I’m in the planning stages of building out a new grow. I’m planning to run 2 sealed flower rooms and a veg room.
I’ve calculated the load and I’m at approx. 165 amps for the following:
30 Gavita pro’s, only 15 on at a time
3 Gavita pro’s, for veg on 18hr
2 quest 225’s, only 1 on at a time
20 wall fan, all on 24/7
4 36k btu mini splits, only 2 on at a time
5 10" inline fans, only 2 on 24/7, rest is to purge the sealed rooms few times a day, mainly at lights off.
couple pumps on timers, only on for a few minutes, a few times a day for feedings.
I’ve crunch the numbers and I’m at an over estimate load of 165amps. When I say over estimate the items like the inline fans, pumps are calculated as on 24/7 and items like the a/c and dehumidifiers are calculated at drawing full power which we all know the amp drawn on these items fluctuate by how hard they are working.
Anyways, that 165amps do not include items like my fridge, oven, laundry etc. I also don’t know if some of the bigger items like the a/c will have a surge in power when they initially start up. Also even though I’m running these rooms on a flip, when one room isn’t using the A/C for example I’m sure its still drawing some power, even though its not running.
I’ve read some journals with similar setups, actually some with a few more lights, all running off 200amps with no issues. Am I really over estimating my figures here… should I be concerned running the above setup off a 200 amp panel or am I good to go? I’m about 2 months away from starting this project. I’m meeting with an electrician next month whom probably can answer these questions for me but wanted to get feedback from the forums… thank you!
I would maybe run the normal house stuff off of a sub panel if possible where I grow at is a duplex it used to be one 80 amp service for both sides it’s now 80 amps on one side 200 on the other
I think you are gonna be close to the point of tripping breakers on a regular basis with the normal house load probably during that millisecond switch of power from one flower room to the other
Edit: I’m no sparky either I just pulled a lot of wire for them
If you did start having troubles with breakers tripping then you can help it a lot with a bit of smart planning and some decent control gear. Staggering everything so you dont have 2 large devices starting at the same time etc.
Edit: I used to be a sparky but many moons have passed since those days
With a room like that, you really should consider a sub panel dedicated to your grow. That’s what I did, and we’ll worth it.
I’m fortunate, I have 3 phase…so I have that split to 3 legs, 100 amps each on the supply side. (Back to 220 single phase for my lights)
It’d be no problem if your house/appliances weren’t a factor. Playing it close otherwise. That being said, as long as things are staggered so there isn’t too much overlap, it should be fine. You’ll know pretty quick when the breaker trips lol.
All this being said…yep, you could do it. But ask yourself why run that risk? If you are investing in a grow of that caliber, you really should have a dedicated sub panel for it. If for nothing else, the safety of you and your family.
And it sure would suck to get busted because your house burnt down.
Just food for thought…
I’m so happy to have found this forum. Its a lot more active than the other forums I’ve been a member on for years.
Thanks everyone for your replies and feedback, appreciate it.
I wasn’t to clear in my first post. I have a 200 amp main panel in a somewhat newer home. I have an electrician coming at the end of the month to review my layout and equipment list in more detail and come up with a game plan to wire it all up, all up to code. Will definitely at a minimum be running a 200amp sub-panel down into the grow area which may split into more panels… really up to the electrician to implement a design to suit my needs.
I do know he plans to have the a/c on timers to ensure the a/c is only on in one room at a time. Lots of fail safes in what he discussed with me. I plan to do the laundry, run dishwasher and cook etc when the veg room is lights out from 3pm-9pm. But who knows, maybe I have the extra load to not have to do these types of “lifestyle” changes… won’t know until I fire it all up.
If you haven’t purchased your lights yet maybe look into LEDs. You’ll cover the same area with ~60% or less power usage, plus better spectrum and less heat. The initial expens shouldn’t be much more depending on what you get, but they should pay for themselves in power bill savings pretty quickly.
I’ve looked into LED’s but IMO I like the double ended lamps better, plus the LED’s I would run are 5 times the cost per fixture and I would need to run 6 additional fixtures to cover the same footprint.
I’ve got 9’ ceilings in the space and always wanted to run Gavitas. I have friends who are using higher end LED’s and though i’m impressed, not as impressed as what I see in friends rooms running Gavita fixtures.
