Re-wiring ballast

[Hammerhead]

The main panel has a 30a breaker that goes to my controller that also has a 30 and a 15 breaker the 30 goes to the 4 240v receptacle. I have 3 600w ballast ea is 3amps that only 9 amps Im good until 12amps. The 15 goes to the trigger..


I only needed 2 not 10 or a case The 2nd link you provided is whats being sent

 

[Hammerhead]

Looks just like this but made by a different vendor. This unit does not have a neutral wire in the 240v so I dont know how they got UL on this on.. Mine has 4 prong with the neutral

 

[Iron_Lion]

Looks just like this but made by a different vendor. This unit does not have a neutral wire in the 240v so I dont know how they got UL on this on.. Mine has 4 prong with the neutral

That has 2 cords, 1 for the 240v and 1 for the 120v. You need 2 circuit to run that controller.

There is 2 types of 240v

240v (3 wire) is 2 hots and a ground < to be used as 240v only

240v (4 wire) 2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground < to be used for combo of 240v/120v like your standard house hold panel some dryers and some stoves.

 

[Hammerhead]

I dont know why you guys dont understand what im saying its pretty straight forward . I have 2 cords in mine as well it would not work without it.. The 120v trigger is for all timed outlets. So I have 4 240v timed and 2 120v timed look at my schematic above . as you can see that controller has 3 no neutral wire so where is this controller getting its natural from???

 

[Iron_Lion]

I didnt see 2 cords in your pic HH.

Controllers are made in 2 different ways some have the 240v 4 wire (in one cord) and can be used for one voltage or the other but not both, and some are 240v 3 wire and 120, with 2 cords like the one you have.

I didnt realize yours had 2 cords, in that case we could have saved a few pages or typing lol.

oh well fuck it

 

[joe fresh]

Out of curiosity, how are you keeping track of how your ballasts are set up? You now have both 120v and 240v ballasts with the same plug configuration on them.

well in my grow all my 240v ballasts are hard wired directly to the breakers(no plugs)

and the ones im rewireing are going in another room in a completely diff area for a breeding project. this other room is very far from the breaker box so i plan to use the existing plugs in the wall, ive checked in the breaker panel and each room in this house has a 15a braker for each room, unlike some houses that have one breaker for 2 or 3 rooms.

so basically my 240v ballasts are hard wired to my breaker panel and the 120v are going in a complete diff part of the building so there is no worries of me mixing it up

 

[Hammerhead]

Why do we need a Neutral wire? My stove has a three-prong plug...
Any home built after about 1996 will have been built with four-wire grounded outlets for ranges and dryers -this change was mandated in the 1999 NEC & became the national requirement. The reason is that there are clocks, timers, solenoids & other devices in these appliances that operate on 120 volts. Prior to the change, the neutral wires inside the appliance were connected to the ground terminal with a wire or strap and then were connected with the three-prong cord. The neutral is the "grounded conductor" so they just used the ground as their neutral. The reason for this code change is that the grounding conductor is not a current-carrying conductor -it is there for a return path to ground in case of a fault. These non-compliant appliances were creating a hazard throughout the home's grounding system by using the ground as a current carrying conductor. A straight 240 volt device can be directly wired to a three wire 240 volt system but these appliances are 120/240v devices and therefore require a neutral conductor to carry the current of the 120v circuits within. The reason the air conditioner whip shown above doesn't have a neutral wire is that it is a made for a direct-wired 240v device in which none of the internal parts operate on 120v, so it doesn't need a neutral wire.
Wiring an appliance or a lighting controller using the ground in place of the neutral is the equivalent of wiring a grounded 120 volt outlet with just two wires and simply connecting the ground terminal to the neutral & calling it done. Not in my house!
The ground needs to have a separate path to earth to do it's job of dissipating current in the event of a malfunction. The growroom environment mixes electricity and water -Not a good place to have a defective grounding system!

I don't generally "bash" other manufacturer's products, but...

What's wrong with this picture?
Hint: What does the neutral wire of the 120 volt receptacles connect to?
Answer: THE GROUND

This really surprises me, coming from Sunlight Supply/NGW, a "leader" in the indoor horticulture market.
You would think they would know better! This is a lawsuit & possibly a fatal accident waiting to happen.
I contacted them regarding this flaw without any response so they can't say they didn't know.

 

[Hammerhead]

Here is a diferant pic. This is the controler I bought.. The only difrance is the red cover panel for 240v

 

[Iron_Lion]

it is surprising that SLS doesnt do shit right.

neutral and ground are only separated for safety reasons, so the ground never carries live current and the white carries the unbalanced load.

 

[Hammerhead]

I agree... I dont know if people that have bought that sunlight controller are aware of the potential hazard with it. I chose to have mine custom built to code so I thought. After speaking with him he told me that if I would have told him I needed 6-15 he would have installed them. So it was my fault for not telling him to do that.. The 240v is to code with the neutral included

 

[rives]

The main panel has a 30a breaker that goes to my controller that also has a 30 and a 15 breaker the 30 goes to the 4 240v receptacle. I have 3 600w ballast ea is 3amps that only 9 amps Im good until 12amps. The 15 goes to the trigger..


I only needed 2 not 10 or a case The 2nd link you provided is whats being sent

The part that I bolded above is what concerned me, HH. You have (or are getting) receptacles that are rated at 15 amps and you are feeding them with 30. In order to feed your ballasts with a 30 amp breaker, you should be using 6-30 receptacles and plugs, as well as #10 wire going to the ballast. Obviously, this would be way overkill, so you would be better off downsizing the breaker feeding the receptacles.

 

[Hammerhead]

That's the best I can do for you 2... The controller will be used as soon as the new parts are installed..Im not the vendor. I know of 8 people here on ICM that have this controller

 

[Iron_Lion]

The part that I bolded above is what concerned me, HH. You have (or are getting) receptacles that are rated at 15 amps and you are feeding them with 30. In order to feed your ballasts with a 30 amp breaker, you should be using 6-30 receptacles and plugs, as well as #10 wire going to the ballast. Obviously, this would be way overkill, so you would be better off downsizing the breaker feeding the receptacles.

good catch rives!


what this mean is the tripping point for the breaker is 30 amps, but the melt down point for those receptacle is 15. so if you over load that circuit the plugs are going to melt and burn long before the breaker trips.

it *really* only becomes dangerous if you are sucking more than 20 amps.

the SLS controller is correct, HH's is not.

 

[rives]

That's the best I can do for you 2... The controller will be used as soon as the new parts are installed..Im not the vendor. I know of 8 people here on ICM that have this controller

It's not for us, HH, it's for you. We're just on here trying to help people understand what is considered to be a safe installation by the people who have been establishing electrical standards for the last 100 years. If you choose not to do that, at least you will be going into it with your eyes open.

 

[Hammerhead]

I just got of the phone with him. He told me to stop posting as you guys ar nit picking at everything.. You should call DX HYDRO if you have any further questions. I can not explain it properly to you..

http://www.dxsoundco.com/


There are 2 breakers 1 is 10a and one is 20amp for a total of 30amps. The receptacle he is sending are 20amp... You guys have a great day

 

[rives]

I just got of the phone with him. He told me to stop posting as you guys ar nit picking at everything..

Now that's funny!

There are 2 breakers 1 is 10a and one is 20amp for a total of 30amps. The receptacle he is sending are 20amp... You guys have a great day

You hadn't mentioned that the circuit was broken up like that, or I didn't see it. Sounds fine. Have a nice day.

 

[Hammerhead]

Just to be clear here my controller is correct the SLS controller is not. You are not allowed to use the grd as your natural..