Hey guys. So I am a licensed electrician and I’ve been working in the trade for the last 20 years. I’m feeling generous and would like to help out and give back to the community that has helped me out countless amounts of times. If you ever have any electrical questions I would be more than happy to answer them here.
There's a few different basic forms of 3 phase power you'll find. 208 is one. There's also 460volt 3 phase. It's exactly as the name implies it's 3 legs of power. Standard residential home electricity is only 2 phases of power and 110-120volts each phase. 3 phase has no neutral included in the main power feeds. The main reason is for better electrical efficiency in industrial/commercial applications mostly for large electrical motors. 3 phase motors use a different style of motor winding and are the most efficient design. Most electric companies won't run 3 phase to a residential home. Some people have old commercial property that already has it but it's very uncommon. You only see it in large commercial and industrial areas. 460 even more so. Higher voltages have less voltage loss over longer circuits. They are more ideal for most applications but more dangerous. It's easy to shock yourself on 460volts. You can feel the EMF from inches away from it. The power pole outside of your house has high voltages at the very top that are stepped down to what's required at the property by the transformer on the power pole. It's then ran down to each home/building with a transformer that makes either 220-240 two phase or 208-460 3 phase and supplies sometimes more then one building depending on the load for that transformer.
I was testing the other guy; but good work. Higher volts allows for less amps to do the same work; with less heat. Hence efficiency.
3 phase motors are the shit. Lowest amp draw per horse power rating and most don't need a capacitor for starting torque 3 phase supplies so much torque by itself.
It's a little known fact that the latest craze in brushless motors in rechargeable drills, rc cars, ect. are all new design computer controlled 3 phase motors. They all have 3 power wires. Not trying to mess the thread up. There might be someone actually wanting advise. Carry on.
Good answer tbone. And thanks for the test 4 Alaska. If you must test my knowledge I’ll give ya this. 3 phase y is created by a transformer that puts out 3 phases and a center tapped neutral unlike a delta configuration that makes a neutral internally in the transformer from the ground. Anyway on the “y” configuration you get 120v between any phase and neutral or ground, 208v between any two phases. How’s that? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
That's how the local electrician explained it to me the other day; except the technical drawing! I just asked the question for fun, as its a good one to ask and a lot of people don't know how any of it works.
First off, thanks for this thread. Your expertise is valuable and appreciated. Forgive any issues with my posting as I am still learning and setting up my first grow. I have just isolated the back of a long shed on my property. It is sealed, insulated and I am trying to map out what I will be putting in there. I will be doing 3 plants (legal to have 6 but only 3 flowering) with DWC and Scrog. My room is 5’ deep, 8’ wide, 8’ tall. My intention is to put two x 1000W Lights, a vortex 8” fan with carbon filter for exhaust and a passive intake. I will also need power for circulating fans, an air pump and a water pump. I currently have lights in the shed but they come from a Romex cord plugged into an outside house outlet. I have a single 220 line run to the garage from a sub panel and my house panel is full. Question is, how do I get the power I need to the shed? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I ran the wire and set up the 220 line to the garage. I can follow instructions but I’m obviously not an electrician. Just wondering what my options are. Here a few pics of my main and sub panel. Can I run everything I need in the room/shed with a few extension cords from different external plugs? Should I run romex and if so where do I run it from? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Let’s say for the sake of the discussion that I will be getting all work checked by a licensed electrician but I would like input on my options. Thanks a ton. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Have you ever seen a 50amp breaker in a sub panel melt completely off the tabs? Was feeding a hot tub at the time.
You currently have a 220v 20 amp breaker running to the garage, which is where the grow room will be, with what size wire? That looks like 10awg but it could be 12? What I would do is run a larger actual subpanel to the garage instead of just a 20 amp one. That means new wire most likely. If you run an 8awg wire to the garage you can run a 50 amp 220v breaker to an actual 100 amp subpanel. In that subpanel you can run circuits to your grow room. Each 1000 watter is almost going to need it's own 20 amps circuit by the time you have fans ect. That leaves you no other power left for capacity in the garage if you just ran on what you have right now.
I should have been more clear. The shed which has the growroom is on the opposite side of the house from the garage. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
To further muddy the waters. The 20 amp two place breaker at the bottom left of the main panel is what feeds the outside sub panel with the two breakers. The 50 amp breaker that is on the upper left part of the main panel was to the range which has been converted to gas. Should I just run some wire from the 50 amp breaker out to the shed and set up a sub panel there? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
So there’s a couple issues I see and a couple solutions. Looks like 10awg running into the garage. You have it on a 2 pole 20a breaker in the house. You can change that to a 2 pole 30a breaker and up your available wattage. As far as what you have in your garage, (1) it looks like someone grabbed 220v power from one side of each twin breaker. That is illegal because they have to be switched simultaneously. This is also the case with the multi circuit wire (the black and red). (2) if those are existing circuits for the shed and your asking if you can add to what’s there the answer would be no way! Maybe upgrade inside breaker to 30 and buy a 4 or 8 space panel for the shed but without knowing the power consumption of the existing shed it would be hard to tell if the wattage would be sufficient. If you did that you could run your light on 220v and cut your power consumption for the light almost in half. If those are your current grow room circuits than what I would do is change the breaker in your house to a 30 and then buy a quad20 breaker. It’s actually 2 double pole 20 breakers in one unit. Which would fix that illegal issue you have. Good luck
The 50 amp sub panel is the hot tub E shutoff that is required to be in eyesight of the tub It is a 50amp non GFIC (GFIC Is in breaker in home) The breaker was melted on both legs as well as the prongs in back Do you think it was a bad breaker , bad wire connection, or something in the spa itself caused the overload? Thanks