Whats up grasscity. I dont post much as I like to sit back and read but ill just get to the point. I am in the process of setting up a new room in a bed room upstairs of my 2 bedroom home. Power consumption does not bother me and I am aiming at 2400-3000 watts for flowering. I am not a newbie when it comes to growing but the electric is a different story. I am attempting to tap into the dryer hook up in my basement which is 240v and has a 30 amp breaker. Is there any way of getting the power from the basement to the bedroom without doing a whole bunch of new wiring? Are extension cords out of the question? Any help would be great and I would like to thank who ever in advance.
What kind of routing are you looking at for the cord/wiring? You could use a extension cord but you need a very heavy duty one to do this job. Remember that an extension cord has big ends so you can feed it through small holes like wiring. What is below the bedroom in question, is there a closet below it? They make covers for wiring that is run outside the wall cavity, so you could drill a hole through the closet floor and run the wire up through that hole along the wall and up into the bedroom If you are using 2400 watts of lighting you'll be pulling 20Amps plus for that. 2400 watts is 20Amps but if that is your bulb values then you'll pull more current for the ballast losses. To wire a 30Amp circuit you need at least 10 gauge wire, so if you did use an extension cord you would need a 10gauge cord. You can always go heavier with the wiring or cord but never should go smaller. Your dryer line can actually be split into 2 separate 30A circuits, so if you ran wiring or a cord when you get to the destination room and wire up the box in that room you'll actually have 60Amps or 7200watts of 120v available to use. It's always better/safer to run hardwired circuits then to use an extension cord.
superbuds, Don't think about extension cords dude. For a 240v circuit you would need a minimum of 10 ga wire and it would be very, very risky as a fire hazard. The 10 ga extension would cost big bucks. It's just not a good idea man. There really isnt a safe way to pull that kind of load without running new wire. If you do decide to run new wire get someone who knows the electrical code - things like matching wire sizes on the same shared circuit and stuff like that. "No fires" should be our indoor growing motto! (or at least one of 'em anyway ) Be safe man! (on reflection I'm saying the same thing as yyz) Cheers!
Don't use extention cords for two very important reasons, cost and safety. That is very unsafe haveing all those extention cords throughout the have. haveing to worry about accidently unpluging them and people asking you "hey, what's that thing." Honnestly, it would be cheaper to buy the wire/breaker/socket and do it the right way than to but heavy duty extention cords. If you are going to run new wiring, I suggest putting in a new breaker in your breaker box. If you tap into the Dryer breaker there is a good chance that you will blow it if you go to dry your clothes while your grow room lights/fans/pumps/ect... are running. I suggest asking a friend who has some electrical knowledge, or going to lowes and pick up a do it yourself book. Electrical work isn't as hard as everyone makes it out to be, If you are smart and follow directions.