Electrician Please

coldcanna · Oct 21, 2016

I am wiring a room right now and want to double check that I am interpreting the charts right. There will be 9 Gavita Pro 1000s, these draw 5.3 amps running on 240v and 1150 watts. That's about 48 amps. The run is about 25ft long from panel to receptacles. I want to have 2 circuits, 4 lights on one and 5 on the other just for some redundancy and for the sake of using smaller wire. So if the circuits are double pole 30 amp breakers the chart says 4 gauge wire. But if your running 3 wire with 2 hots for 240 do you divide the load by 2.... so you could run 30 amps on 8 gauge wire if there's 2 hots?

99 plants · Oct 21, 2016

i want some free work to.

dansbuds · Oct 21, 2016

for 30 amp circuts 10 gauge wire is fine at 50ft or less . you up the wire size only if you go over 50ft or up the amperage to 40amps .
a roll of 10/2 romex is what you want if your only running 240 volts off it . 10/3 if you need a neutral wire for anything .

10/2 is 2 hots & a bare ground . 10/3 is 2 hots 1 neutral & a bare ground .

some of these 30 amp control panels they sell need a neutral for a built in timer , so they require the 4 prong plugs that hook into a dryer recepticle instead of the standard 3 prong plugs .

oh yeah ..... 5 lights max on a 30amp circuit ! you need to stay under the 80% usage of amperage on the circuit for safety sake .

what are you going to use for a timer ? you could do like i did & use a 240 volt time clock . they're rated for 40 amps & its a mechanical timer . run your feed lines into that & just drop off a box or 2 in your case with your outlets in them .

but do it the right way ! not like i did with the 110 volt outlets lol , especially if someone else might be plugging & unplugging things in there . its only me here & i just used what i had . the cords on digi ballasts don't matter what plug it get the juice from , the ballast recognizes the input voltage whether its 110 or 220 .

dansbuds · Oct 21, 2016

99 plants said:
i want some free work to.

my momma always told me that if you have nothing nice to say .... don't say anything !!! wtf ???

coldcanna · Oct 21, 2016

I'll be using the Gavita EL2 controller as a timer Dans.... you run low voltage wire from that to the ballasts and they shut off digitally, no timers in the old school sense of the word. Thanks for the input, I think I'll run 8 gauge just to air on the side of caution.

And yea I don't know why someone would take the time to comment in a thread and contribute nothing of value.

99 plants · Oct 21, 2016

dansbuds said:
my momma always told me that if you have nothing nice to say .... don't say anything !!! wtf ???

either you down with the mob or nuh. what i said was neutral.

mdgg4 · Oct 21, 2016

Dan you running "little gray box"? Those timers are indispensable never fail. I run a 100amp main panel that the gray boxes feed from at 50amps per timer. But those gray boxes rock!
PEACE!

coldcanna · Oct 21, 2016

mdgg4 said:
Dan you running "little gray box"? Those timers are indispensable never fail. I run a 100amp main panel that the gray boxes feed from at 50amps per timer. But those gray boxes rock!
PEACE!

Thats just a heavy duty intermatic timer isnt it?

AppliedScience · Oct 21, 2016

You can also run the Gavita Master Lighting Controller EL1/EL2. Dims down to 50% over 2C(3.6F) to directly keep your temps in range as well as letting you set a high-temperature shutoff at any point above that. Also has sunrise/sunset dimming if you buy that theory. Well worth it imo.

dansbuds · Oct 21, 2016

Yup , just an intermatic time clock 220 volt ...... most dependable timer i've ever seen !

mdgg4 · Oct 22, 2016

coldcanna said:
Thats just a heavy duty intermatic timer isnt it?

Yep, just an intermatic timer. Those timers you can damn near trust your life on them, they won't fail! My only problem with the gavita timers I believe is price, proven reliability"for years", and the fact that I believe they can only be ran with gavita ballasts which won't work for me I as I run digital, magnetic and de ballasts. I need something to fire all my shit up all the time.

PEACE!

AppliedScience · Oct 22, 2016

The thing is it'a $100 to add a high temp shutoff so its not really all that much more if not losing your crop is worth that much to you.

On reliability, theres close to no electricity running through it, it just signals your ballasts through phone cables. It may even save you money on relay timers depending on how many lights you have running.

You can hook up a contacter for your other lights and equipment through it. Its about $70 for thiers, but you can jerry-rig them as its a 5v feed if you're handy.

coldcanna · Oct 22, 2016

I will be buying the Gavita EL2. If you ask me it's a steal for the price against functionality at $300. It can run 80 lights, and can controller 2 seperate light schedules if you do flip flop rooms. Combine that with the high temperature cut off I think your doing pretty well. A similar unit that controllers even 10 lights would be running you double that.

coldcanna · Oct 22, 2016

But back to the original question. Can anyone else comfirm what Dan and I talked about. 10-2 wire can handle 5 lights running at 240v ? Or should I spend some extra and get 8 #

Shovelhandle · Oct 22, 2016

10-2 w/ground will handle (5) 1000 Watt, 240 Volt lights. However, long distance circuits need to be factored for voltage drop. What is the distance?

AppliedScience · Oct 22, 2016

Yeah I get 22 amps after the power supply losses if you run them at 1000w (1060w draw), and you have 24 amps of capacity at an 80% load.

coldcanna · Oct 22, 2016

Shovelhandle said:
10-2 w/ground will handle (5) 1000 Watt, 240 Volt lights. However, long distance circuits need to be factored for voltage drop. What is the distance?

Distance is about 25-30ft. Also it should be noted that the Gavitas have a setting to run at 1150 watts, which they list as drawing 5.3 amps in the user manual. So that'd be like 27 amps give or take for 5 lights on a circuit.

Bud Green · Oct 22, 2016

CC, your circuit length of 25-30 ft. is fine.
Like Dan says, 10 gauge for a 30 amp circuit..
But it sounds like you want to pull 27 amps? you might want to consider a 40 amp circuit, using 8/3/ + ground, romex.
On a 220A, 2 pole circuit,I like to use cable with 2 hot wires, a neutral wire and a ground, just so if you later decide to have 110 recepticles (for small fans or whatever) you have the neutral wire available...

coldcanna · Oct 22, 2016

Bud Green Sr. said:
CC, your circuit length of 25-30 ft. is fine.
Like Dan says, 10 gauge for a 30 amp circuit..
But it sounds like you want to pull 27 amps? you might want to consider a 40 amp circuit, using 8/3/ + ground, romex.
On a 220A, 2 pole circuit,I like to use cable with 2 hot wires, a neutral wire and a ground, just so if you later decide to have 110 recepticles (for small fans or whatever) you have the neutral wire available...

Ok I'll bump up the breakers to 40 that makes sense. I was thinking 2 x 240 circuits for lights then prob 2 or 3 more 110 circuits for fans, deheuy ect. A buddy of mine spent some time as a sparky so he'll be doing a lot of the work, just need to make sure its all engineered right and I buy the right shit

dansbuds · Oct 22, 2016

coldcanna said:
Distance is about 25-30ft. Also it should be noted that the Gavitas have a setting to run at 1150 watts, which they list as drawing 5.3 amps in the user manual. So that'd be like 27 amps give or take for 5 lights on a circuit.

if thats the case , then yeah go with the 8 gauge wire & 40 amp breakers like Bud said , that way you'll be under the 80% load capacity .
the neutral wire in the 8/3 is up to you , but i always run it so i can change things around later if needed .

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