No more power spikes?

Hi RIU

I was wondering on some input on if this theory would work to help reduce power spikes showing up when your lights are kicking in.


What i was thinking is to get Car Battery Chargers that charge the battery until it is full than does a drip feed into the batter from than. from there wire three (just the number i chose) in series to the charger so it can charge all three at once.
than from there either have it connect to a breaker panel as i have drawn up there or directly to the power inverter.

The reason i have 4 rows of 3 is i was looking at a 8000watt power inverter so i figured the sub panel could be a way i could isolate the batteries from the inverter so that if i want to change out a battery all i would have to do is turn the breaker off and unplug the charger and go about business as normal. Aswell as the point of the box is to connect all the batteries in one reserve so to speak and because the inverter needs 2awg wire so i figured why not have them hook into a panel and use 2awg from there.

Than wire up some normal plug ins to the inverter and plug your lights and timer in from there


What i am looking to accomplish with this system is to even out the energy uses so as not to have large spikes when the lights come on level it out to a steady energy usage so as not to alert anyone at the power company.Hopefully each battery can run 2 1000watt bulbs and have the charger be able to keep up charging the battery at the same rate it is being used and hopefully be able to fill it in its 12hours of downtime when the lights go off

i think it will work in thoery as long as ur batterys will power the littles without draining it would work fine, good luck and keep us posted on ur results.. in very interested in the final word

+ rep

yea i wanna see this too. i dont have power spikes in my lights but i only have 2 400w and a t-5 216w. both 400w are gym lights with those huge hanging ballast that look like there from the 50's. but theres no delay in them. with other ballast, the lights flicker till they warm up. these just make the bulbs a dull orange till they are warm then bam! the fuckin sun comes out.

Looks interesting. Where the hell did you find a cheap 8000W inverter?
I "think" the batts will discharge while in use and the chargers will need to be big enough to cover the load.
If so, and that happens, in "theory" your electricity use would slowly ramp up and would not be seen as a true spike.
I like the idea.

http://www.theinverterstore.com/the-inverter-store-product.php?model=pwrinv8kw12v

That is the power inverter i was considering.
You could use smaller like 2500watt ones i for 2 1000watt lights which should in theory make it able to eliminate the sub panel but i like the idea of the sub panel for the 8000watt inverter. I am looking to run 6 1000watters off of this

I hope that three batteries would be enough i've read about chargers taking 15hours from completely empty to full...so i figure if it can maintain a good charge on the batteries while lights are on while lights are off the 12hours should be plenty to refuel the batteries.

I also kind of wonder if it would look more like a refigerator running or a deep freeze and keep more of a steady energy usage.

I am low on funds and not at the point where i can afford to do this kind of thing quite yet but it is something i will definately keep in mind and should i have the opportunity to do so i will do a diy journal about it so that others may be able to benefit from the system. I was more or less looking for peoples input and opinions on this. I am also hoping a electrician will stop by and give their feedback on this system.

You're not taking the 12V vs 120V vs 240V into the Ohms law math. You will kill your batteries in no time. There is no way the charger will keep up. I'm pretty high right now, but I think this is not going to work.

Eviljay said:

You're not taking the 12V vs 120V vs 240V into the Ohms law math. You will kill your batteries in no time. There is no way the charger will keep up. I'm pretty high right now, but I think this is not going to work.

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with x12-12v car battery's powering 60 amps......you will come out with 2.4 ohms with a max load of 8,640 watts.......I think you should be fine!

Smot360 said:

with x12-12v car battery's powering 60 amps......you will come out with 2.4 ohms with a max load of 8,640 watts.......I think you should be fine!

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Wouldn't it be cheaper and achieve the same result if you bought just enough batteries and a single charger to run for 3-4 hours of your cycle from battery and the rest from power line? Your energy usage would ramp up slowly from the power company's end and you'll have spent significantly less money on batteries and chargers.

Plus batteries fuck with the environment don't be using mad amounts of car batteries. Bad karma for the plants.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Wow I don't even know where to start. First of all, unless you are running a warehouse full of 1000 watt lights, there's absolutely no need for this set up in the first place. To deal with the electric company all you need to do is PAY YOUR BILL. Second, you are trying to use car batteries, which uses 12 V DC voltage, to run 120 V AC electronics. These are two very different animals. You don't simply add the volts or the wattage. You would also need a transformer capable of handling the load you speak of. I imagine one like that would cost a few beans. And last, you are running MORE electricity over the duration of your grow, because you running extra chargers, transformers, etc. No matter how you slice it, the power needs to come from somewhere. Its a good theory you have, but there's nothing economical about it IMO.

pokesalotasmot said:

Wow I don't even know where to start. First of all, unless you are running a warehouse full of 1000 watt lights, there's absolutely no need for this set up in the first place. To deal with the electric company all you need to do is PAY YOUR BILL. Second, you are trying to use car batteries, which uses 12 V DC voltage, to run 120 V AC electronics. These are two very different animals. You don't simply add the volts or the wattage. You would also need a transformer capable of handling the load you speak of. I imagine one like that would cost a few beans. And last, you are running MORE electricity over the duration of your grow, because you running extra chargers, transformers, etc. No matter how you slice it, the power needs to come from somewhere. Its a good theory you have, but there's nothing economical about it IMO.

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8000 Watt power inverter, 12v DC / 110-120v AC,60hz $359.99

8000 Watt Power Inverter 12 volt by AIMS $699.00


He is right, Somewhat..Unless you did a trickle charge for like 4 hours to the batteries than went to an inverter than to your breaker, it would be pointless. It would deffiently reduce the spike in the bill, but like he said, pay your bill and you'll be fine.....I have about 6,000 watt's in lights alone that i am running in a 20' x 20' area , and I have known of people to do way way more! If you got some solar panels or built your own windmill your system would be useful otherwise it'll be just to hide the spike!

ps. oh and ya..... the inverter will have to come before the breakers ....i.e. 1st battery chargers, 2nd batteries, 3rd inverter, 4th main breaker, 5th sub panel breakers....etc.....

My issue is that its illegal to cultivate here which is why hiding the power spikes is important to me. I really dont care how much power i use aslong as no one notices any spikes. Im hoping if they do notice a increase in power consumption and try to look more into it they wont see big spikes but rather a steady draw of power that i could dismiss any raised eyebrows as a fridge or freezer giving them more reason to assume it is not a grow op.Im not trying to be economical ill replace half of the batteries every 3 weeks im trying to be carefull and eliminate asmany potential factors of getting caught by authorities.

And ya i suppose the sub panel would be after the inverter not before not sure why i thought of doing it that way.

6000 watts is only for the main room which is another reason id like to deter the spikes si ill have another 2000watts running in a second room for veg/ off rotation flower

constantpane said:

My issue is that its illegal to cultivate here which is why hiding the power spikes is important to me. I really dont care how much power i use aslong as no one notices any spikes. Im hoping if they do notice a increase in power consumption and try to look more into it they wont see big spikes but rather a steady draw of power that i could dismiss any raised eyebrows as a fridge or freezer giving them more reason to assume it is not a grow op.Im not trying to be economical ill replace half of the batteries every 3 weeks im trying to be carefull and eliminate asmany potential factors of getting caught by authorities.

And ya i suppose the sub panel would be after the inverter not before not sure why i thought of doing it that way.

6000 watts is only for the main room which is another reason id like to deter the spikes si ill have another 2000watts running in a second room for veg/ off rotation flower

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With that being said.....Yes you should be fine than......

i get rid of power spikes by running reverse flower rooms. one room is on in the day, the other at night. the only concern then is the damn helis flying above seeing a big heat signature at 2am. to reduce this, i placed the second flower room against a wall to another room and also more towards the center under the attic. heat signatures only read walls. thats why when you watch cops they disappear for a second when running around buildings.

I had considered that but im not totally convinced that flipfloping isnt still creating a power spike when it switches on and off...no matter how unnoticeable it is to us the computer may show some kind of spike and couldshow consistancy if someone payed attention

hughesresearch said:

i get rid of power spikes by running reverse flower rooms. one room is on in the day, the other at night. the only concern then is the damn helis flying above seeing a big heat signature at 2am. to reduce this, i placed the second flower room against a wall to another room and also more towards the center under the attic. heat signatures only read walls. thats why when you watch cops they disappear for a second when running around buildings.

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Its not the heat that causes the spike, it is the energy being drawn to power up the ballast or what have you. A normal ballast on a 120 v line will start at about 9.5 amps while 240 v only runs at about 4-5 amps.....the more ballast you have, the bigger the spike.....

and plus if a heli flew above my house and caught me growing....I would contact my lawyer and fight the system.....That is against our 4th amendment, you cant use illegal techniques to bust someone....The cops of corse would grab everything but at least you wont go to jail and you can get all your crap back (excluding the pot).
Looking through walls with a heat sensor without probable cause is an invasion of privacy.....My suggestion to you is read up on your laws....It'll help you out in the long run! It did for me!

well yes, i know the privacy laws. this doesnt mean they wont start looking at the house every now and then. i live in a college town. fuckin 20+ liquor stores and a
beer mart" at every corner. pot goes thru here more than i could have ever believed. cops look everywhere for anything. pulled over-your gettin searched. racism, yup-more likely to get stopped if your black. worse thing is, its completely half the city with the college being on the bad side. im kinda in between. on the other side is the 200k+ area.

If you're worried about spikes why not have your lights come on in sequence instead of all at once? Just get a few extra timers it'll be a shit load cheaper than this battery plan.

Just have 1 light come on at say, 8:00, then 8:15, 8:30, ect,ect. till all lights are on, then turn off 1 at a time.

Or just pay your bill on time no need to worry.

ExDex1x1 said:

If you're worried about spikes why not have your lights come on in sequence instead of all at once? Just get a few extra timers it'll be a shit load cheaper than this battery plan.

Just have 1 light come on at say, 8:00, then 8:15, 8:30, ect,ect. till all lights are on, then turn off 1 at a time.

Or just pay your bill on time no need to worry.

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Unfortunately that wouldn't work out the way you would want.....Regardless you will see the spike in the grid due to 9.5 amps powering up every 15 min adding on to the additonal power being drawn to keep the other devices running....If it is a regular ballast, they take about 5-10 min to warm up anyways.... so about 15 min later that's when it would go from 9.5 amps (to initially start the device) to ....? I'm not 100% sure on the running amps. The grid would look like a heart beat monitor starting at 80 beats growing all the way to 150 beats....It would look like a mountain range getting larger.... Do you see where I'm getting at? You would want the spike to grow gradually, Not jump up than down than way up than down a little more than way way up, so on and so on.......

Ya i had considered staggering them in that sense but as Smot360 explained beautifuly why it wouldnt work as to what i am looking for. And to the people that keep saying pay your power bill and you will be fine, i am assuming you are in places that it is legal to cultivate and have very little to worry in that aspect. However in my situation it is not legal to cultivate and have higher risk of people noticing things or taking actions based off the power spikes. So i am basically trying to be "stealthy" on a larger scale