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DIESEL GENERATOR, (as your primary power source)

outdoe

Member
I don't know... would you go on some internet forums and talk about your 48k generator grow? I wouldn't... at least some people I know (who do run a 48k genny setup) don't go on the internet and talk about it.
Point well taken, it would make things alot easier not having to deal with answering the question of why are you using more power than the entire street and the whole neighbor hood around you, and it doesent seem that out of reach to me, and i have to believe you wouldnt need a mill or 2 get one going, just my opinion....

They have generators now you can use veggie oil from the store. And Motor oil when you change your oil. Cheapest way is to get it from a resturant. They have a drain inside or out back. put your barrel out back and have them pour it in there and pick your drum up. the one i saw runs 2 gals of veg oil for 24 hours. not bad at all for 6kw
 

BevoLabs

Member
I don't know... would you go on some internet forums and talk about your 48k generator grow? I wouldn't... at least some people I know (who do run a 48k genny setup) don't go on the internet and talk about it.
Point well taken, it would make things alot easier not having to deal with answering the question of why are you using more power than the entire street and the whole neighbor hood around you, and it doesent seem that out of reach to me, and i have to believe you wouldnt need a mill or 2 get one going, just my opinion....

1. If you are running a 48KW genny setup, you are probably pulling between $200k-400k a month. Why display that on the internet?

2. You are waaaay over blowing the cost. I personally would run a 75KW genny. Run about 15-20k of lights for Veg, and then run an 85% load on the genny for flower. I would obviously switch it over to diesel, or propane if at all possible. Then I would buy $5000 worth a farm grade diesel(yellow diesel, not taxed) to run the genny.

If you have 10 acres and either a metal building or shipping containers, this can be done, and it can be done BIGGER THAN SHIT! I mean, you could take it a step further and either bury the shipping containers, or have a basement built that your metal building will sit on.

I would say all of this can be setup and purchased for around $175-200k. Not a bad investment...
 

christen23

Member
First of all I am not the one who said it would take a million or 2 million to dao,

Superthrowed said that and i quote "it doesn't make financial sense, it doesn't make logistic sense, and it sure as fuck doesn't make any logical sense. unless there is anyone around with a million or two laying around who wants to invest in a money pit business venture you will never see this kind of shit work until we have a breakthrough in the efficiency of combustible fuels and newer types of engines. "

I for one have run the numbers and I believe it is VERY do-able and VERY VERY VERY profitable,,, and the biggest and hardest problem is not doing it for most people it is selling the 300-400 pounds of dro you would be producing, now if your well connected, it is the easiest part, so for me i see no real problems, and to be honost I think it could be done Cheaper than 175-200,000 pending if your including the price of the house, I truely think it would be no more than 75-100,000 for the entire set up, not including land and house, to the people that think this is crazy i think they are either just dumb or have not really ever thought about it, pretty much when your at this level, your no longer a grower... your a farmer!!!! just my opinion....
POE
 

Patterson

Member
propane generator is more efficient than diesel, here in place we have gas liked to our houses. So it is not a big broblem for us to run natural gas.
 

pico

Active member
Veteran
Can you run propane 24/7? I thought that was one of the benefits of diesel, you can run it 3 months straight, change the oil, and then turn it on for another 3 months.
 

ChaosCatalunya

5.2 club is now 8.1 club...
Veteran
FWIW, from talking to someone I know with a big 3 genny setup... trying to get some advice from him, his first words were "Dont do it!" ... lots of moaning about gennies, then tells me Cat are the only ones he is happy with. Sadly I did not get enough time to find out more, hard to believe he has had really bad reliability with brand new sets & scheduled servicing..... but I heard the same thing from a mate who does lots of music shows ..... ****ing Generators, bastards..etc.
 

christen23

Member
Pico most desil gens need matience every 500 hrs. So if you are only running the gen 12 hrs a day yyou run it 360 hrs a month so around every month you should do an oil change.. From running cat heavy macheniry sence I was 12 for my dad I believe cats would run no prob for 3 months straight. And even if they only run 3 montths and get another one and use the last one for back up.. Withthe about of money at stake and not to mention my freedom at stake I want a genn that is gonna do what I want it to..
 

mgrisme

Member
Any one ever consider trying to run/convert their deisel generator on vegetable oil like some people do with their diesel vehicles? is that even possible?
 

christen23

Member
yea ive thought about it.... for me i dont see getting and dealing with that much vegetable oil.. unless you own a fast food restraunt... then it be dope
 

OghostO

Member
just run Bio-diesel, you can get at home kits to make your own from waste vegetable oil. Of course you will need lots and lots of waste vegetable oil.
 

dragunn

Member
i just read in west coast grower the you use 75 gallons of diesel for one pound of processed product.may be less with a sog.

any one know what your pulling down per gallon of fuel?
 

Aeroguerilla

I’m God’s solider, devil’s apostle
Veteran
CENTRAL MAINE DIESEL HONDA 15000 watt generator built to run 24 hours a day... trifuel so it runs gas and propane... then u get a 50amp timer box and walaaa u got a 8-10k grow op... silenced ac cooled box for gen... i ran this with no problems, the only issue was filling the propane once a week... pain in the ass!!

total cost for setup- 6k for gen 5k for lights 5k for tables... for roughly 15-20k you can setup an effiecent setup on gen aslong as you already got a nice secluded spot lined up! good luck boys
 

~SYK~

Member
Thank you for the article OP.

I now have a subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine - and look forward to each issue.

... as far as running a professional generator (20KW+) on biodiesel, you may want to rethink.

... and to BevoLabs ... maybe you might want to do your math better next time before throwing around stupidly inflated numbers.

Take Care Y'all

SYK
 

BevoLabs

Member
What numbers are stupidly inflated? I would say my numbers are much lower that a normal person would encounter. I have experience and connections to get containers, fuel, generators, etc. for much cheaper.

And why would bio-diesel not work? I am guessing the shear amount of veg oil which would be needed is your concern? You could find enough veg oil to convert to biodiesel, but I would think that you would want to use a 50/50 mixture. I am a recent petroleum engineering grad and have too much experience with bio-diesel, whether you are planning on doing all the chemistry yourself or using a machine that automates it. Let me know where you see problems with bio-diesel and Ill see if I can give you a little extra insight.
 

antimatter

Active member
Veteran
People bury shipping containers and run em off diesel generators and still get caught, even with everything underground.. Id like to think this is an awesome way to run a commercial op but in reality, its alot of hassle.
 

~SYK~

Member
1. If you are running a 48KW genny setup, you are probably pulling between $200k-400k a month. Why display that on the internet?

Agreed - who posts that on the internet.

Lets do some fantasy math.

Say a pound per light in an 8 week period. This means NO veg time.

48lbs / 8 weeks = 6lbs per week or 24lbs per month.

Even at the HIGH end for medicine, $5K per pound ....

We are looking at much closer to $150,00 a month (or less) with everything running tits.

Then you have the operating costs involved with such an operation.

This is why I said you may want to recheck your math.

I agree that a 48KW grow would cost between $150-$200K in investment to build out and be done correctly.

...maintenance on 48KW worth of generators would be a bitch. That would be prob 2 gennys with both needing over a gallon of oil to be changed in each one of them at least every 2 weeks.

...then if you want to run dirty biodiesel, plan to change your oil filters/oil even more frequently.

My suggestion would be to look to the Power Company for assistance in getting this much power (if that is truly what you need and you are seriously going to move forward), and have a good story for legitimate use of large amounts of electricity.

AG Power comes to mind. It takes a LOT of electricity to pump water around a huge farm, and AG power is cheaper than residential power as well. + you have lots of land around your op :)

Hope It Helps

SYK
 
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