Battery Lighting? (options)

[justrealhigh]

Can any experienced grower list the options as far as lighting?
I would like to know if anyone has ever grown using batteries as the energy source. Growing in an appartment has lots of people worried about electricity overages and i was wondering what other options there are...
...thanks guys... ... justrealhigh

 

[starchland]

shit maybe solar panels, but how are you gonna recharge the batteries by buying new ones all the time?

 

[Zombi]

Build a big ol' windmill in the backyard and connect it to a battery, hehe stealthy.
Im sure there are ways to have solar panels charge battery's but I'm really not sure how long even a standard car battery will operate a set of lights.
BTW what type of lights are you going to be running, CFL's, floro's, LED's, HID's ect?

 

[iToke]

cfl's would work of a car battery but not sure for how long or how safe it is lol, just know that (cant remember what poor country it is) do it!

 

[rkm]

In this case, electricity is the cheapest way. Charging, recharging, buying new batteries, just think of what you could do with all that money. Solar panels are not cheap either, unless you are looking for long term to get your money back out of the panels, plus you will need capacitors, or other cells to hold the overcharge so its not wasted. Cant go wrong by just plugging into the wall, and just paying the bill.

Car batteries are DC, and operate at 12V. Cfls are AC, the money you would spend converting everything to work off of DC and batteries just does not seem very feasible.

DC has its place, and AC has its place, just have to use the right tool for the right job.

 

[Mr. Bud]

Replace all of your house hold bulbs with the CFL 13watt lights and unplug anything that you're not using.

The total cost of running a 400w mh/hps light isn't that much.

Just be resourceful with everything else around the house...

Just keeping the lights shut off when you're not in a room and shutting the tv off at night, along with not leaving your computer on 24x7 will help your bill.

Don't be scared to run a 400watt light

 

[Rustyroy]

There is a way to convert battery power into 110volts, of course, by using an inverter, which is not all that expensive. The trick is, you need enough "deep cycle" batteries capable of holding a charge for long periods of time & a method of recharging these batteries as they do begin to lose thier charge & fall below an amperage not suitable for powering your inverter. This is easly done by using wind &/or solar.
Many plans are available on the web for building inexpensive windmills using automotive altenators but solar panels are still quite expensive to buy. You'll need to calculate how much amperage required to power the light(s), how many batteries to meet this amperage requirement & then how many solar panels &/or windmills to accomplish this. And then find out if your area has suitable wind speeds at various altitudes.
Weather maps for most areas in all of north america showing wind speed(s) at various altitudes are also available on the web with links usually found on these sites explaing how wind mills work. It's all at your finger tips. Now just roll up a big one, click on the P.C. & figure it all out. A lot of work.........but well worth it for those of us in rural areas where hydro prices are higher, or not available at all.

 

[FilthyFletch]

I agree with changing your house bulbs to cfls and turning any non used items off.This is a good thing to do even if not grwoing you will save a bundle and dont leave computers on or big screen tvs as they suck juice.A 400 watt light on 24 hours a day per month will cost from 15-30 bucks tops a month so figure you save 10-20 a month with cfl bulbs and good usage habits you only increaed what 5-10 bucks a month and no huge difference its like you bought a new big screen tv as they use around 300 watts them selves.Solar panles in an apartment or wind power are not options as they cant be mounted to the roof and they have a cable right ot your unit.I looked into solar panels thinking how much could a 1000 watt setup cost well about $80000 dollars for the entire setup and batteries.

 

[Galvatron]

a small solar generator is gonna run about 1000$ and wont run 200 watts for 3 hours on a single charge. i'd suggest what filthyfetch said, conserve energy on non essentials and then power up the lights for your plants. ^__^

 

[natmoon]

A lot of large and older televisions use between 400 and 1100 watts and the electric company only get suspicious if you have a sudden and constant spike in your electric usage that is above 5000-10000+ watts.

Lets say a normal everyday non smoker type person goes out on a shopping spree and buys himself a secondhand 42" plasma screen,the older screens use an average of 803watts new ones between 300-400,he buys himself a 2kw air conditioner because he wants nice clean cool air,he buys a new top of the range pc and all the extra gadgets to go with it.

Many computers have 500watt or much higher power supply's add a monitor/router/printer scanner and speakers/stereo etc. and your talking 1100+ watts just to run a pc.

So this spikes his bill by an average of getting on towards 4kw,do you really think the electric company are going to ring the police because joe bloggs bill has gone up?

A lot of this is speculative paranoia the electric company's only get involved when there is a highly noticeable extra amount of usage.

The moral of my waffle is don't be so scared about this shit unless your a big boy and your going pro its an irrelevant factor in your stealth.
Using even 2000 watts of light will not even make the electric board look twice in this day and age of technology

 

[Mr. Bud]

A lot of large and older televisions use between 400 and 1100 watts and the electric company only get suspicious if you have a sudden and constant spike in your electric usage that is above 5000-10000+ watts.

Lets say a normal everyday non smoker type person goes out on a shopping spree and buys himself a secondhand 42" plasma screen,the older screens use an average of 803watts new ones between 300-400,he buys himself a 2kw air conditioner because he wants nice clean cool air,he buys a new top of the range pc and all the extra gadgets to go with it.

Many computers have 500watt or much higher power supply's add a monitor/router/printer scanner and speakers/stereo etc. and your talking 1100+ watts just to run a pc.

So this spikes his bill by an average of getting on towards 4kw,do you really think the electric company are going to ring the police because joe bloggs bill has gone up?

A lot of this is speculative paranoia the electric company's only get involved when there is a highly noticeable extra amount of usage.

The moral of my waffle is don't be so scared about this shit unless your a big boy and your going pro its an irrelevant factor in your stealth.
Using even 2000 watts of light will not even make the electric board look twice in this day and age of technology

exactly.

 

[Humboldt]

There is a way to convert battery power into 110volts, of course, by using an inverter

You could always get a charger, couple car batteries and the inverter stated above, a couple of tractor batteries would be more practical, I'm going to use car batteries and inverter for when the lights go out, where I'm from power goes out quite often but not at long periods of time, I don't know how practical this would be for an entire grow, however it could be possible but leaves you with a lot of work, charging and changing batteries constantly!

Oh and if you're out in the boon docks you could think about getting a generator, these days you could probably get a whispering generator for house or apartment.

 

[natmoon]

You could always get a charger, couple car batteries and the inverter stated above, a couple of tractor batteries would be more practical, I'm going to use car batteries and inverter for when the lights go out, where I'm from power goes out quite often but not at long periods of time, I don't know how practical this would be for an entire grow, however it could be possible but leaves you with a lot of work, charging and changing batteries constantly!

Oh and if you're out in the boon docks you could think about getting a generator, these days you could probably get a whispering generator for house or apartment.

Yeah a quiet diesel genny filled with old chip oil does the job just fine

 

[rkm]

If using car batteries, check out marine batteries. They are more durable than a car battery.

 

[Chrisuperfly]

I wouldnt go to the battery method. You open yourself up to another dimension of possible hazards.

 

[devilwacause]

Frankly, I agree with Chris above me. Batteries are a dangerous way to go more hazards than you might realize. Anybody with a Battery grid (solar power, wind power, etc) never has the batteries in an area frequently visited because over time they release chemicals from the old "lead based battery reactions" into the atmosphere that can be dangerous to humans. Ventilation is extremely necessary!

 

[Humboldt]

Good points guys, however I'm only going to use the battery/inverter method when the power goes out 2 days at most.