Weasel, I did read your "don't bother with 150W HPS" thread and I was pretty stoked about it, but now I know you've given up on CFls for the most part. There's something I wanted to ask you about CFLs, but I won't ask it on that thread cause from your last post on there it seems like you want the thread to die. CFLs have integrated ballasts which also use power in addition to the bulb. Not sure if you go into that in your thread -- I missed it if you did. But the specs on 42W CFLs say the input current is .70. That amounts to 84W! Is that just the start-up current? I have googled this to death and even emailed one supplier, and I can't find the answer. I found a couple of sites with electricity geeks arguing about the Power Factor of CFLs, but they were no help because there were differing opinions. Your digital ballast has a 99% power factor? That sounds almost too good to be true. HTG supply did email me back and say that their ballast does use some energy (though they didn't say how much), and they recommended that I get the remote ballast system and remove the hood. They're crazy. How would I hang the dang thing? If I have to make my own hood why would I buy their kit? Thanks for the links -- I checked them out and on the kit that you bought it looks like I could cut down the hood pretty easily. Only thing is there's no glass. Tempered glass between the bulb and your plants will deflect some of the heat. Maybe you could buy a piece of tempered glass and install it as a shelf in your cab, between the light and the plants? I might do that. You just gotta be sure that the glass you buy is plain, like a lens, and doesn't reflect any light. It would be easy in your cab to make several holes for brackets and move them as you move the light. Easier than CFLs, anyway!
Did you see my 240/120 question? http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/593206-250-125-questions.html
A step down transformer is the same as a ballast, just the opposite. The only problem is you still need a neutral wire to run any equipmentment for 120v. In some cases they run a 3 wires over to the plug, 2 hots and a neutral, if that's the case you can use that neutral, and take 120v off one of the 240v leads and wire up another 120v plug. The only difference between 120/240 is that neutral wire now containing 120v. Read over this thread a bit we went over some of it in a more depth.
Does that mean I cant use a step down transformer? So if I move a 'hot' over to 'neutral' in the breaker box it will then be 120? What do you think my best solution is? I swear I thought I had seen power supply boxes that ran off 240 and had 240 and 120 plugs. thanks
You wouldn't need to step it down because is just 120v X2 so you can just tie into one of the leads. If you switch one of the 120v leads to the neutral bar in your electrical panel, the outlet will now be a standard 120v outlet. It is quite possible you saw a power box that had 240v with 120v plugs as well, as long as that power box has a neutral wire ran to it.
I see it takes less amps to run lights at 240V. So my question is, is it cheaper to run a 1000W light for 12 hours a day plugged into a 120 or 240V plug?
I have answered this already but it uses the exact same. 1000W is 1000W, it doesnt matter if it is getting 120V or 10000V, watts is the amount of power used. The electrical company will charge you x amount of cents per kWh. The only thing 240V is good for is lowering the amperage necessary to run the load. Like a stove or an air conditioner will use allot of amps, so to make it run more effectively they use 240V.
So you will be able to run more lights on a 20A circuit on 240 than 120 that's about it so you I should just run my lights a 120
Hello hope all is well, I have a few questions.......... If you needed to pull 4000 to 4500 watts from a room. Will it be safer to run a subpanel to the room, or a seperate 20amp breaker for 2 sockets from the main? Also what type wire you would use?
To run that many watts your going to need 40amps. An 8 gauge wire should be enough, but you're talking allot of power here. Running a subpanel or "pony panel" close to you're growroom would be the only safe option I could see. From that sub panel you can place a couple breakers in, and run your circuits off there. I would also recommend a 40amp Industrial Timer to hook all that up too.
A 120V can run more then one device, it all depends on the amp draw. Quick Amp Draw Reference At 120v: 250W - 2amps 400w - 3.3amp 600w - 5amp 1000w - 8.3amp At 240v: 250w - 1amp 400w - 1.6amp 600w - 2.5amp 1000w - 4.1amp Lets say you're running some 400W lights. 400W at 120 on a standard 15 am breaker will let you run 4 lights at 13.2 amps (3.3 X 4). If you still have a question feel free to ask.
No 240V can run allot more then 120V, because the amp draw is cut in half. Ill do the same example but with 240V. Lets say you're running some 400W lights. 400W at 240V on a standard 15amp breaker will let you run 9 lights at 14.4 amps (1.6 X 9). Look at the chart and see the amp draw for each wattage of light, take that number and divide it by 15 (standard breaker) and round down. This will tell you how many lights you can run of a certain wattage off 15amps. **edit** The device you are also running has to be 240V as well.
excellent. thank you. It wont let me rep you anymore right now. So my dedicated 20 amp 240 will run a couple thousand watts easily, or more?
20amp / by 4.1 = 4.87 Round Down You can run 4, 1000W lights with that no problem. To double check 4.1 X 4 <<(rounded down) = 16.4 amps, your safe. If I didn't round down it would be 19.967 amps, border line and the breaker would probably trip when they tried to fire up. Any more questions you know where to find me
Thanks for your expertise....... When you mention 8 gauge wire would that be a 8 gauge with the red, black, white , and green wire? Also would the sub or pony panel be hooked up similar to the wiring of the main panel? Meaning will i use a 40amp double breaker in the main. Run the black and red to the 40 amp breaker. Run the white to the nuetral bus bar and the green to ground bus bar. Hook those wires to the main service of the sub or pony panel. Put circut breakers in the sub or pony panel and run individual breakers to each socket. Hope this in not too much of a hassel.
That's exactly it bro! If you got that 4 wire you can run some 120v off the panel too because you have a neutral in there, along with 240V ballast to reduce amp draw. It will act exaclty like your main panel with that setup, only exception being the main breaker is 40amps. **edit** A double breaker and the red wire is not necessary, I was talking about 240V just a second ago and got confused. Just a single 40 unless you have a ballast that runs on 240V. If that was the case and you wanted to run 240V, you wouldn't need 40amps.