Electrical Spikes or Something Else???

[spiritlevel]

I put this under 'Growroom Designs & Equipment' because I think its the right place, though I could be wrong. Thanks and sorry in advance to admin.

I ran a 1.2kW HPS set up some months back. Since shutting down the small medical op I've been told that my installation of the electrical hardware had caused problems with other electrical equipment that was present. Namely computers.

The complaint was that my power consumption, surge on mains, or something like that, was the cause of spikes in the mains supply and as a result a handful of computers are no longer operational.

I'd like someone with electrical expert advice to shed some light on the issue.

Is it possible that my equipment could have that sort of effect on the property's wiring; thus causing sensitive computer hardware to fail?

Any comments are very welcome!

I'm about to double the lighting power consumption to 2.4kW, so if adjustments need making to the property's electrical wiring can someone let me know before I ram a room full of vital herbs then figure I need an electrician.

Cheers

 

[blubullett]

I dont think so. That size of a load can cause a slight surge but nothing even close to the ammount of power required to fry a computer. Your typical hairdryer is 1500 watts so that is just as likely. Also shouldnt the computers have been pluged into a surge protector anyways? More then likely someone took out a power pole a couple miles away causing a surge big enough to do that.
2400 watts is more then most household circuts can support, or right at the limit. You may want to use two circuts, half on each. Find the breaker that currently controls your lights and turn it off. Find the next closest plug that still works and that would be your other circut.
Most electrical problems are caused by loose connections. They cause arching and the wires to heat up. One easy (to me but I have been an electrician for 9 yrs) way to check would be to get a digital multitester (a pretty good fluke is 99 bucks) and a plug tester (you plug it into an outlet and it has three lights on it to tell you if the plug is wired correctly) You turn the fluke to volts and put it in a plug, then have someone walk around with the plug tester, plug it into outlets and shake it back and forth, if the voltage on the fluke changes then check that plug (the one you are shaking) for a loose wire. Also checking your breaker box/boxes would be a good idea. Turn off the main power and pull out all of the breakers. Look at the metal contacts on them and check for any burning or blackening, if they are burned replace the breaker and file the buss bar (what the breaker connects to) till its smooth. Also check all wires in your pannel for tightness.
Also dont be scared of your local electrician, the only reason we are electricians is because we smoked too much to get a better job, we wont tell on you. Hope this helps even though it does seem to ramble on and on...

 

[nuggiespl]

It could be a harmonic issue cause by electronic ballst check this out

http://www.labs21.org.uk/DGHTM/DGHtm/harmonicdistortionandelectronicballasts.htm

Not sure what kind of ballast ur using but could be causing problems. If thats not it most problems are grounded and grounding issues. grounded would be neutral = white and Grounding would be ground = green

let me know if i can help, were ur referring toa 1.2k in lights or a 1.2kw a month, how many ballast are u running. Peace

 

[Kush09]

It sounds to me like somebody is trying to screw you over. A 1.2 KW spike is nothing! Central heat and air units continually spike at over 3KW! A simple little room heater is 1.5KW. Your oven is more than that. That is ridiculous to accuse your relatively low wattage grow equipment of ruining others computers from spikes. Why did they just assume it was the grow equipment? Hypocrites? Why couldn't you have a room heater, hair dryer, oven, clothes dryer, a/c, which all cause larger spikes? A spike from one of those is no different than a spike from a ballast. A spike is a spike.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I put this under 'Growroom Designs & Equipment' because I think its the right place, though I could be wrong. Thanks and sorry in advance to admin.

I ran a 1.2kW HPS set up some months back. Since shutting down the small medical op I've been told that my installation of the electrical hardware had caused problems with other electrical equipment that was present. Namely computers.

The complaint was that my power consumption, surge on mains, or something like that, was the cause of spikes in the mains supply and as a result a handful of computers are no longer operational.

I'd like someone with electrical expert advice to shed some light on the issue.

Is it possible that my equipment could have that sort of effect on the property's wiring; thus causing sensitive computer hardware to fail?

Any comments are very welcome!

I'm about to double the lighting power consumption to 2.4kW, so if adjustments need making to the property's electrical wiring can someone let me know before I ram a room full of vital herbs then figure I need an electrician.

Cheers

First of all, their computers should be on surge suppressors so spikes shouldn't even be a consideration.

I think you're most likely dealing with issues due to your equipment sucking a lot of juice at lights on and leaving the computers without enough juice to keep things running properly. This puts a huge strain on the components.

Check the motherboards of the computers, right where the power supply plugs into it. (Big bunch of cables ending in a wide plastic plug)

There should be some can type capacitors there to regulate the incoming power. Usually a line of them. (On better motherboards you'll have 7 or 8 of them. They sort of look like little pop cans with a cross in the top of it)

Check the tops of them for bulging and leaking like they've been overpressurized.

If that's what they look like, you're not the cause of it. Those boards were built with capacitors with faulty electrolyte. There were BILLIONS of these stupid things installed in equipment all over the world.

They're still turning up.

Now....... IF this is the case, their computers would have eventually failed anyway. The drop in power that your lights turning on created (you didn't have them in a staggered timed start, did you? Even then the drop is pretty significant for a motherboard with bad capacitors.) would have worked those capacitors hard and caused them to fail a bit sooner.

I've replaced a LOT of those boards over the last few years and even some of my own equipment had a few show up. (Grrrrr)




If that's not the case and the capacitors look fine, well...... I'd say they're full of it and should buy better equipment that lasts longer.
These days they're using solid capacitors without fluid.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Just curious, but uh......

How much would it be worth for an electrician to set up a 2kw grow or so?

I know a good electrician and wouldn't mind throwing work his way, (blindfold him in and out, he's a great guy but nobody, not even me, needs to know your location. LOL) but it would come down to what size grow would be the minimum to make it worthwhile.

 

[PharmaCan]

You should post some information about the electrical set-up in your house - is it new/old, size of main panel, is the grow on separate circuits from the computers? I'll agree with most of the posters that this shouldn't be happening, but you never really know until you have all the facts.

PC

 

[nuggiespl]

Depending on the size of the room, new construction, old construction easy to run the wires where is the main pannel, etc. Kinda hard to say a price, but to give u an idea sometimes a close price would be to add up all the materials an double that and that would be laborer.. example materials for a 2k grow, just of the top, although there are a lot of variables lets say it cost $500 in materials, so laborer would be 1k +$500 materials = 1500 total. That price seems a lil high but all depends on amount of circuits, length of run, wire cost is the biggest cost, sub pannels are cheap. Thats how I would do it I would run a 120/240 50amp service from main to sub pannel and than branch out of that. I know the 50 amp service would be way over kill, 2k grow could almost run on a 20 amp breaker 2000w/120v=16.6 amps, 80% of 20 amps is 16, I would split it up at a min. Every circuit in my grow is dedicated, But I'm an electrician and know to size breaker to wire to equipment.

I will say Romex is good stuff to use but when using 12/3 in order black,red,white,bare copper. U have to have a 240 pannel to hook both Black and red up (black Aphase, Red B phase, or else u will burn the nerutral conductor up. As long as u make sure the black and red are on diff phases u are gravy, the easyiest way to check is with a volt meter 0v = no dif in potiental so same phase, 240v is what u want. Since u know what circuit is causing the problems I would go to ur pannel put a (clamp on amp meter) around ur neutral (white) See what u get, then I would put the clampon around the circuit. My guess Is u have gounded conductor problems = neutral or white wire. But also ungrounded and grounding problem could make any harmonic issue amplify. Hope this helps give me some more info. Will c what we come up with. Peace

 

[spiritlevel]

quick response to posters

quick response to posters

Thanks for the informative response folks..

blubullett I don't think I'm going to buy and test equipment this time round. I'm having my own little recession round here. Splitting my load is a good idea, but I've recently realised that not a single room in the house has a double switched outlet; they're all single sockets!! I Think that explains why there's around 3 6 way strips in each room. All these extension sockets, I think, are causing their own problem and possibly overloading every ring in the property.

I will certainly do the checks that you mention at the breaker board. I was almost an electrician but I smoked too much dope at college so never got round to being certified.

nuggiespl I shall read the link. I've heard of harmonic interference and its a possiblity. I was using Sunbeam ballasts in the past. This time round I'm going with 4 of the cheapest 600 ballasts I can find. They may well be Century brand. The total lighting will be 2.4kW as in 4 600W hps. The bloom room will be on a constant 12/12 from next month until I get fed up of growing.

Kush09 I too thought they were talking out there arse at one point. Even more so when i realised 2 of the damaged motherboards were rejects that I gave to the individual on the grounds I thought they were faulty. With that aside, if there is a problem, I'd rather sort it out than keep considering someone is trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

Hydro-Soil I will have a look at the motherboard components if I remember on my next mooch in the loft space. I know for sure that 2 of the computers were pretty naff when they arrived at the house.

PharmaCan I'm going to spend some time mapping the wiring. I'll figure out how its wired pretty soon and then I'll consider adding consumer unit on the first floor to feed my veg and bloom quarters.. In doing so I'll have the opportunity to add a few double switched outlets thereby making my installation a bit safer than using numerous 6 way strips.

Currently the main fuse board is in the room below the bloom room at ceiling height... It shouldn't be too much bother to run a wire and quaranteen the gro op load.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'll post an update to any progress I make over the next couple weeks.