Truu's electrical help thread.

Howdy folks.

This thread will be dedicated to any of your electrical needs. Whether it be a question about your growing setup, or if you just need help around the house. I have many years of electrical experience in residential, commercial, and industrial fields.

Just ask your question as detailed as possible, throw in some pics if needed. The more info I can get, the better I can understand what you need. It is also a good idea to let me know if you are from over seas, for I am not lol.
 
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hi truu, am starting my grow set up again cause i had a fire and am very cautious, my question is: im useing a 600w ballast light kit and a fan, would it be safer to plug the light and fan into different plugs on different fuses? i can plug the light in one plug in one room and the fan into another plug in the room next door, also want to know about how much electic the light will draw, im cut down on all other electric use when the light is running, eg washing maching dryer ect, any advice, thanks.
this thread was an excellent idea and will be really helpful to a lot of people
thanks again truu
 
Great idea Truu and a welcome addition. I'm not certified but have been doing my own home wiring for many years. I'll be hitting you up with a couple questions on my new hydro setup as the time gets closer.
 
Thanks for asking ggsm555. Well as far as how much your electric bill will go up because of your light depends on your service providers prices. Your electric bill is measured in true power "watts" and billed by kw/hr, at least where I'm from. Now seeing as you have a 600w hps, and I'll give you worst case scenario here, your bill will probably go up 10-20$ IF you run it 24/7. Now if you do 12/12 you're not looking at much of a difference, maybe 5-10$.

Now about your concern on plugging them in together. If you are plugging them into the same receptacle, assuming its the typical 15amp receptacle, you should be perfectly fine. Electrical fires usually happen due to faulty wiring, or undersized wires. Now your light will be pulling 5 amps. I=P/E, (amperage=power/voltage). So I=600/120=5amps. Now assuming you are using a normal oscillating fan, they normally don't pull more than 1 amp. So if your using a 15 amp circuit and using 6 of it just for your setup, you have 7 amps for whatever is left on that circuit. You'll be good, no worries. Now if you are paranoid about a fire, go buy a power strip with a surge protector built in or a gfci built in. Or if you want to be reeeeeal safe, go buy and install a arc fault breaker on that circuit in your panel. Those are specially made to prevent fires in house and will trip in .01 seconds when a fault is detected. And of course if your not comfortable with doing the work and don't mind spending the money, hire a qualified electrician to do the work. Won't take more than 30 min.

Hope I could help you out there, and I didn't confuse you to much lol. Let me know if you need more explanation. Also, go ahead and find what breaker your setup will be on and find what things in your house are on that circuit. If nothing big, like a window unit, stove, fridge, dryer is on that circuit then you should be good. If its just some lights and plugs that have nothing plugged in you are in the clear.

Thanks muddy. You holler at me whenever you need man. Me and TBM talked about this thread and he gave me the goahead for the post. I'm glad I can help the AFN community. I love this place!
 
I have a masters in three states and have twenty years working experience. Mostly industrial. Work on just about everything for 4 to 20ma to 13800v. I made a help thread once and it was to much work. Kind of like a painter dont paint his own house kind of thing But I don't mind helping if that's alright. If I was you I would start copying everything you say and have a source of copy and paste material.
 
Electrician's motto. The only stupid question, is the one you don't ask....... And everybody makes mistakes that's why pencils have erasers. :crying:
 
Ha man I learned that real quick as an apprentice. Then I had to learn there's a line between asking to many questions, and thinking for yourself. But then again as an apprentice your never right anyways lol!
 
I too have an extensive electrical background, was a licensed electrical contractor up north for about 20 years before moving to the bible-belt and would be willing to help.

Thing is electricity requires a conceptual understanding before you can really learn how it's safely applied. I remember back in the 80's when teaching AC/DC theory to post graduate high schoolers who wanted to become electricians, on every quiz for extra credit there would be some form of a 3-way lighting circuit which needed completion... Some guys never got it.

Regards - RF
 
thanks truu for the help, i think i got it, great info, i just wasnt sure about the electrical side of it, everything else im ok at, but not this, so thanks again
 

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