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What voltage are you using?

S

smoorman

New member
Most if not all the lights I've had say you can run them at 100-240 volts. Anybody running at 220V? Seems like you'd be able to run 2 hot wires and a ground to your standard outlet get 220volts and enjoy some cost savings. Anyone doing this at the moment? I am expecting some interesting responses. I am not an electrician but I have been zapped a couple of times. I'll make sure my wife is standing by with the paddles if I decide to do it. She may or may not want to. It's complicated.
 
Whatever voltage coming out the wall is - thats what I use. I've been zapped long ago and know not to fuck with electricity if I don't know what I'm doing.
 
I believe the reason lights say that is because not all countries run 120v like the US, Europe runs something like 240v.
 
Plus, you cannot make a standard outlet into a 240v, you would need a 4 prong plug, 2 hot 120v, 1 neutral, and 1 ground.
 
You do not need the neutral. And you could use the standard plug. 2x 110v. That being the case this question has been asked a bunch of times already which I looked up after having made the post. The bottom line is you wouldn't save any money. You are billed by the Kw and that won't change hardly at all.
https://www.dormgrow.com/knowledge-...-led-grow-lights-at-220-240v-instead-of-110v/
In the case of my irrigation pump I hooked it up to 220v because it's better for the motor and I had available a 220v from a double 120v hot wire (with no neutral) connection. It meets code. I'm livin and learning so expect me to continue with dumb questions. :smile:​​​​​​​
 
Might be different codes for different areas. Everything we wired in at least the last 20 years have been 3 wire with ground for 240v with the exception of a few things that were grandfathered in. Wired ranges, dryers, water heaters, spas ......
 
I use a spare 240-volt outlet to power up the drivers in my main grow space.
I did it primarily to reduce the amperage I was running on the 120-volt circuit.
A small benefit is a few percentage increases in the efficiency of the driver.
 
Be careful with that, a 220v 20 amp outlet has a different plug then the standard household plug. It has 1 horizontal pen, 1 vertically and one ground, standard 110v 15 amp Outlets have two horizontal pens and a ground. Older wiring bridged the neutral and the ground years ago but this has changed and now they are isolated at the box per National code. The two different circuit require different size wire 20a= 12/2 and 15a=14/2 so just make sure you have a clear idea on want you are doing before rewiring.

The idea behind using 220v in the u.s. is less amperage.
A 600 watt HID ballast will pull around 6-7amps on 110v, by running the same ballast on 220v it will pull around 3-4 amps. This is easier on the ballast to getting the watts needed with less draw and why it is referred to as "more efficient" and having nothing to do with cost of power.
By lower the amperage and knowledge of true watts you can safely add more light to a circuit without overloading it and causing a fire.

Maximum allotments per Nebula
  • 1444W on 15A circuit breakers
  • 1920W on 20A circuit breakers
  • 2880W on 30A circuit breakers
 
My power "120" is 125+, "220" is 250+, the "440" is 500+, all at 60 Hz. Many things come out now with auto sensing power supplies, so they can be plugged into the power any where in the world today, no more jumpers to get wrong.
 
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