Rehostat question

[jstive]

I am trying to get my grow room together and right now I am working on the electrical (which is my least favorite thing to do but I get by) What I want to know is can you wire a Rehostat to a duplex receptacle and plug your inline duct fan into it and have a proper speed adjustment? I know the question may be stupid but, what is the difference from doing this and buying one from a grow store that basicly does the same thing. I did notice that the one on line has a 15amp fuse in it. Maybe this is the difference between it and wiring a duplex receptacle. I don't know. I just need someone who knows electrical to please give me an ansewer. As always thanks in advance. Jim

 

[burnin123]

are you talking about connecting the reostat to an outlet box? and then plug fans into these? to control fan speed? if so then my answer is yes

 

[jstive]

yes, thats what I want to do. I would wire a rehostat in one box and then wire it to a box with a duplex receptacle in it so I could plug up to 2 fans in it and control the speed. I hope this is the way you understood what I wanted to do cause if I can I want to finish this wiring up tomorrow with the rehostat. Thanks for the quick reply. Jim

 

[leafminer]

Very probably this will not work. The problem is that these fans all run off shaded-pole synchronous motors. I would spend ages writing why, but basically the fan is designed to run at one speed only and if you reduce the voltage with a variable resistor, it will start to stall, then it will stall, and possibly even burn up. You can only control DC motors in such a way.

 

[jstive]

How come then when I called the company they said that if I didn't buy one of their plug in type controllers and I hardwired it to another rehostat it would void my warranty? This is an Active Air 6inch fan that is rated for rehostat wiring. I am not trying to dispute you for your information cause it is greatly appreciated, I just want to know which way to go in my wiring. I don't feel that I should have to buy a companies product and pay for frgt. if I can do it the way that I originally asked in this forum. Does anyone else have an opinion on this subject? If so please let me know. Thanks, Jim

 

[leafminer]

I would have to know what type of motor the fan has before commenting further. Almost all types of household fan are synchronous shaded pole. Maybe the fan uses a brush-type motor (eg electric drill, weed whacker). A 'rheostat' is an obsolete term for a variable resistor. A 'controller' could be anything.

 

[jstive]

Leafminer, thanks for getting back so quickly. As far as a rehostat being an obsolete term I guess that I haven't kept up with the terminology. Anyway I have what I could get off the fan. It isn't much so it probably won't help that much but, here goes. It's an Active Air 6inch in line duct fan. It's made by Hydrofarm. I went on their website and really couldn't find much on it. On the tag it has Item code ACDF6, Cap 10uf (I beleive this indicates a capacitor start motor or capacitor run moto) 10uf/250VAC, 120v-60hz-0.97a-115w-2911rpm. I pretty much know what all this nomenclature is and this is all it has. By the by it is green in color. This is the fan that I got for pulling the odor from my small grow room through a carbon filter to eliminate any smell. Oh, it does have a 4square plastic box on the side of it where the power cord is wired to it. I hope some of this helps. Let me know. Jim

 

[D3]

I would say, buy one. I know there expensive, but it's better than having a fire. Remember, If a home fire is related to marijuana production. Your insurance wont cover it. Later Man

 

[leafminer]

It's a capacitor start motor. Alternative to the shaded pole type. There are two windings and one of them is fed via the capacitor. This creates a phase lag that (1) actually causes the rotor to rotate and (2) makes it rotate always one way. (Have you ever used those electric juice machines that sometimes start one way and sometimes the other? That's what would happen without the capacitor, not a great idea for a fan ...)

You can try controlling the speed but it won't control very much I believe, before it just stalls. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Cowboy]

Here is a place Erwinsweeney turned me on to. Its the cheapest I have seen, I just ordered two. It is really the safest way to go. Just change the XX to tt. hXXp://www.businesslights.com/variable-speed-fan-control-p-2051.html

 

[jstive]

I called the company that makes the variable speed fan control and I told him what I wanted to do. He told me that it should work and I shouldn't have any problem. Well I went ahead and wired the fan control to a single gang outlet receptacle (I hope the termenology is correct) Plugged my in line duct fan into it and turned it on. Low and behold it worked the only problem I see with it is one has to start it on high cause if you start it on low it takes to long for it to run smoothly but, if you start it on high and then turn it down to low or med it runs fine. I let this run for quite a few minutes and it seemed to run fine and did not get hot. So I am gonna go with it. I will check it out somemore just to be on the safe side. I want to thank you all for the advise and tips. You people are great! Happy smokin! Jim