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Brownout, blackout, what do you do?

B

Bobkush

New member
Howdy to all, I sure enjoy looking around here but have not been able to find any input about power outages.
I live in a rural area and on occasion we have these brownout, Blackout episodes with our utility provider.
What I am looking for is info on setting up a backup power, lighting system to come on during the "on" cycle when this occurs.
I use digital timers so I don't lose the on-0ff cycle setting but I'm tired of getting hermi's from this happening. (It happens 2 or 3 times every grow cycle).
So, this is my delima and I'm hoping youuns have the great answer to this problem.
Bob
 
GOT_BUD?

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
No reason you couldn't string up some low wattage LEDs to run off of a battery powered UPS.

You won't get enough light intensity to grow under them. But it will keep your light cycle going.

Now whether or not they hermie from low light intensity is something else to consider. If you can comfortably read under the LEDs, that should be more than enough to keep them from intersexing. If the chemovar is stable enough, it shouldn't throw nanners with even lower light levels.
 
B

Bobkush

New member
How exactly would you provide a circuit for the UPS to only come on during the "on" cycle? Even my digital timers will not be able to send a signal to a relay independent of the power outage.
 
TychoMonolyth

TychoMonolyth

Boreal Curing
Bobkush said:
How exactly would you provide a circuit for the UPS to only come on during the "on" cycle? Even my digital timers will not be able to send a signal to a relay independent of the power outage.
Click to expand...

Plug your lights into your timer, and timer into your ups.
 
GOT_BUD?

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I would just leave the UPS plugged into the wall as normal so it stays charged, but only plug the LEDs into the UPS when I need them.

I can't think of a reason to leave them running with the main lights. A few minutes of darkness during lights on won't hurt the plants. It's an extended period of darkness that will screw them up.
 
K

kookied

Member
Natural gas generator, work very well. Pricy but what is you crop worth? Have ran them to run a 10k grow, back in the day, never had problem.
 
TychoMonolyth

TychoMonolyth

Boreal Curing
GOT_BUD? said:
I would just leave the UPS plugged into the wall as normal so it stays charged, but only plug the LEDs into the UPS when I need them.

I can't think of a reason to leave them running with the main lights. A few minutes of darkness during lights on won't hurt the plants. It's an extended period of darkness that will screw them up.
Click to expand...

A ups is always plugged in and your equipment plugged into it. You dont want to run around every 12 hours to plug in the lights. So plug the timer into the ups, and your lights into the timer.
 
GOT_BUD?

GOT_BUD?

Weed is a gateway to gardening
ICMag Donor
Veteran
TychoMonolyth said:
A ups is always plugged in and your equipment plugged into it. You dont want to run around every 12 hours to plug in the lights. So plug the timer into the ups, and your lights into the timer.
Click to expand...

You don’t want to pull your main lights through a 1200 watt UPS.

But now I see what you’re saying. Plug the backup LEDs into a timer.

I’d leave them unplugged or turned off until needed though. I can’t think of a reason to run them in conjunction with the mains.
 
N

NoSativaction

Member
I lose power around here all the time. Too many trees near an overhead,semi-rural grid.

A few hours of no light won't screw things up. Unless you have extremely touchy genetics. Main thing I worry about is having my RDWC pump running, but I have a backup generator. Few days ago, I had a 4 hour outage but it was raining and in the middle of the night, did not bother with generator. Everything is still just fine.

But if I were to go for a backup system....I'd get a big beefy 12V battery or two, hook up a boost converter to it, and drive LED COBs off of that. Keep a trickle charger hooked up to batteries to keep them topped off all the time. A relay could be used to detect loss of AC, hook it inline with LEDs and it would be an automatic switch back and forth as needed.
 
I'mback

I'mback

Comfortably numb!
??? folks are worried about lights. What about the rest of your equipment? Lights are only on part of ones grow. I have a generator. Not the cheapest way to get power though...
 
TychoMonolyth

TychoMonolyth

Boreal Curing
I'm thinking about someone on here who was running 12/1 cycle. 12 hours of light, and one hour of interrupted darkness with a 60 watt bulb in the middle of the 12 hours of darkness to keep them from flowering. It would be pretty easy to run a simple lamp off a UPS. Hell even a trouble light off a car battery would work.

I'm 100% against manually turning lights off and on. A $5 timer will free you from the work you *will fuck up at some point, a few times, over a 6 month period.

What's the difference, or issue, plugging your lights into your timer, the timer into the UPS, and the UPS into the wall? Easy peasy lemon squeezy, and you no longer have a problem. Hell you even get surge protection.
 
I'mback

I'mback

Comfortably numb!
TychoMonolyth said:
I'm thinking about someone on here who was running 12/1 cycle. 12 hours of light, and one hour of interrupted darkness with a 60 watt bulb in the middle of the 12 hours of darkness to keep them from flowering. It would be pretty easy to run a simple lamp off a UPS. Hell even a trouble light off a car battery would work.

I'm 100% against manually turning lights off and on. A $5 timer will free you from the work you *will fuck up at some point, a few times, over a 6 month period.

What's the difference, or issue, plugging your lights into your timer, the timer into the UPS, and the UPS into the wall? Easy peasy lemon squeezy, and you no longer have a problem. Hell you even get surge protection.
Click to expand...
When power goes out here, I unplug the tent and plug into the generator's 8AWG extension cord. 1 plug. Can't ask for easier than that. Lights are only one thing and although important, so is temp and RH
 
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