Power Company's Routine Maintenance

LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
The power company is shutting down my power for routine maintenance for two hours smack dab in the middle of my 12 hours ON. This will occur around week 5 of flowering. It is the entire block, so using a neighbor's power is not an option.

Here are the possibilities I have thought of:

A. A generator. This would solve the problem. However it would be exceedingly difficult for me to do this for several logistical reasons. Not to mention, who wants to invest money in a generator (plus ventilation expenses) if they only need it for two hours?

B. Do nothing. Let the power go off for two hours.

C. Give the plants 36 hours of rest. ie, turn the lights off for their normal 12 OFF but then just skip the 12 ON for the following day that the power company is doing their thing.

Alright, what do the pro's think? Thank you in advance to the rollitup community at large.
 
lotsOweed

lotsOweed

Active Member
Well i see your in california..are you legal? I would just try to throw em outside if its only for a couple hours. Depends how many plants though..I would go with plan c if i had to. Dont wanna get a generator to use for only two hours and they might hermie with option B, doubt it though. Good luck and hopefully it works out for you
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
lotsOweed said:
Well i see your in california..are you legal? I would just try to throw em outside if its only for a couple hours. Depends how many plants though..I would go with plan c if i had to. Dont wanna get a generator to use for only two hours and they might hermie with option B, doubt it though. Good luck and hopefully it works out for you
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Yes, legal, my friend - - - and thank you for your response, lotsOweed. However San Diego only permits locked greenhouses outdoors. Oh, and I turn my 12 on at night to keep temps down so if I brought them outside they would be in the same boat as inside. Alright, so we got one vote for option C. Any other takers?
 
cephalopod

cephalopod

Well-Known Member
Is renting an generator an option instead of purchasing one? How many watts is your entire op? If trying the generator I'd suggest getting something bigger than your expected needs.
 
G

gobbly

Well-Known Member
let the lights go off for 2 hours. The flower period is determined not by the amount of light, but by the amount of dark. You aren't decreasing the dark period, so really it will make negligible difference to the plants (a few less hours of photosynthesis). Figure you just had a huge cloud pass over your closet for a few hours :)
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
cephalopod said:
Is renting an generator an option instead of purchasing one? How many watts is your entire op? If trying the generator I'd suggest getting something bigger than your expected needs.
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Thank you, cephalopod. Great handle, btw. I can rent or borrow a generator, yes. But then it's just the ventilation issue. I have an almost sealed grow room.

Edit: sorry, cephalopod I didn't respond to your question regarding wattage. My entire grow room is under 1500 watts.
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
gobbly said:
let the lights go off for 2 hours. The flower period is determined not by the amount of light, but by the amount of dark. You aren't decreasing the dark period, so really it will make negligible difference to the plants (a few less hours of photosynthesis). Figure you just had a huge cloud pass over your closet for a few hours :)
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Thank you, gobbly. This was my initial thought, probably because it is the easiest, right;)? Any concern of herms from this?
 
G

gobbly

Well-Known Member
LaudanumRx said:
Thank you, gobbly. This was my initial thought, probably because it is the easiest, right;)? Any concern of herms from this?
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for sure the easiest, and yeah, for 2 hours, and the risk factor, I would just not worry about it. I've also had all sorts of things happen to grows unexpectedly. light goes out and they get an extra day of dark, visiting parents snoop around closets and open a door for 4-5 seconds when it's dark time (and luckily knew enough to close it as soon as they realized what was going on :D). In the end none of these little things has seemed to have any real effect. I have power outages from time to time as well, and I actually have a generator because I keep aquariums which simply can't have power off longer than a few minutes. Every light I have owned has said not to use them with a generator, that it would void the warranty, so I've never tried using the generator for aquarium or grow lights.

On the hermie thing, there are so many potential factors, that I think light induced hermies are really way way less common than you hear, and are more a result of prolonged flowering interruption.
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
gobbly said:
for sure the easiest, and yeah, for 2 hours, and the risk factor, I would just not worry about it. I've also had all sorts of things happen to grows unexpectedly. light goes out and they get an extra day of dark, visiting parents snoop around closets and open a door for 4-5 seconds when it's dark time (and luckily knew enough to close it as soon as they realized what was going on :D). In the end none of these little things has seemed to have any real effect. I have power outages from time to time as well, and I actually have a generator because I keep aquariums which simply can't have power off longer than a few minutes. Every light I have owned has said not to use them with a generator, that it would void the warranty, so I've never tried using the generator for aquarium or grow lights.

On the hermie thing, there are so many potential factors, that I think light induced hermies are really way way less common than you hear, and are more a result of prolonged flowering interruption.
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Yeah, I know all about parents busting in. Although my parents didn't close the door. They went into a fit of rage and, well, you can guess the rest. Thanks for the herm input.
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
So it's at about 50/50 right now for either another 36 hours of dark or just saying fuckit and letting the power company shut me down for a couple hours and not worrying about it. This happens one week from today, so if anybody reads this before then and has any related stories or information about the subject, please share.

Thanks to everybody who has contributed thus far. I'm new here and I'm amazed at how helpful y'all are. Giant fatties for everybody tonight!
 
C

choufleur47

Member
dude, you dont need the generator to be inside your grow area, just put it outside, take an extension cord into your house and voila. If you have a garage put it there, your neighbours will be happier lol. So yea, id do that, rent one, be sure to have enough w output (duh)
 
V

VodkaMan

Active Member
Never put a generator in a garage you will be dead by the morning. Just get a battery powered lantern even though it is just a little light being given off it is enough to keep your 12/12 going.
 
LaudanumRx

LaudanumRx

Active Member
Thanks for all the feedback. Here was my final solution: flashlights. I hung all the flashlights and bike lights I could find so as not to interrupt the photoperiod. They seemed happy.
 
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