has been telling me that residential buildings, most of the old ones have single meters and if the utilities are included it must mean they have no way of reading how much electricity I am pulling.

[DemmerSlave]

This is my first post on my first thread! Ive just been devirgined.
So I'm trying to find out how much my electricity rate is but my bill is confusing.
I get my electricity from Consumers Energy here in the Lansing Michigan area.
Here is the electric portion of my bill:

Rate 1000W Billing Factor 0.161290
Electric Power Supply Charges 05-12 to 05-18
Elec Delivery Charges
Elec Interim Surcharge 70KWH @ 0.011622 $0.81
Palisades Plant Sale Credit 2 70KWH @ 0.005648- $0.40-

Electric Power Supply Charges 04-18 to 05-18
KWH Charge-Energy 428KWH @ 0.047517 $20.34
Power Supply Cost Recovery 428KWH @ 0.01618 $6.93
Electric Delivery Charges
System Access Charge $6.00
Elec Distribution Charge 428KWH @ 0.026082 $11.16
Delivery Surcharge $2.02
Securitization Charge 428KWH @ 0.001358 $0.58
Securitization Tax Charge 428KWH @ 0.000611 $0.26

Delivery Surcharge: Security Recovery Factor and a Regulatory Asset Recovery Surcharge

Total Electric $47.70

This is all greek to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, this thread is amazing as is this site. Holy grail of info, great work everyone!