Just wondering how many you out there actually run their HID lights when you're not at home. I've read all the safety measures about wiring and not exceeding amps on the circuits your running, etc., but I am still hesitant to leave my lights on when I'm not home. Is it safe? I have a 600w HID with an enclosed hood that will be vented with a fan out of a 4x4 tent. Thanks for any input/reassurance!
I run my lights from 9pm to 9am in flower and 24 hours a day in veg. I leave my house for work at 4am. I'm gone for atleast 5 hours of the lights being on in flower and atleast 14 hours when in veg. I've also been gone from a few days for whatever reason. It depends on your set up. I made sure to have adequate and correct wiring before I started. If you have a ton of different cords all spliced into one outlet all hillbilly style,you never know. Run the right wiring, too the right breakers and don't overload anything and you should be fine. But it is electricity and accidents do happen. Just play it smart.
Run 75-80% of the amps your circuit breaker is rated for, don't guess, know your equipment. For example if you have a 20 amp breaker only run 15- 16 amps on it. The breaker will trip if it overloads. If your house has old worn out tube and wire you might want to look into an upgrade. That stuff is outdated and no longer up to code anywhere in the united states.
Shoot, I've left my plants alone for 5 days during veg and everything was just fine. And I have similar equipment as brix up there
I don't worry a bit about running lights when I am not home. As long as they are securely hung and your equipment is good there should not be any problems.
I'm only home for the first and last hour my lights are on, as long as everything done properly its not going to spontaneously burst into flames.
Okay, thank you all for the reassurance. I will take ALL of your advice. Being a newbie and all, the mind tends to focus on the worst case senarios of bad shit going down when I'm not around! Anyone know of a way to set up a web cam so I could check on things when not there from my phone? lol
We all leave electrical things plugged in or turned on everyday. Anything can short out or over load. A fire can be caused from the smallest appliance to the largest a/c unit. Just make sure your shits in check.
They sell cams that work with your phone at radio shack, eBay, amazon, lots of places. They're awesome. I have a couple in my house . I started using them to make sure my kids sitters were in check My grow room is on the back of my house and I work almost 2 hours from home so I'm gone a lot. I love being able to check on all my kids.....human and plant
Not the best ss quality but even night vision requires a little light to draw from and right now the lights are off. When I zoom back the camera to see the whole grow the lights need to be on or its too fuzzy. I have another camera watching my wireless thermometer thats in my house so I can keep track of temps and humidity in the grow room while away. That camera serves a dual purpose. I can check on what's going on in my house and the digital readout for the thermometer is sitting on a counter that's in the view of the camera
When the lights are on its crystal clear just had to mess with the angle because my hid l light will make it glow from certain angles. Hang it from the top looking down or in a corner that's not in direct light.
There's a small led on the camera that omits enough light for a clear picture but I spent a lot of time making sure not only my grow tent was light proof, but also the grow room my tent is in is light proof too. I'll be damned if I let that little led defeat my work so I put tape over it. Oh ya if you go this route don't freak out the 1st time you see your plants at night. During the night your plants leaves can sag dramatically while they're resting. Then some how magically shortly before the lights turn on they spring back up. This plant is sagging right now. If I would of snapped the shot earlier it would really be drooping
Thanks brixfix! You've got that shit covered! Nice! I am getting one of the cameras for sure. It will set the mind at ease while I'm gone. lol, we all know it is a magical plant eh?
We use over 12,000 watts in lighting plus filters, dehumidifiers, cooling, fans, controllers, etc. Like said above start with good wiring and you will be fine. We use over 400 KWH PER DAY. We ran all new wiring, dedicated circuits for lighting, fans, etc. Never a problem....most common ways to cause a fire with a grow is...Overloading circuits, too many extension cords, bad wiring. Be safe, risking your family's safety is never worth any amount of medicinal marijuana.
^^^^^ exactly^^^^^^ I've seen some pics on here of peoples grows with some crazy electrical issues. A ton of long worn out cords, running a bunch of shit, next to water, into 1 single outlet. Some people have zero common sense.
I run 525w 24/7 and 1000w 12-12 never once had an issue but I made sure that both were on separate breakers. Have left that running for about 5-7 years take weekend trips all the time with no issue. Just be smart when setting things up and your g2g http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/895565-saddest-grow-ever.html/page-10#entry20749648