Growan
Well-Known Member
Had a slight 'brown trousers' moment earlier this afternoon when the power went out. The tent is full of 4 week flowering scroggery, and i've seen people's grows turn to mush in a short space of time when the humidity gets out of hand.
I was fortunate in the fact that i have a bunch of fully charged truck batteries and a couple of power inverters to get the extraction online again. Coupled with the fact that my lights out time is in the day, i think i got away with it for the couple of hours it all went south.
It got me thinking though. What would happen if power was out for say 24 hours?
My timer is digital, with an internal battery, so schedule wouldn't be messed up like would happen with a pin type timer, so that's one issue i wouldn't have to correct mid panic. Just plug into the 'backup power' and routine is maintained/restarted.
My 600w hps would have to be replaced with whatever fluros i have around, which would be a 27w 'ring' or halo shaped tube, a 7w energy saver on a work lamp, and maybe 100w of incandescants, just to maintain the 12/12 light cycle and prevent re-vegging and freaking out plants. Obviously not gonna do a lot of growing under that(!), but it's 'life support'. This would run from a 300w inverter and truck battery.
Extraction is covered, my inverter (i have 2) ran it for a few hours earlier, not sure how long it would last.
I have 4 truck batteries and 160w of solar panels, and of course jump leads and a car for split charge should the need arise.
I guess a bulletproof system would have all the above (or preferably better!) ready connected to an auto switch over for when the power drops out rather than running around like a nutcase like i was today.
I'm going to have a good think about what i can do to make my garden 'power cut proof'. Hydro would pose even more problems, if i move on to that in the future.
Has anyone out there done this already, or if not, what would you be scrabbling around for in the dark to save your grow?
I was fortunate in the fact that i have a bunch of fully charged truck batteries and a couple of power inverters to get the extraction online again. Coupled with the fact that my lights out time is in the day, i think i got away with it for the couple of hours it all went south.
It got me thinking though. What would happen if power was out for say 24 hours?
My timer is digital, with an internal battery, so schedule wouldn't be messed up like would happen with a pin type timer, so that's one issue i wouldn't have to correct mid panic. Just plug into the 'backup power' and routine is maintained/restarted.
My 600w hps would have to be replaced with whatever fluros i have around, which would be a 27w 'ring' or halo shaped tube, a 7w energy saver on a work lamp, and maybe 100w of incandescants, just to maintain the 12/12 light cycle and prevent re-vegging and freaking out plants. Obviously not gonna do a lot of growing under that(!), but it's 'life support'. This would run from a 300w inverter and truck battery.
Extraction is covered, my inverter (i have 2) ran it for a few hours earlier, not sure how long it would last.
I have 4 truck batteries and 160w of solar panels, and of course jump leads and a car for split charge should the need arise.
I guess a bulletproof system would have all the above (or preferably better!) ready connected to an auto switch over for when the power drops out rather than running around like a nutcase like i was today.
I'm going to have a good think about what i can do to make my garden 'power cut proof'. Hydro would pose even more problems, if i move on to that in the future.
Has anyone out there done this already, or if not, what would you be scrabbling around for in the dark to save your grow?
