Breaker Box or Sub Panel Question

[shaqattack]

Hi all,

I'm trying to educate myself on eletricity, breaker boxes, outlets etc.... I have a detached garage with it's own breaker box. I'm not sure if I should call it a sub panel or not. I'm assuming its run off the main breaker box from my house. The "sub panel" has 4 slots. Two slots have 20 amp breakers. One runs the lights in the garage and the other runs the 110 outlets. The other 2 slots have one 40 amp breaker (which occupies both slots). The 40 amp breaker runs only an electric stove/oven. It has the larger gauge wire and the big funny looking outlet. Is that what's called 240 line?

My main question is what is the approximate potential of equipment that I could run of this breaker box. I realize that I have to calculate the amps that each device uses. But before I get things going I'm wondering if I need a larger breaker box installed or not. Ideally id like to run a 600 watt bulb for a mother room and 4 600 watt bulbs for a flowering room - plus various fans and pumps as well as a dehumidifier.
Is it safe to assume that I Have 80 amps total. If a 600 watt bulb uses approximately 6 amps - that would leave me with 50 spare amps after the 5 600 watt bulbs.

Thanks for any input
Shaq

 

[Ms_Weekend]

40a would mean you could use 32a, 80% of the circuit

amp X volts = watts
watts / volts = amps

MAX
7000w @ 220v = 32a.......220 is 2 hots, or 2 110v lines(double pole breaker)

3500w @ 110 = 32a

Little wire info for you.
#14 wire is used for a 15A circuit.
#12 wire is used for a 20A circuit.
#10 wire is used for a 30A circuit.
#8 wire is used for a 40A circuit.

 

[Makk]

You didn't say what size wire is feeding that panel, How long is the feeder? Tis important.

 

[lid]

The 40 amp is a 220v breaker. i would run your light off this at 220v. And everything else off the 20 amp breakers.

 

[lid]

You didn't say what size wire is feeding that panel, How long is the feeder? Tis important.

I'm running 6/3 under 50'

 

[shaqattack]

I'll have to check the gauge of thee feeder wire. The garage is about 60' from the main panel. It was all there when we bought the house. The previous owner worked on cars in the garage.

 

[PharmaCan]

What Ms. Weekend said is true, but she's just counting what's available from the 40 amp/240v breaker. You have the same potential from the other two slots.

BTW - when talking about electricity 110v ~ 120v mean the same thing and 220v ~ 240V mean the same thing. Don't let it confuse you if they are used interchangeably.

That is a sub-panel in the garage.

All in all, it looks like you have more than enough power for what you want to do.

PC

 

[shaqattack]

All in all, it looks like you have more than enough power for what you want to do.
PC

Sweet that's what I was hoping to hear!!

 

[resinryder]

You could add this to your 40 amp/240 service-
http://www.hydroempire.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/12/products_id/646
You can run all the lights you want with this system. There are other systems out there that can run up to 10 240 ballast and 4 or 5 110 lights off of a 60amp 240 service.

 

[lid]

At 60' i would make sure its 6/3 wire. I think the max u can go to a 50 amp sub-panel is 75' with 6/3. Besides that i wish i could have been so lucky to have one in place already.

 

[shaqattack]

You could add this to your 40 amp/240 service-
http://www.hydroempire.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/12/products_id/646
You can run all the lights you want with this system. There are other systems out there that can run up to 10 240 ballast and 4 or 5 110 lights off of a 60amp 240 service.

Thanks for the input - I looked at those, they looked like a great solution but I was concerned on what to do if they break down or malfunction. Plus I didn't see a lot of people using those here in the forums? I'll definitely have to look into them more. Does anyone know if these multi lamp lighting relaysystems are reliable?

 

[shaqattack]

Besides that i wish i could have been so lucky to have one in place already.

LOL - tell me about it - even a squirrel like mecan find a nut once in a while. Thanks for the reply.