. . Silent Generators . .

[drpressure600]

. . Hi Ladies & Gents . .
. . Just asking for a small favour from ya'll but would be a huge help to me, well with this tread here i'm looking for some advice on 'Silent Generators', basically i'm looking to use one on a decent grow but don't understand much about them, how to judge what size to by etc, etc . .

. . i'll start by saying it's to run a decent few 600 watts . .

 

[Haps]

The only silent generator I can think of is the deadly silent fart. Solar would be quiet, and smell better.

 

[Lazyman]

hahaha! Good one Haps!

If you aren't using at least a 30KW generator, and your nearest neighbor is miles away, and you have time to change the oil every week, then you can run a generator. Do a search for generator threads, but you'd need a buncha solar panels to offset even a medium-sized grow, and it will still take 5 years for payoff.

How much is your power per kwh?

 

[dannyboy]

my friends, there are silent generators all over E-BAY that don't make much noise, check them out, i'd like to find out more on this myself?????

 

[Shakalaka]

u could even bury them in the ground or build another box with foam insulation around the gen....make sure u have proper intake and exhaust.

 

[drpressure600]

u could even bury them in the ground or build another box with foam insulation around the gen....make sure u have proper intake and exhaust.

. . that is the best thing to do, but which is the best one for growers, & also how do you know which one to buy, i haven't got a clue about them or how they run . .

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

I've thought about this before, IMO your far safer buying a good genny that will produce far more than you need, buy 2 of these....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv3SII568v0

You can use one for a 'genny room' and the other for growing. All you need is somewhere to bury them and your sorted, you'll have your own underground self powered growing op.

 

[drpressure600]

. . i've checked it out, nice, i've thought of all that already, what to hide ie in, but right now i'm trying to get my head around which genny to buy, & how to work out how you choose them, kw etc . .

 

[gardenbug]

If it's not alot of power then the honda inverter generators are the way to go. I think the biggest is 3k watts although you can hook 2 together. Build an enclosure and they are near silent.

 

[Shakalaka]

get any high quality diesel gen with a sound proof box built in. Make sure its way higher output then what u intend to use it for...100kw gen for 50 1000w or something like that. Then buy a diesel to veggie oil conversion kit...take it to a diesel mechanic and get him to rig it up for u.
Collect veggie oil from restaurants and power ur garden for free.

 

[grow nerd]

I hate video brochures with heavy English accents.

 

[Cutty]

You can quiet them down but a diesel generator will never be silent. There are sound attenuated enclosures and hospital grade mufflers but they still operate around 60 db +/-.

Now with enough money, yeah, they can be made near silent. You would need to resign yourself to this one place for awhile to realize any cost effectiveness of building an additional soundproof enclosure that also has adequate venting (think louvers and big fans). As stated previously it will require weekly maintenance so it will have to be installed so as to accommodate this. Also address the issue of fuel delivery and storage. A 100 gallon tank in the back of a pick-up, filled up from a different place every other day should not arouse suspicion.

Are you mechanically inclined? You will not be able to call a repair man.

Last thing... DO NOT BUY EBAY JUNK. Unless it's a Cat or a John Deere don't risk it, China will let you down.
If you are at this point, what is a few more thousand dollars? That will buy you piece of mind and easy availability of spare parts.

Good Luck!

 

[Strainhunter]

my friends, there are silent generators all over E-BAY that don't make much noise, check them out, i'd like to find out more on this myself?????

LOL!

It doesn't work like that my friend!

"Silent" is always a relative term.

Sound is perceived twice as loud if the sound level increases by 10 dB. Similarly, a 20 dB increase in the sound level is perceived as four times as loud by the normal human ear.

So in other words if one Genset is 50db and the other one 60db...then just read the paragraph above.

Using a Genset for a grow...NOT recommended.

First of all they are LOUD and ALWAYS SMELL!

You'd have to insulate a Genset REAL WELL to avoid nosy inquiries. That brings cooling issues with it.

One more thing, and I am cutting this short, you would have to own a gas station to run a decent sized Genset 24/7 (AND have a 2nd Genset as a back-up.)

 

[Lazyman]

my friends, there are silent generators all over E-BAY that don't make much noise, check them out, i'd like to find out more on this myself?????

I said it early in the thread, and in countless others unless you're in the middle of nowhere and are running 30-50 lights at a minimum, you aren't doing a genny op. A genny and fuel is more expensive than electric power, and no matter what you do your exhaust will always reek of diesel fuel. Silencing a big generator is quite difficult, even well insulated ones can be heard 100' away.

u could even bury them in the ground or build another box with foam insulation around the gen....make sure u have proper intake and exhaust.

The exhaust will always smell even if it were silent (and it probably won't be.) Your neighbors will hear it, smell it, and will wonder why you need 500 gallons of diesel delivered to your house every week.

. . that is the best thing to do, but which is the best one for growers, & also how do you know which one to buy, i haven't got a clue about them or how they run . .

See my earlier posts, they are for very large, remote operations or simply not at all. If you are doing one then you should be doing a ton of reading (searching these forums won't get you very far, as most genny op guys don't have much for internet access) but know that generator maintenance requires weekly oil changes, consistent fuel and regular rebuilds.

I've thought about this before, IMO your far safer buying a good genny that will produce far more than you need, buy 2 of these....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv3SII568v0

You can use one for a 'genny room' and the other for growing. All you need is somewhere to bury them and your sorted, you'll have your own underground self powered growing op.

Yep good to have two so you can do maintenance on one, but even still they require big flip flop rooms so they can run 24X7.

. . i've checked it out, nice, i've thought of all that already, what to hide ie in, but right now i'm trying to get my head around which genny to buy, & how to work out how you choose them, kw etc . .

1800 RPM diesels, and allow for at least 30% more kw than your lights require, preferably 50% They should run 24X7 on a flip room, but calculate what your diesel fuel costs, how many gallons per hour it will consume at half load, and then work out how much fuel you can store and how often it has to be replenished. Then compare that to your electricity bill, it's probably twice as expensive to run your genny than to just buy power.

If it's not alot of power then the honda inverter generators are the way to go. I think the biggest is 3k watts although you can hook 2 together. Build an enclosure and they are near silent.

Terrible advice, gasoline generators are not meant to run 24X7, and will burn up in a couple weeks if that's done. Not remotely practical, nobody ever uses gasoline generators for a grow.

 

[p0opstlnksal0t]

for long extended use you need a low rpm diesel.... a gas powered gen will last a month or two and of continuous use then burn up. a low rpm diesel can be run on filtered veggie oil for next to nothing after some small upgrades but is a considerable amount of work doing so..... store it inside a sound dampened shed with muffled exhaust and intake blowers... or even bury as long as you dont flood... ive seen people semi bury a shed, then mound up earth around the walls to conceal sound.gl

 

[Strainhunter]

PS to my post above:

You could buy bulk meaning get yourself a few dozen of these ...and another few dozen as a back-up...

They are the only Genset I know of running REALLY QUIET!

 

[p0opstlnksal0t]

a small 10-12kw low rpm diesel genset can run on as little as 80 gallons of veggie oil a week if tuned right. but more practically your lookin at about 100gallons

 

[Strainhunter]

a small 10-12kw low rpm diesel genset can run on as little as 80 gallons of veggie oil a week if tuned right. but more practically your lookin at about 100gallons

Yeah...having the whole neighborhood reek of French Fries!

 

[Shakalaka]

i have pulled off a sizeable grow with a diesel gen running off veggie oil in the country with neighbors too far off to hear or smell shit all...worked for me...and free fuel is cheaper than grid power.

 

[Shakalaka]

that or build urself a overunity device