Short rant on the electrical situation in my new apt.

[qbert]

Just a little pissed and wanted to rant. Can't exactly do so to real people in my life, as they wouldn't exactly understand (also, see rule #1).


Started moving into the new apt where I'll start my little op. Mapped out the breaker box. Had seven 15 amp breakers on the box, and while I doubted they were all for my apt I figured great I should be fine.


So last night I mapped em out. Flip. Nothing goes off. Flip. Nothing goes off. Flip. Nothing goes off. Fuck. WTH.

Flip. Off goes BOTH bedrooms - overheads and ALL outlets, one of the bathrooms (the one adjacent to the bedrooms), couple of miscellaneous overhead lights, including one in the hall not even in the apt.


The whole damn apt. only has three 15a breakers - that big one, one for the living room, and one for the kitchen.


Now I'm not really sure where to put shit. Winter should be fine, but in the summer with ACs I don't know how I'm going to do this. Don't exactly wanna snake big fat extension cords from the kitchen through the living room through a bedroom and into the final bedroom. Yeah, that won't raise any suspicion....

The cab will be a 400w hps, 220w cfl, fans, etc. Was going to be all-in-one, but now I might need to do two cabs - flower in the bedroom and mums/clones in the living room (eeks!).

Argh. Worst part, landlord was like, "hrm, that's odd, 60a is code and when I had the electricians here the said it was up to code."

Oh yeah, then I found the fridge alone - with a totally unusable stuck in the corner behind the fridge clear in the opposite end of the apt from the bedrooms, etc. - its on a 4th 15a breaker.

So I feel a little assed out on this one. Hell if I'm going let it wreck my plans, though. Just not going to be as simple as I had hoped.



/rant. Thx for listening internets.

 

[Ripshot]

so you have breakers in your panel for neighbouring appartments? Thats not good.

 

[qbert]

Panel's in the hallway. Not sure what the other breakers are for, but probably not other apts actually. The landlord and I will be mapping those out shortly to see.

 

[Ripshot]

thats cool that your landlord is willing to map those out with you. where were you planning on setting up? a closet?

 

[qbert]

The bldg is actually owned by a close relative, who lives in one of the apt's (4 residential and a small commercial in the bldg).

I've been here going on 3 years, and am moving from a 1 bd to a 2 bd apt actually this weekend, so I have a good bead on how things flow around here.

I'll be setting up in a stealth cab in plain sight. Closets can't provide the keep-out stealth I need, but a dresser can.

 

[ItsAllOver]

I think you can overcome this since you are only doing a small grow. 15A should be fine. Especially since the breaker is in the hallway. Don't worry about snaking ext cords everywhere.

 

[qbert]

thx. I'm sure I will make it work. I was just pissed when I found out the situation (expected better). In fact, after researching bonsai mums more today I realized I had considerably overestimated the wattage I'd need, so that helps a lot. The only possible problem will be in the summer with the AC running, but I'll make it work come hell or high water.

 

[whodair]

400w in a dresser?? didnt know that possible. sounds cool to me

 

[qbert]

Armoire's probably a better term. It's going to be kinda big. Flower area I'm aiming for a good 6 sq ft of floor space and around 5 ft tall.

Light will be in an air cooled hood being pushed by an S&P td-150 fan. There will also be a S&P td-200 ventilating the cab through a Can-Filter 33. It may be tough to keep the wooshing noise in check, but the room allows me to patsy the sound well, and the arrangement of the apt makes it extremely unlikely that anyone will get near the bedroom except me and the GF.

I think it will be possible. I can control my ambient well, assuming there's enough juice to power the window AC in the summer months. I am a little nervous about how much heat this cab will pump into the room. I run a few small servers in a closet in the building and that thing warms up a big damn area, and the wattage pumping through the cab will be at least equal to that.

Lots of planning going into this, and sparing no expense when it comes to stealth.