So I'm growing at my friends place and thinking about adding a 1000w switchable system to my 400w switchable system, but they'd all be in the same room. 400w would be in the closet, 1000w system would be outside of it. I'm worried about this tho, since I've heard having over 1500 watts on a circuit can blow it out/cause a fire. And since we have multiple fans going in there as well, I wouldnt be surprised if we went over that limit when I add the 1000w system. My question is - is this safe? I have no idea how much the room could handle electrically and I'm not electrician so I know next to nothing about any of this. I just learned about this through looking up hps safety hazards. if i have the 1000w and the 400w on different outlets will that fix the problem? I'm really just kind of sketched by this since I have this 1000w system and that's the only place I can grow other than a closet in my house which I'd have to cut holes for and if it were to be in my closet (2x4) the 1000w's full potential definitely wouldn't be maximized. Anyway, am I wrong and will the lights be fine? Or should I reconsider this setup given that it is electrically unsafe?
It's more about amperage than wattage. Check your amp pulls on those lights, and see if your electrical box will support it. If not, you can install a higher amp breaker if I remember right. If you put them on different circuits it'll be safer. Find the breaker box and figure out what rooms are which, and go from there.
Amp pulls? And how do I check if the electrical box can support it? Sorry like I said not so good at this shit.
Ok here we go. I am an electrician and long time grower so I think my info will be helpfull. Wattage and amperage are directly correlated. Wattage is the measurement of actual power used while amperage is the current needed to deliver it. How many amps you use is determined by the voltage of your ballasts. Since you are using existing plugs im going to go out on a limb here and say you are running 120v ballasts or switchable at 120v. Now since you are growing in a bedroom its a pretty good guess that the receptacles are on a 15 amp circuit. Mostly how houses are wired is that one or more bedrooms will be on one circuit together. So just moving one receptacle over isnt going to help, it is wired to all the other receptacles in the room and possibly other rooms. Now to see how much you are using. To find out your amperage load you just divide watts by volts. So 1400/120=11.66amps. You should never use more than 80% of a circuits potential and 80%of 15amps is 12amps. So 11.66amps is fine. However with your fans you will exceed and trip the breaker. Especially with an inline fan that you will need to cool your 1000watt. So what to do? Well short of calling an electrician i would say this. Flip off the breaker that controls that bedroom. Now go around your house with a lamp and test all the plugs in the house. Any that dont work when the breaker is off that controls the grow room are now off limits when your lights are on. Mark them with a sharpie or tape. Now find some that are on a seperate circuit and use an extension cord (14 or 12 gauge) to power the fans in your room. The bathroom has the most power but should be a GFI receptacle or breaker which can trip if it senses an uneven load causing your fans to go off. These are the plugs with a button on them. Hope that helped
VERY BAD advice. You can only install a higher amp breaker if you replace all the wire run off of that breaker with the proper gauge. Each size breaker has a corresponding wire size that goes with it. This is the most common reason for electrical fire, big breaker small wire, never up your breaker without replacing ALL the wire in the house attached to that breaker.