Amps

outdoorsman101 · Mar 4, 2011

I'm looking at "the producer" by bc northen lights and the web-site claims it only uses 8 amps which seems incredibly low to me. It has two 400W HPS bulbs, CO2 injection, hydro system that has a pump, and an exhaust system built-in. Does 8 amps sound suspect to anyone else, or is it accurate?

Growdude · Mar 4, 2011

I could not find anywhere that states it has a 400 HPS or even draws 8 amps.
Please provide a link.

But it sounds possible, the 400 watt will draw about 4 amps alone, so air pump amd controller wont be much more.

OGKushman · Mar 4, 2011

watts to amps is a simple conversion. off top of my head a 400 watt only uses ~3.5 amps

StoneyBud · Mar 4, 2011

Here's a simple Ohms Law Calculator. No frills.

Fill in the two parts you know and click "calculate".

supercircuits.com/resources/tools/Volts-Watts-Amps-Converter

8 Amps at 120 Volts will run 960 watts of equipment.

.

bubblegum_kush · Mar 28, 2011

amperage draw has to do with ohms law which is
watts/volts=amps
most ballasts can be converted to 220~240v which would lower the amps it draws.
typical house outlets are 110~120v depending on how close you are to the nearest transformer and how much power your neighbors are using at any given time. The SPECIFIC voltage you receive may differ by a few volts from your friend down the street, but it is required by law to stay with that range. Too low is called a brown out, and there are spikes and surges, etc.

a 400w hps @ 120v would be:
400/120=~3.3amps
but at 240 its
400/240=~1.6amps

running on 220v wont save you anything on your energy bill but it is more efficient, if you buy european equipment such as pumps and fans you can get almost everything in 220-240v

my point is saying the amperage alone doesnt say much because you can run twice the equipment on 8 amps of 240v, but still 8 amps of 120v power is still enough for two lights and a SMALL accessory

OGKushman · Mar 28, 2011

I just looked at my Kill-A-Watt...in the real world . Formulas are theory.

400 watt "Budget Grow" - 3.75 amps
400 watt "CAP" - 3.48amps

All my 1000s range from 8.45-8.88amps

b_k is correct on the theory part though. Your situation may vary.

StoneyBud · Mar 28, 2011

OGKushman said:
I just looked at my Kill-A-Watt...in the real world . Formulas are theory.

Yer killin me!

Actually, the meter proves the ohms law formula. If you take the amps you measured and plug them into this page with the exact voltage the meter shows:

the12volt.com/ohm/ohmslawcalculators.asp[/url][/B][/COLOR]

It'll show you exactly what your true wattage is. Ohms law is absolute science, not theory.

Use your meter to find any two parts of the formula and ohms law will give you the exact value of the third every time.

Not crackin on you man. Just making the facts clear.

OGKushman · Mar 28, 2011

On 2 separate 120v, 20A circuits with various other appliances running.

Budget Gro - 396watts, 3.75A, 114v
CAP - 399 watts, 3.48A, 115v

????? I know how it works on paper to the nearest hundredth...its just not the same in my copper wire????? lol

StoneyBud · Mar 28, 2011

OGKushman said:
On 2 separate 120v, 20A circuits with various other appliances running.

Budget Gro - 396watts, 3.75A, 114v
CAP - 399 watts, 3.48A, 115v

????? I know how it works on paper to the nearest hundredth...its just not the same in my copper wire????? lol

I'm sorry man, but ohms law is an absolute. Its impossible for it to be wrong.

If your meter is showing the above figures, then return it with the ohms law numbers to them. Its not working correctly.

396 watts, 3.75A will equal 105.6 volts all day long if the readings are correct.

114 volts, 3.75A will equal 427.5 watts being used. Again, Ohms law is never wrong. It simply can't be. If you get different readings than that, whatever your using to measure it with is not working correctly.

396 watts, and 114 volts will always equal 3.47368A of current. Again, if you got something else from your meter, the meter is wrong. Its impossible.

Please, don't take my word for it. Call any master electrician or electronics technician and tell them what you've told me and they will tell you the same thing as I have. Take your meter to one of them and they can put it on a test bench and prove it to you along side of their known good meter.

Please don't interpret what I'm saying as busting your chops man. Ohms law is a law of physics. In our universe, its an absolute. Anything that disagrees with it is flawed in some way. If your meter is showing you those readings at the same time, the meter is broken. Its just not possible.

bubblegum_kush · Mar 28, 2011

OGKushman said:
I just looked at my Kill-A-Watt...in the real world . Formulas are theory.

400 watt "Budget Grow" - 3.75 amps
400 watt "CAP" - 3.48amps

All my 1000s range from 8.45-8.88amps

b_k is correct on the theory part though. Your situation may vary.

what does your kill a watt say your voltage is? I personally love the kill-a-watt thingy. I love knowing exactly how much my rooms cost per month. Also, those are the ratings of the equipment, they cant make every bulb and capacitor perfect and as it wears over time it can draw more and less so it varies.

It is unlikely that the meter is broken, companies have to abide by certain ratings which can vary by up to 15% (legally) i think

StoneyBud · Mar 29, 2011

bubblegum_kush said:
what does your kill a watt say your voltage is? I personally love the kill-a-watt thingy. I love knowing exactly how much my rooms cost per month. Also, those are the ratings of the equipment, they cant make every bulb and capacitor perfect and as it wears over time it can draw more and less so it varies.

It is unlikely that the meter is broken, companies have to abide by certain ratings which can vary by up to 15% (legally) i think

I also own a Kill-A-Watt meter. Mine is dead nuts on target with ohms law every time, within about one or two percentage. The line voltage changes a point or two about every second, so that accounts for the fluctuation in the percentage its off. If I had a camera and three meters hooked to the same circuit, at any given moment, it would be right on ohms law.

The meter uses something called a "Wheatstone bridge" to measure the readings it gives. Any meter can be hooked up to a test bench and calibrated to an exact output. With the modern filter circuits used in devices now, the odds of the meter being out of cal are slim, unless its been whacked around somehow and the filters are no longer good.

Filters are a set of components that create a pure output by feeding caps and performing very accurate outputs for the Wheatstone bridges to feed from. Almost every device made uses them.

Even then, in today's devices, there are as many as a half dozen backup filters that will switch in the event of an internal test being off. Those types of circuits cost about a 1/100th of a cent to make now and keep a meter accurate for years and years.

Here's some info on the bridge:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_bridge

Edit: Man, I'm tired. I gotta go crash. I'll look and see if this discussion continues in the morning. Goodnight all!