one outlet in a garage

[onequickmove]

i have a seperate garage with one power outlet, which the garage door opener is attatched to, and needs to stay attached to. so, i've been wanting to grow in the garage; i'm a med grower in socal, so a small operation with 6 plants; i have a 250w hps for the flowering cab, and probably a couple hundred watt's of cfl's for the veg cab; plus a few fans; just soil growing; so, my question is, will i overload the socket with all this plus the garage door opener?

thanks

[stinkyattic]

The simple way to get around this is to run your lights at night when you are not using the garage.
Of course, then you would be stuck in the house for 12 hours a night.
Do you HAVE to park in the garage? It seems that opening the garage door would expose your equipment, at least your potting area, to prying eyes (=thieves, yuck).
A 250 watt lamp is not a huge draw anyway.
Check the amps on the lamp, and the amps on the door mechanism, add everything up, and check the breaker that it all runs off. The amps on the breaker should be at least 10% more than what you expect to be using.

[PharmaCan]

Typically, your garage door opener is not on its own circuit, so the load calculations Stinky mentioned need to include everything that is on that circuit.

Depending on the size wire used, the existing circuit breaker may or may not be the maximum you could use on that circuit.


Where is you electrical panel in relation to the garage? Do you own or rent?

I'm a SoCal med user too. Inland Empire.

PC :smokin:

[onequickmove]

the garage is not attached to the condo, it is in a row of garages

there is one outlet with two sockets on the celing, the garge door opener is plugged into one of these sockets (building was built before garage door openers and the electrical is clearly an after-thought); i would plug an extension cord and vis-a-vis power strip from the other socket

-yes, indeed, the 250w would run from 8pm to 8am and in that time the garage door wouldn't be used normally, but it MIGHT; i have to plan for it being used

-i own, don't rent

yes, the tricky thing is that it's not terribly private; i do think thieves would be rare though, and i'm med certified, but still; i'd have to open the garage, go in, close the garage door, open my cabinets (discreet cabs in the garage) and do my gardening

it's not the ideal spot but it's what i've got at the moment

i bought a bunch of supplies previously when i started growing briefly in colorado, but had to move out here for health reasons (treatment for chronic lyme disease); i'd really like to get growing, and i have a lot of supplies already, but i also live with someone else, and don't want them to get in trouble, if not with the feds, then with the stodgy neighbors and association; anyway, ho hummmm

[onequickmove]

so definitely another concern is this: since i live with someone else who is not a med patient: could they get in trouble with the law for my grow? they do not smoke, and will not help with the grow

[khronik]

The circuit breaker is probably about 15 amps. A 15-amp circuit breaker will often go off at around 12 amps. To calculate your amps, divide the watts by 120, ie your voltage.

Your lights are probably about 4 amps total, and fans are about 1 amp each for large box fans. Smaller fans would use less. This still leaves you with about half your total amperage to run your garage door opener on. If you know the power of the motor on your garage door opener (probably about 1/2 horsepower) you can calculate the watts by multiplying this by 750. So your garage door opener is probably about 3 amps, which is still a safe margin. And even if you do trip the circuit breaker, you can always reset it.

I have never heard of federal agents busting such a small grow. Usually they go after the more commercial operations.

[bejay]

would check your breaker box for your garage first and make sure you have access to it to reset if ever necassary and you may be able to add another breaker and wire another outlet at a more convenient location , but its the row of garages that has me confused as its quite possible several garages may share the same box or even breaker as obviously they never intended any other electrical use other than garage door openers.

[onequickmove]

yes, there's no breaker box inside the garage itself; it's a row of garages; i'll try to get some schematics if i can, but if not i might just give it a shot; this place was constructed a bit shadily, not the most solid construction

in fact, now what i'm wondering is: do we even pay for the electricity used in the garage or is it association costs? shit, i didn't think of that; need to figure that out; darn, that could really throw a wrench in things if it's paid through the association, they'd notice if i used a lot of power

on the OTHER HAND, there are other neighbors who run tons of heavy duty woodworking and auto equipment in their garages, so certainly folks are running more than just the garage door openers

[bejay]

there should be a breaker box in someones garage and if its not in yours you probably do not pay for the electricity, any possibilty of you growing inside instead of using the garage.

[onequickmove]

yes, it's starting to look like that might be more likely, but i don't really have a good spot inside, ho hummm

[twoguysupnorth]

good luck, that small of a grow wont cost lots of money in electricity. i doubt they would notice at all. but back to the amount of draw you could use.

[khronik]

How about a more quick and dirty method? Plug in an electric heater, or something else that draws a lot of power, in your garage. Turn it up to max, and then turn on your garage door opener. If nothing happens, your plants will be fine. If you trip the breaker, try plugging in something else that more closely approximates the draw of your lights and try it again. At the very least you will trip the breaker and probably learn where the breaker box is after looking into getting it reset.

[onequickmove]

thanks, folks, your help has been greately appreciated; you know what, i think i'm just going to grow inside; i won't be able to use the HPS as the cab (and it'll have to be a single cab) will need to go in my bedroom, and i'll need to keep fans to a minimum

anyway, today i'm feeling well enough to drive and i'm all dry, so i think i'll try a new co-op and remind myself why i want to grow ;) (i.e. nasty prices) :)

peace