Upgrade Halide/Canopy Build

Doors are going on tommorow....Then the trim. Only thing left will be wiring a socket in the house from another circuit to accomodate the Halides, Timer etc.....

 

How many amps per ballast do those pull on 110v?

My magnetic ones pull 4 amps @ 110v each and 2 amps @ 240v

 

Well I am trying to get a good answer on that actually. It does not give me that info in the paperwork. I called them and they said they will call back with the info. I am guessing about 3-4 amps per ballast. I checked my breakers and they are all 20amp. If things go right. The circuit I am going to use is only for the dishwasher and garbage disposal. That should handle it. I bought a heavy duty programmable timer that will handle 15amps. It is for pool pumps...etc.. I have seen 3 400w ballasts plugged into the same outlet at my LFS. I am not that worried about it.

 

ya thats cool. I have read somewhere (i'm not sure if it valid though) that if you divide watts by the line voltage it equals amps. But i didn't know if that was still applicable to electronic vs. magnetic (or if its applicable at all)
400w/110v = 3.63 amps
400w/240v = 1.66 amps

But i have heard that bulbs start easier and ballast last longer with the electronic versions. Maybe someone else could shed some light on this though. With my 3-400w lights i went ahead and ran its own circuit seperate from the outlets in my living room. Otherwise i would draw 12amps just to run the lights off a 15 amp breaker. And since i had to run its own line i went aheadand did it with 240v. Honestly it was a bit of a pain to do but i didn't want to trip breakers if the wife ever fired up a vaccum or something else, trip the breaker while i was gone and not know what to do about it. The part that made it a pain was location of electrical panel and location of where the 100' of 10-2 romex had to be routed.

 

That is my problem. The breaker is in the garage..My tank is on the opposite side of the house..and it is a 2 story, so no wall drops. I do have the 240v A/C mini-breaker box on the other side of the wall outside. I dont know if you could run a leg through the wall from that without tripping the circuit. I am broke from all the project money spent. Maybe an electrician can chime in on that...How about it ReefSparky?????

 

ya reefsparky would be a good choice. He's a brilliant/knowledgable poster.
My scenario here was the elec panel is at the farthest part of the garage mounted between studs with finished walls. Concrete floor straight down, so i could either route wire straight up, or straight out the back (thats what i did). Then ran wire through conduit along the house until it went beyond the garage to the exterior wall of the bedroom. Then i drilled a hole through the plate (wood mounted on top of foundation). Then i had to crawl under the house and staple the wire to the floor i beams all the way to the opposing corner of the house (below DT). Then did the same hole drilling through plate and mounted an exterior elec box on the outside wall the DT is up against. You too might be able to crawl under the house if the DT is located up against an exterior wall?
I'll try and post a pic of the lay-out if it would help
The red is the 10-2 romex, once it goes through the house it is actually under the house, once fed to the exterior elec box i drilled a hole through the wall and ran a piece of conduit through it then fed wires through to 240 outlets. Then i put a matching plug on the end of the MH socket wires so i could plug them in and unplug them if i remove the canopy.

(click pic to elarge)


This is the plug/outlet inside the house behind DT. There are three outlets for the 3 sockets and a fourth 240v outlet with a switch for my reeflo hammerhead closed loop pump


This is the exterior elec panel that host my ballast and contactor so i can turn lights on/off with a 110v plug (to eventually plug into a controller.


I know its not the prettiest of set-ups but being on a budget as well, this is what i was able to scrum up. A lot of people may advise against the standard 240v outlets for the lightsockets to plug into since they are wired directly to the ballast, but i am the only one that knows they are there and will never plug anything else into those (just as an FYI). Also i'm not an electrician nor do i know anything about it so this maybe a foolish method and i'm sure some may voice their opinions on it, i just wanted to show you for an idea. Hope it helps.

 

CrazyA...That is awesome. I am not fortunate enough to have a basement. I finished the doors and wired up the halides. Test fired everything in the garage..All ok. Brought it in the house and plugged into the circuit I am going to use. Held up just fine. Pics in a few minutes.

 

Door Install

Ok, got the doors and the false center all done...I like the way it came out.

 

Piggybacking off of your A/C line will most likely not work. It would work fine in the winter, but as soon as you turn your A/C on, it will overload the circuit.

 

Lighting Install

Mounted and wired the ballasts and fired these bad boys up!!! It is ALIVE!!!