Large Grow wondering if I charged correctly

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AC\DC

Senior Member
Location
Florence,Oregon,Lane
Occupation
EC
So larger grow with about 70 lights I am quoting . All I am doing is running from panels to lights. everything is installed from lift 25 feet in air.
7 rows of 10 lights. rooms about 4k square feet.
Running MC- MC will be supported from tension wire designated for electrical.
Plan on making most of it up on floor and pulling up to location.
I know there more details just a rough guess. I gave him 33k
Service is 120/208 3-phase. with Non bolt on breakers.
No controle for lights ,will be hot all the time. There will be another bid for running low voltage controls if he proceeds further
 
AC\DC said:
Ya thanks for that. forgot perpendicular runs.
Now I am 48k
21k in material and 268 man hours.

THANK YOU glad you responded. No I feel to high lol.
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I was figuring probably
3 hours per fixture (210)
2 hours each for 10 circuits (20)
35 hours for a simple service

So rough 265 hours and thought at $90 per hour that's $24k on a very low side for labor. Then add at least $15k for materials and a REALLY hungry man might agree to $40k
 
I have never done a 'grow' LOL but I did do a large greenhouse for a university upstate NY with my last employer, they had 280/120 and woops no go, all of the equipment required 240. Every fan, light , motor, VFD, pump, compressor etc was 240V. Some of it would accept 208 but not all. Boss was freaking out but was not a big deal the university just had POCO swap out the xformer all our panel gear was rated '240' anyways.
The other BIG surprise was all the 240V breakers for horticultural lighting were code required to be GFCI per the inspector. Never found that in the code, but we did it. That was a huge loss for the company. As breakers were in the bid.
 
ya he has the same problem. His old equipment is 240 and his service is 208. I Will either need large transformer or new equipment. He should get new equipment.
 
AC\DC said:
ya he has the same problem. His old equipment is 240 and his service is 208. I Will either need large transformer or new equipment. He should get new equipment.
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My old boss tried that, no dice, 208 is just not used in greenhouse / horticultural world, had to change the service.

Personal opinion; I would be very hesitant to get involved in any 'semi' legal operations, getting paid and how you get paid could be sketchy. My old boss used to do work on a biker / strip bar, (yes I helped him one time) and they always paid in cash and handed out cold beer, thing was the time came when they needed a favor and they showed up at my bosses house at 3am demanding he fix power at some random barn. He said he never gave them his address and had no idea how they found him. But he also told allot of wild tales and lived a wild life compared to this pious family man.
 
Also if your getting permits and inspections under 2020 NEC I just recalled that GFCI requirement for horticultural lighting is in article 410 near the end, don't have the code book handy sorry.
 

Gavita SL2 1000e DE 208-240 V | Gavita – Retail

The Gavita Slim Line 2 (SL2) fixture includes the HR96 Reflector for maximum efficiency and uniformity, designed specifically with broad light dispersion in mind.
gavita.com
Is the light I told him. Also most led light are dual voltage
. It’s legal over here it’s Oregon. My dads been in this business before I was born, so not to worried, thanks though.

I was thinking about talking with power company about changing service. I did not install that another ec did
 
The quasi legal part of things is 'legal under state law, but not federal law'.

Messes with the availability of banking services. Dunno if it would mess with your ability to lein the property if necessary.

Jon
 
6.6 Amps per light at 208V + 125% continuous factor.
How many per and what size branch circuit do you use for them?
 
That light I linked was just to show him what type of light he still needs with voltage range. He if he Goes led or hps I’ll have to size for them. I just through him a circuit size at 1000 watt per fixture max ,some of these like the one submitted can out more than
 
AC\DC said:
I just through him a circuit size at 1000 watt per fixture max
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Take a look at 220.14(D), As I recall we have to use the ballast 'nameplate amps', not the lamp watts for calculations.
My guess is you could only have two 1000W ballasts no matter what the mfr per 20A 208V branch circuit, but you'll have to run the numbers. That one you linked to looks to be good quality and I like that it has built in class 2 controls.
 
Correct. Some fixture don’t have the boost and are straight 1k watt and they with the 125% allow 3 on them. Most looking at them now days have the boost. It’s hard to size circuits when owner has wrong parts and no lights to go off of.

Was trying to get him a starting off place.

Thanks for the reply’s
 
I did one that had 2 rooms with 104 lights each. Fortunately I was involved from the get-go and convinced them to and brought in a 480 volt service. It's nice with 277V lights as you can hit 4 thousand watt HPS lights per 20A circuit, then with MWBC's that's 12 per full boat. Sorry you have to deal with 208. If I was King I would outlaw 208.....
 
well that job probably got canned went to look at his equipment to see if panel and equipment could run at 240 and see if transformer could be rewired( if possible) and he yelled that 240 lights will work at 208.
I was no nice after that.
 
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