Advice requested, planned power outage during flower

Hello everybody, I have a problem and I'm hoping that the wisdom and experience here can help me find the best answer.

I just got a notice that my power provider is planning a power outage in the middle of the night for 2 and 1/2 hours and I'm 7 weeks into flower... Those jabronis....

My lights run from 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. so my day hours are right in the middle of this outage.

How would you work around this? My thoughts so far are:

1) Just let it happen. I really don't know how problematic 2.5 hours of lost light would be at this stage in the game.

2) Go 11 light/12 dark for the next 8 days, shifting the time my cycles go on and off by an hour earlier each day until my lights are now going on during the day and then after the outage do the same to shift them back - 16 days of messing with light conditions.

According to chatgpt id need a 4.3kw battery backup which is like 3k online so that isn't happening.

What would you do, one of these options or something else?

Thank you very much in advance, cannakings, for your expertise!

A couple hours of darkness won't have an impact.

Just a very cloudy day inside the tent. The next day will be sunny again. No biggie.

Can I ask why you do daylight hrs at night? 2 hrs won't hurt them.

Thank you everybody, the reassurance and advice is tops!

ProPheT 216 said:

Can I ask why you do daylight hrs at night? 2 hrs won't hurt them.

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I live in a desert so the idea was that I was going to try to combat daytime heat while balancing strain on the central ac. I used to have to do it with HPS many many years ago but maybe I don't have to worry so much with LED now

ogg130 said:

I live in a desert so the idea was that I was going to try to combat daytime heat. I used to have to do it with HPS many many years ago but maybe I don't have to worry so much with LED now

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Nothing wrong with it. I do day during the day to hide the bright lights when I'm working. It's not noticeable during the day. At night if I unzipped my tent I would look like a lighthouse

Running at night I pay 1/2 price for the power. Peak/off peak rates.

Jjgrow420 said:

Running at night I pay 1/2 price for the power. Peak/off peak rates.

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That too!

You could leave the lights off for the rest of the night, until the next evening. 20 hours of darkness won't hurt them one bit.

I just run a small generator transfer switch to my critical stuffs circuits and plug it in outside. The key is using a Generator that has INVERTER "clean" power and always size up bigger than you think you will need, generators burn more fuel the higher % load you use of their total capacity.



Something like this would be plenty for your setup from the sounds of it, just dim lights and turn everything low as possible during the outage(s).

If you plan to grow long-term then you most certainly should think about getting a generator. I've had whole crops get ruined due to power outages.

You could run extension cords too, but that's a real PITA when you could wire up your own transfer switch, or pay an electrician a few hundred bucks to do it for you. There are different styles too, there are generator transfer switches designed to go in your panel with an interlock so you don't back feed power into the grid. It will run all your 120v appliances so you may have to flip some breakers off if the generator is struggling.

If it's a strain with hermaphroditic tendency then you may want to simply put a battery-powered light there ready for that extra dark. That way the plants won't react negatively in that sense.
Not much needed, some small bulb with 400lumens (~5w led) will do just fine.

But like said one period isn't that hazardous in any way.

calvin.m16 said:

I just run a small generator transfer switch to my critical stuffs circuits and plug it in outside. The key is using a Generator that has INVERTER "clean" power and always size up bigger than you think you will need, generators burn more fuel the higher % load you use of their total capacity.

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Something like this would be plenty for your setup from the sounds of it, just dim lights and turn everything low as possible during the outage(s).

If you plan to grow long-term then you most certainly should think about getting a generator. I've had whole crops get ruined due to power outages.

You could run extension cords too, but that's a real PITA when you could wire up your own transfer switch, or pay an electrician a few hundred bucks to do it for you. There are different styles too, there are generator transfer switches designed to go in your panel with an interlock so you don't back feed power into the grid. It will run all your 120v appliances so you may have to flip some breakers off if the generator is struggling.

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For OP: also remember, no matter if its generator or batteries, you dont have to provide full light intensity during the outage, just enough to keep the plants awake. But either 11 hours or just letting it pass is going to work. If youre already on 7th week i dont think your plant is going to have time to develop hermy/seedy stuff.

Jylhavuori said:

If it's a strain with hermaphroditic tendency then you may want to simply put a battery-powered light there ready for that extra dark. That way the plants won't react negatively in that sense.
Not much needed, some small bulb with 400lumens (~5w led) will do just fine.

But like said one period isn't that hazardous in any way.

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Ooh I like this idea. So simple. Thank you