ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion The greenhouse job

so i get a call , greenhouse job , wired a vaportight light, gfci outlet , pretty much spent a good 2 hours before it dawned on me.......




~S~

I saw nothing ... nothing.

It may be for medicinal purposes.....
Or, 'grow your own'

I guess i didn't get the memo, it's all legal here now , maybe i should read a newspaper now/then?

In fact they've these 'distributor' licenses for folks looking to grow and sell , i'm not sure how it all works (and maybe i don't need to know) , but it appears the local sparks in the 'people's republic of canibus' may be wiring grow rooms ,due to the recent legislation creating this niche market boom

I suppose i'll just do my job, VA per sq ft? art 220 ? , but boy how things have changed

what next? brothels?

~S~

Ummmm

I'm not sure that I want to know why they would need extra electrical power in a brothel.
Anything other than general lighting sounds a bit pervy.

If these guys are serious growers 50-75VA per square foot might not be unreasonable. You best size the service based on what they think they really want.

Back when hurricane Sandy hit, there was a neat appearing resi, uoscale, probably in the 1mil plus range that had the on grade level flodded out. Power was cut, like the rest of that town.

Turns out about 6 weeks after the locals were allowed back, a local cop noticed activity at that house, in the dark. Turned out the grade level (4 car garage; 2 wide, 2 deep, plus the 20’ deep balance was a ‘farm operation’ and not ‘grow your own’! 3 guys arrested, and the house was seized, and later found to have been in foreclosure.

Lighting was 36-400 watt metal halide fixtures, roughly 15KW. The lighting, and a front & rear doorway light were the only items on the 400/320 service.

Depends on the quantity of crop I guess.

Iirc, the power usage alone used to get grow rooms busted

FF to today's having to pull a permit for it , and validating the VA

~S~

They are certainly power hogs because it is usually more than just lights. They also do humidity and temperature control along with a watering system and if it is hydroponic, quite a watering system. My buddy used to be a planning rep at IBM (designing computer rooms) and he has had some of his Colorado neighbors asking him to help them.

Surely that should say 400/230V, John?
Growing marijuana here in NZ is still illegal, but that doesn't stop people from doing it, it's just like moonshine stills in the South.
What used to crop (no pun intended) a lot of marijuana growers up here, before the power consumption was found to be excessive for the type of building (usually a rented house), was the complaints from neighbours about the noise from the air re-circulation fans, running 24/7 and being single-phase types, these can get really noisy.

I once did a "job" here for a guy that said all of his Metal--Halide lights went out all of a sudden because of a voltage surge, I was expecting to turn up to a house with external lighting.
The guy answered the door and he looked really cagey, scoped the driveway before he'd let me into the house.
Sure enough, he'd torn all the walls out of the three bedrooms and there were plants for Africa in there.\
I just said sorry I'm not doing this job and walked out and called the police before leaving the premises.

Personally I don't have a problem with marijuana, but when people build large grow-ops to deal in drugs for supply to who knows who, (could be kids, etc), that I have a problem with.
The person that grows a single plant for their own use, fair enough.

Hi Trumpy

Apparently recent legislation here is fueling a lot of biz potential.

Biz-people are considering grow room facilities to sell to the pharmaceutical companies. I'm hearing all manner of stories , but the most intruiging is some process where they take out the THC ,for a drug that makes cancer patients comfortable w/o the high.

While my knowlegde of it all may be no more than old Cheech & Chong movies, some serious entreprenuers are flocking to my state , and are wanting the trades services.

I can recal a similar influx some 20 yrs ago, when my state was the first to acknowledge civil unions , we became flooded with gays overnight , gays that had $$$ looking to gain residence to take advantage of legislation

Did a lot of biz then, could do a lot now

Guess i'm just not proud when i'm hungry

~S~

~S~ " I'm hearing all manner of stories , but the most intruiging is some process where they take out the THC ,for a drug that makes cancer patients comfortable w/o the high. "
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My plumbing contractor friend currently has a job plumbing (mostly floor drains, all legal btw).a warehouse-size extraction facility.
They extract the CBD (totally harmless) from the THC (the psychoative component).
CBD as well as for making cancer patients undergoing treatments comfortable, decrease nausea and to stimulate appetite, is used to treat epilepsy (virtually stops the seizures) and for general pain relief.
So far the company has paid more than $50,000 in various permit fees alone.
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"Surely that should say 400/230V, John? grin"
He's referring to a 400 amp/320amp continuous, residential service @ 120/240V single Ø

Thx electure , ~S~

I'm obviously going to go thru a learn curve here, wonder if any special permitting is needed?

Guess i'll have to ask....

I can just imagine my ahj's 'you're wiring what?' response

~S~

Plenty of permitting is involved with State, County, and City authorities all involved.
Background checks are required for owners etc...... all in all, they spent a year and a half obtaining the preliminary permits required (just to get approval to do what they are doing) before submitting for the building permits.

Electure:

TY for explaining the 400/320! That’s a bad habit I have, thinking everyone knows what I’m talking about
.
I’m sure the permit process that will be required before the Construction Office permits will take time here. Hey, it’s New Jersey!! I heard the medical dispensery one town over was almost 2 years for State approvals.

but where are the lights ? I haven't seen any in the picture

yeah, I saw nothing yet.

We had one major grow op go bust before fully completing their renovations of a few year old former pork packing plant.

I hope that all the trades and suppliers got most of their money before the company announced they would not open.

Strange thing if you do things on the up & up, the PoCo rats you out, to avoid getting the excessive power use showing up they illegally connect ahead of the meter, dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. this changes a bit since it was sort of"legalized". not a fan of of it since before or after being "legalized" as it is still a unenforced Federal law.