Using a Power Generator to Supplement Power

I dont think its efficiant or descreet to run a Geny 12/12 everyday...You will attract attention from the 5-0 because of all the noise complaints your neghbors will be making...I know that most of the gasoline Genys are hella lloud, I dont care how quiet the dealer sais they are...Sollar is a bigger investment but its worth it, also look into whindmills...

Thanks all for your replies

I would like to know if it is neccessary for me to use a inverter generator - so i have 'clean' power, and won't have to deal with power surges that could blow lamps.

is there some way i can transform the 'dirty' power to 'clean' power safely ?

Hey Killa-Bee..
Did ya manage to get ya set up workin ok??? If ya did, can ya lemme know how it went, and wot probs ya ran in to. I'm lookin to mount a very similar operation to ya, and would like to get to the bottom of cost effectiveness and screw ups that may be in store.

Ezzzzzy

Is it honestly necessary to have generators and all that extra crap? I have friends running 4 1000w hps plus veg in a small 2 bedroom house and they arent the least bit worried. As long as you pay your electric bill on time and you dont have any smell issues I highly doubt there will be any problems.

you can use the gen, but not with all the lights. What is the rated continuous load?

if the generator is running 24/7, keep in mind, you'll only have half the lights running at any given moment.

On this issue it would be best to run ur lights on the 220 side. since 220 will cut ur load (amps) on the generator. Make sure u consider the gasconsumption/load issue. Most gens are set up to run on a max 50% load. In other words if you have a 3kw gen u shouldnt load more than 1500 watts on it. That will usually use about a gallon per hour and u wont have to worry about power surges and the like. The best thing would be to make urself a setup where u run power one day and generator the next or 15 days on 15 off. It will even out as terms of cost and cut ur wattage if ur that noided about power.

If you want to filter the line out smooth which I don't think you need to do, you would need UPS to do it but I think it would get expensive getting the wattage you need. The other thing you could use is a line conditioner.

Also I think you are going to use more gas than you think, the ratings are optomistic to say the least usually running at half load. My generator is supposed to run for 12 hours and it was running 8 on a full tank with just a light and my TV running and it's a 5000 watt.

Hello im a new grower an would really be thankful if anyone can help me out im thinkin of gettin a generator for my growin room but dnt kno witch 2 get i dnt really want a very expensive one but i do want one that aint gnna be noisy cuz ima have in a basement so can anyone help me out......

ok so forget the power strip...its not even close to the task at hand, what you want to do is hard wire the generator with romex as long extention cords are a bad idea, so what you are going to do is run the romex from the generator to the room and install a small sub pannel, complete with breakers and all then just wire the rest of the room up like you would normaly, its pretty simple really, basicly what you are going to do is run 2 of your 1k lamps off the generator so you are not pushing it to its full potential all the time, i used to use a little honda generator for a grow years back, the way i got it to turn on and off was there was a connection on it where you would wire to your house current and when the power went out it would kick on the generator, so with a simple light timer you can fool the generator in to thinking that there is a power outage and it will kick on, very simple and cheap, so next thing, if you convert it to run on propane or lp you can vent the exhaust in to the grow room for co2, after all thats what a co2 burner does, of course you still need to vent the room regularly to avoid carbon monoxide buildup but its very effective method

fat sam said:

if you convert it to run on propane or lp you can vent the exhaust in to the grow room for co2, after all thats what a co2 burner does, of course you still need to vent the room regularly to avoid carbon monoxide buildup but its very effective method

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Thats brilliant! But why won't gas do the same?

toostonedto said:

Thats brilliant! But why won't gas do the same?

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Will fill your room with as much CO as CO2. Don´t know what that will do for your plants, but will kill you.

krime13 said:

Sollar is a bigger investment but its worth it, also look into whindmills...

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The trouble with Solar is when you need it most there isn´t any.

Why are you messing about with expensive generators and useless solar power, anyway? Far, far cheaper and much, much more convenient to just pay the electric company.

Well I worked for the city reading water meters in 3 different states, and as county, city, or state employees there are rewards handed out to us for reporting suspicious things. Some places the city runs the electric company. An if your up here in No. Cal who cares buy the power I do, but not everyone lives where it's legal!