Upgrading Electricity for Growing

[Scaliwags66]

Hello all. Looking to start growing cannabis with 4-8 lights in a big house. Given all the electrical needs for such an operation, could anyone describe the amount of electrical upgrades that would need to be made to your average expat standard house (whatever that means) in Bangkok. 

 

A lot of the house just have a one or two 2 hole outlets per room that seem fairly old. Would need to add a lot more outlets and maybe more fuse boxes? I am not well versed in this at all, but trying to get an idea of what that might entail to upgrade the electricity to cover the potential needs. 

 

Any idea what that might cost in Bangkok? Or about how long to install? Thanks for any insight. 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tomster]

2 hours ago, Scaliwags66 said:

Hello all. Looking to start growing cannabis with 4-8 lights in a big house.

Hi,

 

Generally you won't need any upgrades to run that amount of LED lights, just check everything is earthed and fit a Safe-T-Cut.

 

Cheers.

[THEN]

Agree with Tomster.

 

But it is easy to calculate total Watt for your grow room, so I suggest you start with saying how many Watts per light you want.

2nd take a picture of your electricity cabinet. It will show how many phases you have and how many Amp per phase.

Typically houses here are constructed with several 10/16/32A phases. (32A is usually connected to large AC units).

 

ONE 10A / 220V phase = max draw 2200W per phase. (AxV = W).

ONE 16A / 220V phase = max draw 3520W per phase.

 

I would not be too concerned about earthing if you go with LED lights, as the driver converts 220V to 12V for the lamps you might touch and adjust.

I would be more concerned if you draw 3000W on one 10A/220V phase = hot cables and potentially starting a fire.

 

Ventilation is normally 220V units, so you need to be a bit more careful with these if not earthed/grounded, but most ventilation systems are made safe enough to handle when they are turned on. Suggest you buy quality in case you dont have 3 holes per outlet. Even if you have 3 holes where one is ground it would be a good idea to ask an electrician to check if the earth is actually grounded or not.

 

Advice: Always wear footwear with some insulation, minimum like slippers with 2cm plastic sole. Never barefoot on tiles or similar as you will quickly become the easiest path for electricity to travel to the ground.

[brendan3150]

@THEN , if a room has 2 plug socket and 2 plug connections on each socket ,  does the 10A/16A etc correlate to the socket as a whole or to each connection ?

[THEN]

2 minutes ago, brendan3150 said:

@THEN , if a room has 2 plug socket and 2 plug connections on each socket ,  does the 10A/16A etc correlate to the socket as a whole or to each connection ?

Very hard to say, as houses here are built differently. 
Our house has 4x32A (for 4 big ACs) and then another 7x16A which corresponds to one phase of 16A for each room + 16A for living room + 16A for basement + 16A for outside outlets.
So my guess is that most houses here has 1 phase per room = max draw 2200W or 3520W. (but relatively easy to put an extension cable from another room/phase).

Check your electricity cabinet and see how many phases you have of 10A/16A/32A as a start.

Also say how many Watts per light you are aiming for.
 

[tomster]

42 minutes ago, THEN said:

Advice: Always wear footwear with some insulation, minimum like slippers with 2cm plastic sole. Never barefoot on tiles or similar as you will quickly become the easiest path for electricity to travel to the ground.

Wouldn't a properly installed Safe-T-Cut remove this risk?

[brendan3150]

thanks @THEN . i will take a look tomorrow. i won't be using more than 2 lights , inlet/outlet , fans , pumps possibly dehumidifier at the moment but i just want to be sure

[THEN]

7 minutes ago, tomster said:

Wouldn't a properly installed Safe-T-Cut remove this risk?

Better safe than sorry. I was using a German brand "Dremel" on some Carbonfiber parts I had moulded.

Since it makes a mess with itchy/sticky CF dust, I did it on our lawn stupidly barefooted.

Dremel at 12000 rpm starting to put sparks into my hand and I was lucky to somehow throw the tool away.
This was from our old house in Jomtien with proper electricity installation but the HFI relay did not cut off the power. So I learned a lesson or two.

[Scaliwags66]

Ok you guys are hired lol. Great information here, what a resource.

 

We are getting eight 1000w LEDs. Not sure if we run 4 lights in 2 different room are can make all 8 in one room. 

 

Given the different demands of the different equipment, lights, fans, water system, dehumidifier, air cons, etc, how much should you stress any particular outlet? Should each light be on their own outlet or can you run a few lights through a single power strip? 

So many fans I am guess. My first run at it but I will have help from friend with experience. 

 

Thanks guys

[bamnutsak]

7 hours ago, Scaliwags66 said:

We are getting eight 1000w LEDs.

Are you sure these are 1,000 watt? Can you share the make and model number? Many light manufacturers claim a 1,000W light, but often it is 300W.

 

You're going to have to move a LOT of air, from/to the outside, and run a LOT of AC. The smell from a grow this size will be overwhelming.

 

Electricity rates are set to increase to 4.72 baht soon (September?), which will affect your gross margin. And cannabis prices are starting to drop, esp. for indoor.

 

What growing method will you use? What types (Auto or Photo)?

 

Have you factored in drying and curing?

 

There are thousands of Thais doing this exact same thing, so competition will be fierce.

 

And why start so big, for your first grow? How much dryed/cured product do you see your self producing at your business plan's run-rate? Grams per watt, grams per sq m.

 

[tomster]

1 hour ago, bamnutsak said:

Are you sure these are 1,000 watt? Can you share the make and model number? Many light manufacturers claim a 1,000W light, but often it is 300W.

 

You're going to have to move a LOT of air, from/to the outside, and run a LOT of AC. The smell from a grow this size will be overwhelming.

 

Electricity rates are set to increase to 4.72 baht soon (September?), which will affect your gross margin. And cannabis prices are starting to drop, esp. for indoor.

 

What growing method will you use? What types (Auto or Photo)?

 

Have you factored in drying and curing?

 

There are thousands of Thais doing this exact same thing, so competition will be fierce.

 

And why start so big, for your first grow? How much dryed/cured product do you see your self producing at your business plan's run-rate? Grams per watt, grams per sq m.

 

Good advice and interesting on the indoor prices dropping - what are you seeing?

[stoner]

1 hour ago, bamnutsak said:

LOT of AC.

this.

 

[stoner]

1 hour ago, bamnutsak said:

There are thousands of Thais doing this exact same thing, so competition will be fierce.

it will take at least a year to 18 months for most of these people to produce anything considered high quality product.

 

even then most of it will fade into an ocean of mids. 

[bamnutsak]

11 minutes ago, stoner said:

it will take at least a year to 18 months for most of these people to produce anything considered high quality product.

Agree to disagree on this point - I have seen near top quality flower grown indoors here (compared to the legal markets in my home state in the U.S.), although I have no clue on your definition of "high quality".

 

That said, this would be the OP's FIRST grow, and they are at least seven months from having product, assuming they started today.

 

And this sounds like more than 15 plants, the current home-grow limit in the draft CCA, so the OP will have to apply for a comemrcial license, or go illegal.

 

 

[stoner]

2 minutes ago, bamnutsak said:

I have seen near top quality flower grown indoors here

supply and demand though. back home canada and usa we have an industry 30 to 40 years in the making. 

 

those top flower grows are not nearly enough to supply the demand. that infrastructure and ability takes time as you know.

 

friends of mine are basically selling crops before harvest. 

[stoner]

6 minutes ago, bamnutsak said:

That said, this would be the OP's FIRST grow, and they are at least seven months from having product, assuming they started today.

first grow is fun. 

[BritManToo]

On 8/24/2022 at 11:05 PM, Scaliwags66 said:

We are getting eight 1000w LEDs. Not sure if we run 4 lights in 2 different room are can make all 8 in one room. 

1000w LEDs seems unlikely, beware of scammers selling lights that won't grow anything. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by BritManToo

[Scaliwags66]

On 8/26/2022 at 10:58 AM, BritManToo said:

1000w LEDs seems unlikely, beware of scammers selling lights that won't grow anything. 

Well I hope they are legit lol. What do you think of these specs? Kingbrite seem to have a good reviews from my online research. But yeah, I hear about false specs on lights. 

 

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/US-Stock-Kingbrite-1000W-1100W-LED_1600386673186.html?spm=a2700.wholesale.0.0.43f98035i8oseE

[BritManToo]

38 minutes ago, Scaliwags66 said:

Well I hope they are legit lol. What do you think of these specs? Kingbrite seem to have a good reviews from my online research. But yeah, I hear about false specs on lights. 

 

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/US-Stock-Kingbrite-1000W-1100W-LED_1600386673186.html?spm=a2700.wholesale.0.0.43f98035i8oseE

Kingbrite are good, but those appear to be 2x the normal price for quality leds. 

Not sure why you aren't buying the more normal locally available quantum boards with meanwell drivers at 5kbht for 240w. As you appear to be going for a commercial grow, buying a fashion light doesn't make much sense to me. 

[Scaliwags66]

21 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Kingbrite are good, but those appear to be 2x the normal price for quality leds. 

Not sure why you aren't buying the more normal locally available quantum boards with meanwell drivers at 5kbht for 240w. As you appear to be going for a commercial grow, buying a fashion light doesn't make much sense to me. 

I can get this model for $800 so it is not as expensive as listed. Seemed like good price as I haven't seen any 1000 watts for $800. Yes, definitely a bit more than buying 600w, but am assuming the extra watts can crank out more yield? Buuut I am a noob

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, Scaliwags66 said:

I can get this model for $800 so it is not as expensive as listed. Seemed like good price as I haven't seen any 1000 watts for $800. Yes, definitely a bit more than buying 600w, but am assuming the extra watts can crank out more yield? Buuut I am a noob

Plus $143 shipping. 

Seems a lot of money to pay up front in the hopes you can grow anything. 

[Scaliwags66]

Lol fair enough. Buuuut fawk it we are going for it. What did you mean by "fashion lights?" Just for show and not effective? 

[BritManToo]

1 minute ago, Scaliwags66 said:

Lol fair enough. Buuuut fawk it we are going for it. What did you mean by "fashion lights?" Just for show and not effective? 

Multi bar lights are a fashion fad aimed at n00bs. 

But if you must have one, plenty for sale locally on 'led grow lights thailand' fb page for under 25kbht.

[THEN]

Scaliwags66 - as far as I know the Samsung LM301H diodes are the top of the line and better than LM301B diodes.
Expensive yes, but they will grow proper green if you take good care of your plants.
Maybe a good idea to double check if they indeed come with LM301H diodes? Kingbrite is a well know producer, so in theory you should be able to trust them, but many things can happen when you order from China...

 

4 lights + AC, ventilation and fans will end up around 6-7 kW = you will need 2 phases of 15A or 3 phases of 10A.

8 lights - basically double up = 4 phases of 15A or 6 phases of 10A.

 

Take a look in your electricity cabinet and check how many phases you have and what Amp for each phase.

After that you can plug in some normal lights in your room and by switching the phases on/off you should be able to learn which outlets runs on which phase.

You should also try to determine what phase the AC is running on.