DIY-Become a DIY home grower Electrical Engineers

Love having a diagram but I'm still not quite sure which direction to go. Not because of advice of course but because I have been given a "Portable Power Center" made by JP Nolan & Co. It is model 52008 as seen in this link:

Welcome to JP NOLAN & CO.

This seems a bit sketchier than the sub panel ideas but anyone have an opinion or experience with these?
 
mrgreengenes said:
Love having a diagram but I'm still not quite sure which direction to go. Not because of advice of course but because I have been given a "Portable Power Center" made by JP Nolan & Co. It is model 52008 as seen in this link:

Welcome to JP NOLAN & CO.

This seems a bit sketchier than the sub panel ideas but anyone have an opinion or experience with these?
Click to expand...

Use these @ site construction all the time. Durable units, but more of a temporary device.....
 
Hogdady said:
Use these @ site construction all the time. Durable units, but more of a temporary device.....
Click to expand...

Temporary isn't a bad thing as we will be selling our house in the next 3-4 years. I can patch holes and paint but the less of it I have to do the better. And I think we may have better luck selling the place with a bedroom as opposed to a grow room. Depends on who is buying I suppose. I am utilizing tents at the moment for the same reason. Regardless I'd love to use this Power Center since it's a freebie. I'm just not sure how to "plug it in". It is a mystery box to me at the moment.

panel_1.jpg


My 50A wiring is 2 black - 1 white (no ground). I could make the whole subpanel temporary I suppose like the christmas light freaks do:

DSC00815.png


Any reason to avoid this power center other than it being temporary HD?
 
mrgreengenes said:
DSC00815.png


Any reason to avoid this power center other than it being temporary HD?
Click to expand...

Are ther breakers inside? How do you plan on connecting it to a power source?
 
I would use the square D laod center, I`m guessin there is double duplex recepticles behind those 2 gang covers GFCI protected, breakers behind the square D cover, run a 6/3 romex from the load center to yer 50 amp breaker and you will be set, easier said than done i`m sure. If you can get it there you are going to want to put the red and black to the 50 amp breaker and the white and bare copper to the neutral/ground bussbar, at the load center you will land the red and black on load 1 and load 2 and the white to the neutral buss and the bare copper to the ground buss, peace man!
 
Hey guys how would I make use of the 220V outlet that is in my living room? Its about 50 feet from the grow room. Tried looking up an extension cord for it but they are like $200.
 
MYzz, why is there 220v in the living room?

You say you rent, so your options may be limited. Depending on your layout you could run wire from the breaker that feeds that outlet to your grow or you could use the outlet as a junction box and run wire from that to your grow room.

What size breaker do you have protecting that outlet? You may want to figure out the wire size too.

No matter how you slice it you will have to spend a buck or two getting power to your grow.
 
G-Dog said:
No matter how you slice it you will have to spend a buck or two getting power to your grow.
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And you won't be done spending money there......
 
Hogdady said:
Gotta disagree here. Using the existing 50a, 220v breaker as a subpanel feed gives much more flexibilty for adding circuits as possibly needed. The subpanel will have individual breakers for circuit protection, with the option of running 220v lighting, if needed.
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Yeah Hog, that would be a better solution.. I guess the difference in our solutions is where the sub panel would be. I thought he posted a pic of his panel now.. but can't find it. A sub panel would be right, I just thought it would be next to the old panel. What was done, how was it done. Most likely if I liked the house a lot, I would add electric layout to the inspection. Though I would still worry about high humidity or over stressed floors, or something.

I would also consider re-sell value of what ever you are doing. For me, looking to buy a house that has a bedroom with a 50 amp sub panel, will make we think twice about buying the house. I would wonder what else they did with the wiring in the house.

While having each outlet on a separate 15/20 amp breaker in a bedroom, the house buyer wouldn't notice this till after the sale. So it wouldn't effect the sale. Neither would having more than usual wall outlets in a bedroom, unless you went over board.

Prairie
 
PrairiePoet said:
G-Dog said:
MYzz, why is there 220v in the living room?[/QUOTE

A lot of older rentals will have a 220 under a window. A 220 A/C unit is cheaper to run than a 110 when it needs to cool a larger space than a single room.

Prairie
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Hate to do this again, but I gotta disagree. There is no energy cost advantage to 220v over 110v. The only difference is the amperage. The only significant advantage is the lower cost of wiring the circuit, as the conductor size is smaller for 220v due to the lower amperage.....:)
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I have had window AC units on 120 volt, 20 amp, dedicated circuits in my own home and that was the answer. Not only do I have a nice robust outlet for my window unit, but I could use the same circuit for a steam cleaner or whatever. Never seen a 220 volt circuit in the living room of any house to be honest. Not that it would never happen, just never seen it. I suppose in some places where the living room doubles as the dining room and washroom there would be a 220v circuit, but then there would be all that dryer ducting and whatnot.

Where I live AC is not a necessity. My climate is generally tempered by the ocean. :)
 
If done right, a sub panel in your home would increase your value. Lots of people love having the flexibility of lots of power for whatever reason.

The idea of a sub panel is to take one circuit (one cable) to one location where there are lots of reasons to spider off of it in both voltages. Every shop, grow op and other ideas come to mind.
 
The 220V in the living room is there because of the AC I have. I believe it is a 20AMP breaker. Has two breakers connected that both say 20 on it, doubt its 40amps.
 
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