need feed back from electrician or someone who knows about electrical grow setups

[scratchgrow876]

hey fellow cannabis lovers.im about to setup my grow room and i want to clear some things up.from my resesrch ive come to a conclusoin that a dryer outlet which is 220v at 30 amps has a capacity of 6600 watts so i can have 6 lights total but im only using 4 1000 watt lights so i can have more wattage and amps for fans and a T5 grow light.so my question is,is this setup safe enough?

 

[Jhhnn]

hey fellow cannabis lovers.im about to setup my grow room and i want to clear some things up.from my resesrch ive come to a conclusoin that a dryer outlet which is 220v at 30 amps has a capacity of 6600 watts so i can have 6 lights total but im only using 4 1000 watt lights so i can have more wattage and amps for fans and a T5 grow light.so my question is,is this setup safe enough?

Your question really belongs in the lighting section. You really don't want to draw more that 5760w (80%) continuously from a 240v 7200w 30A source. You also want to protect the equipment by using 15 or 20A breakers downstream from the 30A source. The cords aren't built to handle 30A in an overload situation.

You have a lot of unspecified variables-

3 wire or 4 wire dryer plug?

Separate 120v source?

120v accessories on the same timer cycle?

All of that matters. I've read some good thing about these guys-

http://www.dxsoundco.com/archive_home.html#Lighting_Controllers

Never used 'em, but it'd be hard to buy the parts much cheaper. It depends on how anonymous you want to be, as well. Their power thief might serve you well, properly configured.

There are others, I'm sure, but they've done this before & are obviously willing to tailor their product to your needs.

 

[rives]

I think that Jhhnn pretty well spelled out the various things that you need to be looking at. One caveat is that DXSound's cheaper systems will not meet code for residential applications - he doesn't use the downstream protection that was mentioned in Jhhnn's post. It is legal under one very specific set of circumstances which can never be met in a residential setting.

If you are at all competent at DIY, probably your best option is to get a small sub-panel with a dryer cordset and make your own portable load center that can plug into your dryer receptacle and give you the circuit protection that you need.

 

[bigge916]

4000W/240v = 17Amps

Those dryer outlets are typically ran with 10 gauge wire rated at 30amps.
You would not be able to run your accessories on the same circuit since they will be on 120v.

Get a 4 light controller(MLC-4) and wire it with 10-2 orange romex into a dryer plug.

 

[rives]

4000W/240v = 17Amps

Those dryer outlets are typically ran with 10 gauge wire rated at 30amps.
You would not be able to run your accessories on the same circuit since they will be on 120v.

Get a 4 light controller(MLC-4) and wire it with 10-2 orange romex into a dryer plug.

The ability to run the 120v components depends on whether or not the existing circuit is 3- or 4-wire. 3-wire will be 240v only, 4-wire will give the option of 120/240v.

The MLC-4 is a prime example of what we were referring to above - there is no internal fusing in the unit, so there is no protection for 15a components running on a 30a circuit. They won't meet code, and as a result can negate your fire insurance if you are unlucky enough to need it.

 

[hvac guy]

Rives is right, stay away from dxhydro, cap, powerbox, etc. Find a local electrician and ask him to build your unit to code. If you are DIYer, then some correct info from this forum can help you assemble it to code. I've built 100s of controllers. I can answer any question, Rives is an excellent source for electrical info.

 

[RonSmooth]

Sorry to hijack but can you explain what exactly a "controller" does?

 

[rives]

A controller is the switching that turns the power on & off to the lighting, and may include the timer, over-current protection, sequencing, over-temperature or smoke detection, or whatever other options you might want.

 

[hvac guy]

If you are using KIDDE smoke and heat detectors, you can add a SM120, it allows the signal output from the sensors to switch a relay.