Anybody know if you can just hook a 1000 watt bulb up in a bed room from a normal socket or do you have to change the wiring to the room to be able to handle the 1000 watt bulb and what not?
Excellent question. Is there a licensed electrician on this forum? I've thought "Electricity" would be a good sub-forum if for no other reason than safety.
I had this same question when I first started growing. In order to use a 1000 watt bulb you need a ballast. The ballast is usually sold in a package deal at most hydroponic stores. Along with the reflective casing in which the actual bulb itself is put in. Once you get the ballast the ballast is then plugged into the wall of your room. So it goes,1000 watt bulb into reflective casing, Then reflective casing into ballast, then Ballast into wall.
so a regular socket will be able to handle a 1000 watt bulb? and if i were to add other lights as well to that room or would i have to bring an extension cord from another room or would the sockets in that room beable to handle a 1000 watt bulb, 250 watt bulb, 2 400 watt lights and timers and what not? if not how would i be able to get that much wattage to the room?
Like I said before, The light is only going to be able to obtain enough power to turn on if you plug the light into a ballast.
so the ballast is pretty much a breaker then correct? the ballast pulls 1000 watts to the bulb right?
how would i put one 1000 watt light, one 250 watt light, and two 400 watt lights in one room. would they all just need ballasts as well?
If you are talking about MH or HPS lights, then yes, they will all needs ballasts. And if you put all of those in one room, I hope you have good ventilation setup cause you will be generating a TON of heat.
the 1000 watt is the flowering. the 250 watt is for clones. and one 400 is for vegging and the othe is for a mother plant. so would it be smart to have one room for flowering and the other room for clones, mother and vegging? if not how would you do it?
Assuming you are in the US and have standard residential wiring... you should be good for a 15 amp service to the bedroom. Given 115 Volts thats about 1,700 watts service. I think there are hair-dryers that run about 1K watt ... but they dont run 24/7. Rule of thumb is to double the power requirement - so 1K watts load would require 30 amp service. If you room is supplied by two separate 15 amp services you and combine them in parallel and frog up a 30 amp supply .. but that's a bit advanced...
i you won't want to run all those on the same circuit unless you enjoy resetting breakers or are in good with the fire dept.
so would it be smarter to have 2 rooms? 1 room for flowering and 1 room for the vegging and clones and mothers?
you can have 1 room split in 2, just don't run them on the same circuit. you can easily overload a 15 amp circuit with a 1000w light and a couple strong fans. spread the load across different circuits or have a dedicated 220v circuit to reduce heat in the wires and your risk of popping breakers or a fire.
I have 2 400w fixtures pluged into a power strip, the power strip is pluged into a normal wall socket. I have not had a problem with breakers tripping, etc. Stepdude420
HID bulbs require a socket called a Mogul socket. It is larger than an Edison socket that you plug your normal light bulbs into. A ballast converts the 120v AC current into whatever wattage the bulb is designed to carry DC current so a 400w ballast will only power 400w bulbs and a 1000w ballast will only power 1000w bulbs... If you have a ballast that requires 240v AC current and you only have 120v lines HIRE AN ELECTRICIAN TO INSTALL / RE-WIRE ANY AREA THAT YOU NEED RE-WIRED... In most places you have to have a licensed electrician to do ANY work on your wiring. There is a reason for it, mainly Fire... It might only cost a hundred dollars to have an electrician add a 240v breaker and line from your breaker box to your grow room... And you don't have to tell him that you need that juice for plant lights.. Tell them you are going to install a lot of computer equipment and you didn't want the breaker popping every time you crank your server up... Believe me they'll take your word for it.. Make sure your electrician is a member of the local electricial workers union... they are usually better trained easier to find if there is a problem and will do the job right... because if they don't they could lose their license... My 2 cents.. hope you get it figured out
yea i know an electrician and he was talking about changing the breakers to a 240v so that does sound right. So if i wanted to if i had two rooms and wanted to change the breakers to the room to a 240v breaker i would be able to run that equipment? and if i need to i can run like small equipment like computers or blenders with out blowing them out?
Watts = Amps x Volts In the US you are almost certainly on a 120V system. That means you amps are equivalent to your Watts/120. You can only handle 15, maybe 16 amps on a regular household circuit. That's 1800 Watts total, say 1600W to be safe. That's four 400W bulbs on an empty circuit. And I do mean empty. No fan on a powerstrip: a dedicated circuit that you are sure about. If you aren't sure, bring in an electrician. They charge by the hour and have no reason to ask or know what your blossoming interest in your home's wiring is all about. Fire sucks.
if you change the breakers to 240v your electrician should know that you'll need new, larger wires run. 14/2 or 12/2 isn't a large enough gauge wire to handle more than 1000w safely. smaller wires will heat up quickly. i'd only run 1 1000w light per 15a breaker. on the same circuit you could use a small fan. a 1000w ballast runs about 9-10 amps. a good rule of thumb to keep the fire dept. at bay and to keep breakers from tripping is to only use 75% of the circuits capacity.