DIY-Become a DIY home grower Electrical Engineers

diesel farmer said:
this is a commercial site and should be handled by a electrician, anyone who gives advice to this post is doing so in very poor judgement, I dont mean to be a kill joy but you should call the right peeps for the job on this one. Just my opinion as an electrician " the guy who does the work".
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Good advice DF. If I had a buck for every grow house fire I've heard of in the last year, I could probably make my house payment! :smokin:
 
G-Dog said:
Sure Diesel, being commercial makes it the wild blue yonder right?

It would almost be like an electrician doing something before an engineer had his say on it.

Most anything and everything in this thread could some how fall into the category of needing an electrician. With the unemployment rate as high as it is now I am surprised this thread has gone this far without that statement.

I have been playing with electricity professionally for 30 years and it all seems like a piece of cake with a little bit of grunt work. What we have to remember is that people are going to do stuff no matter what we say here and try to convince them to take the safest route. Having an electrician in my grow room is not always my first choice because one person tells another so on. And even though I have been designing very complex integrated electrical systems for many years, I have hired electricians to run sub panels for me so that it was supported correctly per code and looked nice.

At work I had to call an electrician just to change a light bulb. Union rules.
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Wild blue yonder, no, Illegal for an unlicensed person to do electrical work on a commercial building, yes. I really dont care if you turn your nose down to electricians or how many years you`ve been drawing plans, the "safest route" in this case is to hire a professional. He said it was 100% legal grow op so there shouldnt be an issue, besides its not even up and running yet, peace all!
 
"I have been playing with electricity professionally for 30 years and it all seems like a piece of cake with a little bit of grunt work."

That one sentence says a lot. Alot of book knowledge and no hands on knowledge. There's alot more to electrical work than just grunt work. Just a quick browse through the NEC book and you could tell that.

It's always irritated when people say how easy electrical work is, "all you do is tie black to black and white to white", ya right.
 
I had lots of jobs going to school. I was an electrician in the navy, worked as an apprentice electrician a bit in college, and I got a BSee degree. I am working on another degree too. Have I built a grow room or two in my life? Have I fished wire? I do it all the time for my homes and family and friends.

This is a DIY thread. That is the title. I do not disrespect electricians and in my 30 years I have met many thousands of them. I know electricity is dangerous and I am answerable for my answers, even here. Maybe a DIY thread on grow room wiring is not a good idea for this site, but I have never seen a grow board out there that didn't have several of them. Everything from making your own Ozone Generator to Blender Hash to Growing in the first place has it's risk. There should be some kind of boiler plate legal statement on the thread perhaps. But do not tell me that I am not hands on. I do everything from fix a dryer for a friend, help someone wire their shop or trouble shoot a very complex control circuit in a process assembly. I have gotten my hands dirty enough. I have been under old building bonding the piping with rats running across my flashlight beam.

Legal Disclaimer should be on every page of this thread.

Electricity can kill you and burn you up. It can burn someone else up and put you are risk for possible negligent homicide charges. If you do not understand any advice on thi thread do not proceed. Do not use any single answer on this site as a sole source of information. Google and research anything you are not sure of. Do not play too close to the margins, do not work in charged circuits and do not do anything that can put someone else or yourself at risk.


Now I have been shocked, and I have smoked equipment. It happens. Can a layman wire 8 outlets in a commercial dwelling? If I had one I would be doing it myself. If I had something that was exterior to the building like a cable being run to a sub panel I would probably have an electrician do that so that it looked professional.

Wiring 8 120v outlets 20 feet from a main panel is not rocket science.

Look at the shape of this place as it is. It is not code or salable as code in it's current condition.
 
G-Dog said:
I had lots of jobs going to school. I was an electrician in the navy, worked as an apprentice electrician a bit in college, and I got a BSee degree. I am working on another degree too. Have I built a grow room or two in my life? Have I fished wire? I do it all the time for my homes and family and friends.

This is a DIY thread. That is the title. I do not disrespect electricians and in my 30 years I have met many thousands of them. I know electricity is dangerous and I am answerable for my answers, even here. Maybe a DIY thread on grow room wiring is not a good idea for this site, but I have never seen a grow board out there that didn't have several of them. Everything from making your own Ozone Generator to Blender Hash to Growing in the first place has it's risk. There should be some kind of boiler plate legal statement on the thread perhaps. But do not tell me that I am not hands on. I do everything from fix a dryer for a friend, help someone wire their shop or trouble shoot a very complex control circuit in a process assembly. I have gotten my hands dirty enough. I have been under old building bonding the piping with rats running across my flashlight beam.

Legal Disclaimer should be on every page of this thread.

Electricity can kill you and burn you up. It can burn someone else up and put you are risk for possible negligent homicide charges. If you do not understand any advice on thi thread do not proceed. Do not use any single answer on this site as a sole source of information. Google and research anything you are not sure of. Do not play too close to the margins, do not work in charged circuits and do not do anything that can put someone else or yourself at risk.


Now I have been shocked, and I have smoked equipment. It happens. Can a layman wire 8 outlets in a commercial dwelling? If I had one I would be doing it myself. If I had something that was exterior to the building like a cable being run to a sub panel I would probably have an electrician do that so that it looked professional.

Wiring 8 120v outlets 20 feet from a main panel is not rocket science.

Look at the shape of this place as it is. It is not code or salable as code in it's current condition.
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Its not rocket science, and i`m sure you are more than capable of doing the job but when there is a picture of a piece of conduit that has been cut with 4 outlet circuits and a switch leg in it, thats a little more than the average joe can handle, besides being illegal to do the work, he could die doing it, I agree that this thread should be closed. Simple home electrical questions is one thing but you have to agree that this is a little different. What you and I consider simple isnt the case for people who dont do it for a profession, the thread should be limited to the home op or not at all, peace all, hope everyone has a great Holiday!!!
 
here is a link to a site that engineers, layman and electricians use. I hope that the site lets this fly. It is a great reference for electrical wiring.

Mike Holt
 
yes, that is a great site and I`m a member of it also, it is a site for electricians and if you arent one they will tell you to hire one and wont give advice to just anyone. Its a site for electricians on NEC code applications, questions and answers. This isnt the site for the home grower to ask questions, you will get rejected.
 
Wow, lots of opinions. I guess that's a good thing? ThNks for your intrest gentleman. I've made a decision to wire the breakers myself. I e done it several times. However I'm going to use the gray outdoor PVC conduit and run it just above the panel ( instead of up into the ceiling) an alon to the wall. How many much wire/ how many breakers will I be able to stuff into 1 piece of conduit? Thanks again and I assure you guys that I will be safe.
 
I would recommend that if you are going to do this, that you have either the advice of an electrician or a well drawn plan reviewed by the posters in this thread before you twist a single wire nut.....:)
 
simondetroit said:
Wow, lots of opinions. I guess that's a good thing? ThNks for your intrest gentleman. I've made a decision to wire the breakers myself. I e done it several times. However I'm going to use the gray outdoor PVC conduit and run it just above the panel ( instead of up into the ceiling) an alon to the wall. How many much wire/ how many breakers will I be able to stuff into 1 piece of conduit? Thanks again and I assure you guys that I will be safe.
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The NEC book/web will give you the number of wires you can put into the conduit (goes by wire size). Remember that if your conduit run has alot of bends and 90 degree cornors,(if more than 360 degree's) a junction box will have to be added. I always run larger conduit size than needed (I always need more unexpected power). Breaker size is determined by the load being fed by the breaker and use the proper size wire.
 
When sizing the conduit keep in mind the duty cycle of the loads. In other words, how long will the circuits be run in a 24 hour period. If you have loads that are say, "continuous" your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When you put cable in a conduit, your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When you cram too much wire in a group your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When cable has a tight bending radius it increases heat. When copper gets hot it's resistance increases. When the resistance increases it gets hotter and so on down the line. So with all of this, the needs of many a MJ Grow (Those that use HID lighting) should be built to commercial codes because of the large continuous loads that exist. I have been known in my work to always oversize everything to some degree. When I talk about playing too close to the margins, that is what I am talking about. In many cases code is over kill and in other cases it is the opposite. I would want to exceed code in any MJ grow or new home that I built. No 15 amp circuits and more outlets. Try to visualize and maintain a "fail safe" attitude. All things made by man can and will fail so you have to think what happens when it does. Heat detectors that shut off power at a certain set point is an example of fail safe.
 
G-Dog said:
When sizing the conduit keep in mind the duty cycle of the loads. In other words, how long will the circuits be run in a 24 hour period. If you have loads that are say, "continuous" your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When you put cable in a conduit, your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When you cram too much wire in a group your ability to dissipate heat is hindered. When cable has a tight bending radius it increases heat. When copper gets hot it's resistance increases. When the resistance increases it gets hotter and so on down the line. So with all of this, the needs of many a MJ Grow (Those that use HID lighting) should be built to commercial codes because of the large continuous loads that exist. I have been known in my work to always oversize everything to some degree. When I talk about playing too close to the margins, that is what I am talking about. In many cases code is over kill and in other cases it is the opposite. I would want to exceed code in any MJ grow or new home that I built. No 15 amp circuits and more outlets. Try to visualize and maintain a "fail safe" attitude. All things made by man can and will fail so you have to think what happens when it does. Heat detectors that shut off power at a certain set point is an example of fail safe.
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I totally agree with you, most grower do not understand the concept of overloading a electrical circuit and end up losing crops and homes.
 
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