Electricity Help

[famous]

I'm currently growing in a shed thats about 60'-75' away from my house, although i only have a 5000BTU A/C, 600W digital light, 1 6" Inline fan, and 1 10" oscilating fan, i'd really like to throw in another 600W, and i'm already running off of 2 extension cords as it is, from either side of the house.

I'd like to eliminate 1 of the extension cords, and hook up an outlet box in the room. I've made a heavy duty extension cord, using 12/3(20A) wiring, with 20A approved sockets in the box. i did a little research on google as to wire the box, its a 4 outlet box, and i wired the brass to black and silver to white to connect the outlets, and then cut 2 sections for the grounds, joined them, and then joined the cable to that, for the Male end of it, i bought a 20A grounded male fitting that i just hooked up to the wiring.

If the male outlet of my cord is plugged into a 20A receptical, that should be able to handle about 17A through one cord right?
The AC is 4.7A
The Light is 5A
The inline is 1.7A

A second light would mean another 5A, bringing the total with just those 4 things running to 16.4A, which puts a really tight tolerance if ever added additional fans or anything.
Considering i can't just call up an electrition to come out and wire up a shed to handle 2000W without being majorly suspicious, what are my options? Any suggestions?

heres a little shot of what im doing in it now:


and heres a shot of the room:

 

[gdawg]

for what you got runnin now sounds ok, but another 600... the digitals are nice cuz of no startup power spike. probably couldn't do it with the old school ballasts. ok as far as adding another 600, what does this outlet look like you want to plug into? is it flush mounted into a wall or is it an accesible box? you could tap directly into it and bypass your gfi, one less breaker to trip on ya. 75 feet thats a good lil run, i would want to go with 10/3 but i will check my uglys book to see if 12/3 will be ok. the a/c pulls 10-12 amps i believe, and the 600s 2.75 apiece(galaxy type) so your a/c is pulling twice the amperage as your lights pretty much. let me go look through my uglys book(recommend to all indoor techs!!) and i'll get back to ya in a lil while. peace

 

[famous]

The numbers i said(4.7 for the a/c, 5 for the lights) are accurate for my stuff. Its a digital fusion reflector/ballest, samsung ac, And ecoplus fan. I should be able to run 2 lights on one cord and the ac and fan on another, but that would
still be from 2 sides of the house. Thats what in trying to get rid of.

 

[gdawg]

ok your a/c pulls way less than mine, misread that. you say two sides of the house, so two different breakers. do you have a crawspace under your house? you could tie into your dryer line which is on a larger circuit and fairly easy to tie into if you have access. i got lucky in my current spot. the panel is behind the fridge so i run the wire out the panel, down the exposed wall, into a super tight hole in the floor i drilled. then took it 50 feet and back up to my control board. i still gotta check my book to see if the 12/3 is enough for ya. right now im thinkin go with the 10/3 to be safe and for future add ons. your stove will also be on a larger circuit. if you can get to them under the house we can walk ya through it bro and make it safe and easy.

 

[famous]

the way my house is set up, there is a main house and a separate mother in law unit, which is attached to the garage. The shed is closest to the seperate mother in law unit, which doesnt have a crawl space. I dont think I'd be able to tap into either dryer or stove lines. Ill have to go through the outside outlet, which I believe is a 20a. Ill look around to see if there is a 30a outlet to hook into

 

[panjo]

install another heavy duty 50 amp or so breaker in you house box and run a line to your shed. direct bury cable is best. then install a subpanel in the shed. sure its over kill now but you now have room for any expansion you may want to make in the future and more importantly you are protected now.
a fire will draw very much unneeded attention to what you are doing.

 

[gdawg]

yep what panjo said if ya got the cheese. its fairly simple. i brought 8/4 to this and can double my lights if i wanted. from the looks of your shed you'll be wantin to add another light after the next run.

 

[famous]

Could i get some explanation on how to attach a breaker to a box? 50a is way over kill isnt it? whats the price difference if i only ran 30a?
Whats in teh subpanel in teh shed?
The shed is 8'x8'x8', and i know i wont be wanting more than 1600W in lights alone, seeings as the electricity bill would be way too high, and all i have else to add to the room woudl be a dehumidifier(400w or so), so max watts would be about 2500W to be safe.
Isnt 50a wayy over kill?
Whats the difficulty level of installing a breaker/subpanel?

 

[famous]

yep what panjo said if ya got the cheese. its fairly simple. i brought 8/4 to this and can double my lights if i wanted. from the looks of your shed you'll be wantin to add another light after the next run.

are you saying that 2 600W isnt enough for 6 plants? i might add a clone/mother room, but that would be with just a couple 125 CFL's

 

[gdawg]

no, i'm sayin you will get to where you want more plants and light. and for your two lights, a/c and poss. dehuey a 30 amp would be fine, and its not the cost of the breaker but the cost of the wire size you go with that will be more. the subpanel is simple to install. you can do it i'm sure if you can wire an outlet and plug. not sure of the subpanel cost, mine was left over from a job, but the mechanical timer was 50 bucks @ home depot i would suggest using one. i overkilled on my wire size cuz i plan on addin on and i brought 22o to my sub cuz one of my older digis is wired for 220. ya 30amp breaker will be plenty for ya just holla if any questions, i'm sure you can do it.

 

[panjo]

50 amp is what i would go with for the main feed. after you install the subpanel you can then break down individual circuits and use whatever size breakers you desire. you can put your lights on one circuit, your exhaust on another smaller circuit, etc, etc, i can put up some pictures if you would like me to.

 

[gdawg]

panjo what size wire do you suggest? i think the 30amp. would work but i agree with you to go bigger just make sure the wire can handle it. it seems like i got 3 or 4 circuits in my sub and an empty slot for another, but one is a two pole breaker. a 20amp and 2 10amps i think. i was real high when i did it so i have to look @ it to remember the details. famous open up your house panel and take a pic for us to see what ya workin with. its simple and you have help bro

 

[panjo]

i used 6-2 with a ground. i only had to run about 25 feet. just to an adjacent room. i feel safer knowing that it is seperate from the rest of the house. as for running to the shed, a couple of things to take into consideration is how far from the house the shed is. this may change the size of the feed wire needed. also, think about what you may want to do in the future even if it is not likely. it is cheaper to overkill a project than to have to tear it out later and install larger cable. (or worse) install something that pulls more amperage than the cable is rated for. so.... dream big and install the cable that will do that.

 

[panjo]

i run 2 1000 watt, 1 400, a couple of exhaust fans, a dehumidifier, a very large air pump, a 150 in my mother chamber, 4 40 watt tubes in the clone box, a uvonair, and some things i cant even remember right now. probably wont need to go as heavy as me! unless one day you intend to.

 

[gdawg]

ok panjo just looked at mine and just as i suspected i was stoned, its 6/4 runs 60 feet and i run 4 digi 600s 1 digi 400 fans, pumps, but i got my a/c plugged to the wall. i gotta put some more outlets on my board but i'm about to move so it can wait. i tried to look on home depot to get a price for a subpanel but could'nt find one. i'm thinkin around 50-70bucks. i paid 120 for my wire but that shit goes up and down like gas. the timer was 50 bucks. dependin on what ya got already you could do this or somethin like it for 250-300 and not worry about trippin a breaker, and being able to plug in whatever you want. got a couple more pics in a minute..

 

[gdawg]

ya i was high this is what i got, way more than i need. the two pole breaker only runs 1 digi 600. i need to drop that to a 10 amp. the 30amp runs over to my timer, could probably slide with 20amp. the 15amp is for fans, pumps, and dehuey



got lucky to do this. push the fridge back in place can't see it.

 

[gdawg]

panjo see where i got highg and forgot to put my connecter ring on

 

[Guest]

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[blackone]

Do you have any options for just running a single 240V line instead?

Also be aware of the power factor - ACs and ballasts both have a power factor of less than 1 (Not sure about digitals?) so your amps might be quite a bit higher than what your effect suggests...

An example:
Assuming your 600W light is only using 600W total on a 120 line - with a power factor of 0.8 the current would be 6.25, not 5.

 

[famous]

Wow guys, thank you so much for all the help youve given me.

From what i've read, it looks like wiring a new breakerisnt that hard, here is my gist: split the cord, black to the breaker, white to the nuetral hookup in teh panel, and the ground goes to the ground bar in the panel. THen the breaker just clips onto the bar. From there, that (6/4) wire would lead into a subpanel, which is where i need a little explanation on setting that up, but it seems like the same, just in reverse.

Now i just need to convince my mom to let me **** with her electricity(im sure this will be the hardest part)