Lighting Any electricians/electrical-savvy folks around??

[GodAmJT]

I've got a relatively low-wattage, low-draw set-up going on in my grow space and tonight I saw something very odd, and I'm trying to rule out that it's a piece of equipment, and not the house wiring/extension cords or even the brand new power strip I have..


To give you some background on the set-up:

- 2x MarsII 400w (equivalent) LED panels
- 1x KingLED 800w (equivalent) LED panel
- 4x small aquarium pumps (set to 2x 15min feed intervals)
- 2 port air pump w/ 2 airstones
- Mars Hydro 190cfm scrubber fan w/ carbon filter
- 1x Larger fan
- 2x small clip-on fans
- *24/7 Nutrient Meter (measures pH, water temp, PPMs (at 0.7 conversion)

That's it for electrical in the area. There are several small extension cords I use to feed the pumps (super-low draw), one for the fans, one for the power strip that holds the air pump and lights (on separate timer).

The extension cord feeding all of this is a 14ga wire, approximately 50ft in length..

Up until tonight, when I changed out my reservoir, I would unplug the feeding timer, and just use one of the pumps to drain the reservoir into jugs to be dumped into the yard/flower beds, and then would re-attach it to the drip rings when I was done and the pH was set, so I could run the system to verify everything worked.. Well, as I was mixing up my nute mix, I thought I had it dialed in, until I plugged in the timer w/ the pumps, pumps O. My PPM and Temp (both same probe), jumped nearly 10%!!!!! I have a back-up battery-operated reservoir thermometer that I use to double check things, and it stayed exactly where it was when I finished filling the reservoir..

When I started unplugging things, the numbers went back down.. Thankfully, I have an EC stick that I checked it w/ and it was pretty damn close to the original numbers (slightly different conversion ratio)..

I started unplugging things and ultimately, as soon as I went to the large splitter coming into the area, it still got the numbers to jump.. I'm sorta leaning towards it being the meter, however a couple folks over at 420mag swear by these things. I highly doubt it's a calibration issue, and think it is either the power supply, feed wires or some sort of anomaly where I may need a power conditioner in between my feed wire and the rest of my set-up.. I verified connections were tight and probes were still in their correct locations.. Short of pulling out the multimeter, anyone have any insights?? I've know some appliances to brown-out when a moderate load is placed on a line, however, with EVERYTHING running, I'm only drawing about 650w, so that doesn't seem quite right to me.. That's verified by a Kill-a-watt, so that's about as accurate as I can estimate at this point..

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Atulip]

Just sounds like a fried meter. Remember that a site like 420magazine is a sponsored website. The only products you read about on 420Mag by paid sponsors. It's actually against the rules there to mention non sponsor companies, websites, products, etc. Content gets deleted to cater to the sponsors.

650w is not a lot, about a third of what you can pull from most residential outlets. I doubt you'd have any issues from that but have you tried plugging it up somewhere else to see what happens?

 

[GodAmJT]

Thanks for the response!!!


To be fair and honest; the people who have recommended it to me are mentors and not salesmen.. People that use them everyday, and people who have bent over backwards to teach, so although I do appreciate the comment, there is in NO WAY any type of endorsement of any product by anyone.. In fact, even the reviews from multiple sources have this as one of the best real-time hydro tools on the market.. That is the ONLY reason I went with this product, as I've been burned in the past with other so-called, "great products"..




As for the draw, I figured the only weak links would be the extension cords, timers and the meter, as everything else works perfectly fine.. I've troubleshot the power strips, the pumps themselves, the timer TO the pumps, the fans and the only thing I hadn't tested was the meter as itself because I'd hate to pull the entire reservoir out to remove the probes, only to find out it's something past there like the extension cords.. The outlet that is being fed is 20a, so I know I have MORE than enough of a safe margin, although some of the wiring in the house is the old style wires, as if they literally just took out the original fuse box and put in a breaker without re-distributing the load.. The wiring in this house is suspect anyway.. Would power fluctuations cause something like this to occur w/ sensitive electronics?? I'd almost think they'd have capacitors or some sort of voltage regulation to prevent spikes and dips.. Just wondering..


Regardless, I may see if I can order another PPM/Temp probe and see if it's the probe or not.. I think I got a warranty, so maybe if I tell them that I think it's just the probe, I won't have to pull everything apart just yet, and test it..

I suppose this was more of a feeler to see if anyone else ran a similar type of meter and had similar issues.. Thanks for the info!!!