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northernlightssmokn
Guest
After what happened yesterday I felt very compelled to share this story. My friend has an apartment in a 6plex in town and wants to grow. No problem. He accrues everything needed. Ballast timers charcol filter fans etc... We built the grow room in a spare bedroom, vented to the attic, and had a grow room. EVERY thing worked great!! the 600w digital hid ballast kept the room at a temp of only 73 deg. f. and a humidifier kept the room to about 48% humidity, the charcole filter killed all smells of dirt work and pot smoking..lol. PERFECT!! It is a marpassion dream room for the average small time grower!!! Well the clones are now through vegging and in the 2nd week of flower. Looking wonderfull!! He decide to add a 1000 watt mh ballast to the room to see if we can expand the grow room. We did our home work, checked the amp rating in the breaker box. (20 amps) clearly stating in the breaker box that that breaker is for the bedroom and bedroom light. The recepticles were 30 amp and our combined usage was only 8.1 amps currently. We got the power bill and it was only $60 so we knew he could afford to use the 1000w. No problems, still a dream room for a small grower!! WE rebuild the whole room being carefull of the flowering girls and expanded it exactly how he wanted it. we hung the bulb, plugged in the ballast and bing it was up and running 100%. The temp was hovering at 85 and the humidity was at 44%. PERFECT!!! I checked, rechecked, and checked everything again. Everything was great. Now the combined amps were 17.9 on a 20 amp breaker, so it was a little concerning for me, so I decided to stick around for a while and double check everything. I AM SOO GLAD I DID!!!!! My friend got in the shower and a few minutes later I smelled somethig funny. I went in to the spare bedroom and started snooping around. The recepticle w/ the 2 ballasts was so hot I couldnt touch it! I unpluged it and it ark'd like mad, I ran into the living room, flipped the breaker in the breakerbox and grabbed a fire extinguisher. My friend yelled from the shower" what the hell!!?? I ran in the bathroom, he had no lights and no bathroom fan. The breaker was supplying power to the bedroom, bathroom and hall light. All was well untill he went down the hall and turned on the hall light, than the bathrooms 6-100w. bulb vanitylight and the bathrooms 2 amp draw exaust fan w/ built in warming light. It put the amps up to about 28 amps on a 20 amp breaker and the breaker did NOT flip. After close examination, there was no breaker for the bath room or block heater plugin down stairs, it was all on one 20 amp breaker labled "bedroom#3 & bedroom light". These are NOT ghetto apartments, so this is very shocking to me!!!!!
MORAL of the story!!! Check ALL breakers and recheck them. DONT believe what the breaker is labeled for, check your self!! Learn what to look for, (thank's BUBBA BEAR for the advice!!) We could have burned down the whole 6 plex!! It would have made for a huge court case and alot of attention! Not to mention the other tennants and theyre families. I also believe after seeing this that I will NEVER grow weed or do anything that pulls alot of amps in any apartment building!!!
MORAL of the story!!! Check ALL breakers and recheck them. DONT believe what the breaker is labeled for, check your self!! Learn what to look for, (thank's BUBBA BEAR for the advice!!) We could have burned down the whole 6 plex!! It would have made for a huge court case and alot of attention! Not to mention the other tennants and theyre families. I also believe after seeing this that I will NEVER grow weed or do anything that pulls alot of amps in any apartment building!!!
