Power Outages!!

i live in a very rural community, and we have frequent power outtages, sometimes lasting for hours. i am into week 3 of vegging and i dont want to stunt or shock my plants (it already happened one night )

do you guys know of any good alternatives that can run my CFL lighting setup when the power goes out? i was thinking about a photovoltaic panel that recharges a battery cell... its almost like storing sunlight

and i have to be very diy/thrifty about this... like i said, i am in the rural area of costa rica. they sell gas generators, but they are super expensive.

any input is greatly appreciated!! thanks in advance!!!

Well, you only need a little light to save your plants.. I would buy one of those 1000W Uninterruptable Power Supply (aka UPS) units, its basically like a car-battery and built-in AC-DC-AC conversion. You could put all your lights on that and it'll last 5 minutes.. Or you can put an extra 23W CFL in there as your backup light, it'll always be on, even when the power is out. A big 1000W unit like that would last a long time for just a 23W bulb. Or almost double your time with a 13W. Really though, any light on your plants will tell them its not dark, they just won't grow well until the power comes back on. At least they won't get all fucked up.

Lost my damn power twice this week. Fiancé thinks I'm crazy when I lose it.

losing your power for long periods could be detrimental so what james is saying to do would work great and is a relatively cheap fix to the problem

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James87 said:

Well, you only need a little light to save your plants.. I would buy one of those 1000W Uninterruptable Power Supply (aka UPS) units, its basically like a car-battery and built-in AC-DC-AC conversion. You could put all your lights on that and it'll last 5 minutes.. Or you can put an extra 23W CFL in there as your backup light, it'll always be on, even when the power is out. A big 1000W unit like that would last a long time for just a 23W bulb. Or almost double your time with a 13W. Really though, any light on your plants will tell them its not dark, they just won't grow well until the power comes back on. At least they won't get all fucked up.

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awesome. i have seen those here. they are about 100 bucks new. people use them with their computer/modem so they dont have to wait for a reboot when the power flips on and off.

thanks james... for the advice and one of the funniest avatar pics i have seen

Here's a much simpler solution.

Buy a 6 volt sealed led acid battery and charger on ebay. You can find them for many uses including motorized scooters, wheelchairs, gold carts, kids play toys, etc.. Doesn't really matter what size as long as it's 6 volts, but the bigger it is, the longer it will last. Then go out and buy any cheap LED flashlight/lantern or whatever that needs 4 x 1.5 volt (AA, AAA, C, or D) batteries to run for a total of 6 volts. Connect the big 6 volt battery to the leads on the flashlight, and that thing should run for days without a recharge. Won't really do much for light output, but will keep your light cycles on schedule.

EDIT: Looks like you could do the same thing with a 12volt cfl and a 12 volt battery instead. 12 volt cfls here: http://www.led-cfl-lighthouse.com/page/1435725

much simpler? you still need a timer on that ups'd cfl........

latestsaint said:

i live in a very rural community, and we have frequent power outtages, sometimes lasting for hours. i am into week 3 of vegging and i dont want to stunt or shock my plants (it already happened one night )

do you guys know of any good alternatives that can run my CFL lighting setup when the power goes out? i was thinking about a photovoltaic panel that recharges a battery cell... its almost like storing sunlight

and i have to be very diy/thrifty about this... like i said, i am in the rural area of costa rica. they sell gas generators, but they are super expensive.

any input is greatly appreciated!! thanks in advance!!!

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I'm in Costa Rica too man. Down in Manuel Antonio. Growing here is tough. In the beginning I had the same problems as you. I.C.E. sucks!! At that time I did what James said. Just get a big UPS and you can plug a few CFL's into it and they will last a while on battery power. The thing with those UPS' is they don't seem to like extension cords so you wanna plug directly into them if you can. I'm not sure why but I've had a few over the years on computers and TV's and they always seem to act up if you put something on an extension cord. We ended up getting large scale 18kVa UPS systems a few years ago for my home and then for the grow. They're expensive as shit but with the power down here we had to do it.

James87 said:

much simpler? you still need a timer on that ups'd cfl........

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You're right, it's not simpler. Just a hell of a lot cheaper.

phillipchristian said:

I'm in Costa Rica too man. Down in Manuel Antonio. Growing here is tough. In the beginning I had the same problems as you. I.C.E. sucks!! At that time I did what James said. Just get a big UPS and you can plug a few CFL's into it and they will last a while on battery power. The thing with those UPS' is they don't seem to like extension cords so you wanna plug directly into them if you can. I'm not sure why but I've had a few over the years on computers and TV's and they always seem to act up if you put something on an extension cord. We ended up getting large scale 18kVa UPS systems a few years ago for my home and then for the grow. They're expensive as shit but with the power down here we had to do it.

Click to expand...

right on. ICE is the bane of my existence at the moment. there is an old UPS sitting in the back of my office right now, but im not sure whats wrong with it. maybe one of these days i will whip out the multimeter and track down the issue... but for now i found this single T8 fluorescent that runs off batteries when the power goes out... lets just hope im home (i think they are getting a good amount of light during the actual daytime btw).

neways, wish me luck fellas! i will post more pics soon... i think i am going to have to set up a different lighting rig as these plants get bigger/wider

more later
pura vida