I've tried to look for information on my concerns for grow-ops. I know fires happen a lot, but all they say on the news is it was related to wiring or lamps. And there's mold issues, but does that only apply to large operations, or is there a significant danger in small rooms with a couple of plants? Can't find this info anywhere on the net. What I want to know is: 1) WHY wiring causes fires. Is it because someone spliced a wire already in use, overloaded a circuit, left wires exposed? If you install a new, seperate circuit running your light, and your light is the only thing running on this circuit, and it has it's own breaker, and it was installed with new wires, what is the fire risk? 2) If there is a 1000 Watt lamp in the room with good air circulation, will this lamp heat up to the point where it may catch something (panels, the plants themselves) on fire? 3) Will a simple intake/exhaust system be sufficient to quash mold concerns? Will covering the walls in plastic prevent mold from infesting the walls? 4) Is there any kind of flame retardant coating that you can put on your walls? Appreciate it.
1. Overloaded circuit is most common. If you install correct size wiring and breaker, you're fine. 2. No. Unless they were hugging it directly for hours on end. 3. Yes, and clean up dead leaf materials, dont splash water everywhere etc. 4. Yea, they make flame retardant gypsum / drywall. Its not cheap.
Whoa you have the danger priorities all wrong. The first and foremost danger on the top of the danger scale is the police. NN77 covered it pretty well. Mold -> wash everything with a bleach soln and keep the room clean and humidity in the 40% - 60% range. Overloaded circuits and old wiring. A 1K light will not "ignite" the room -> the heat will kill everything though. Stay with known brands and plan ahead
You realize, don't you, that you're going to burn your parents' house down and because it's illegal, even in Ontario, that the insurance company is going to stick it to them. If you're not a kid you are very very electrically naive and still cruising for a fire.
Don't miss-match the lamp and ballast, buy new or alteast refurbished. Clean everything well and keep it that way, keep the ballast out of the cab and don't get it wet. Fire shouldn't be a huge concern unless your a jackass and not being careful. Other than that follow budbill's advice
WHY am I going to burn my house down, is the question? I'm well aware that there ARE fire dangers, as should be obvious from my initial post, and the insurance policies regarding it. That's why I want to know WHY so I don't screw myself over. Can you or anyone tell me WHY I'm electrically naive if I've had my electrical technician friend install a new breaker, which we checked and made sure it's safe for the house, in fact the breaker we bought is identical in every way to all the other breakers, and we used wire from his electrical company which he decided was the right wire for our needs. Do I actually have any reason to doubt what NN77 said? Or is fishheadbob just really impercetive. (It's my house, and I'm not a kid.)
You can easily run a 1K light on a normal house circuit its when you start running alot of other "extras" (fans, pumps, etc) where the current draw goes above that rated for the breaker. The breaker should "pop" and all is well. But think paranoid and limit the curcuit to stop a lil below 10 amps (if I remember right). The only other thing is ballasts run fairly hot (to the touch even) so keep it off the floor (water) and away from flamables and you should be good to go. FishheadBob has a point that should be taken into consideration though. Any robbery, fire or police/fire involvement will result in an inspection of the house. In the old days a buddy ran a 1k whose "circuit fuse" would pop everytime the washing machine was ran during the "on" time (he forgot it was on). No fire just the fuse doing its job.
Most homes, at least in the usa, using 20 amp breakers for most of the service. You can safely run 18amps on a 20amp breaker. Just remember, things like air conditioners can use up to 15amps when they are running on full cool.
Older homes in the US have 15 amp (pre 1950s ?). But always leave some head room as the most draw is when the ballast is first turned on.
Sorry, I must have been reading too many posts from 13 year olds wanting to grow in their closet because their room is a mess and their mum never goes in. Wiring can cause a fire for all kinds of reasons; first is an overloaded circuit or running a wire too light for the breaker. You can also accomplish this with an overload on an extension cord. Lousy installation is another good cause. Maybe somebody drove a wire staple nicking or fraying the insulation. Poor connections...they were OK until the mice ate the tape or knocked off the wire nuts which should be in an enclosed box. It's hard to give an electricity primer over the internet, and I'm still worried about a fire. Maybe you can't let your electrical technician friend in on what you're up to, and that's wise, but you really have to do some homework. Google up adequate wiring or something similar, read and learn. Go to Home Depot, Home Hardware, Beaver or one of those places and get their pamphlets on electricity and installing same. I think most of the fires on the news are the large Southern Ontario hydroponic operations, if you're keeping it small and are, obviously, addressing your concerns you should be cool. If you're on your way to becoming one of those major players with expansion plans you need to know more about electricity.
