Re-fried crackpot idea? Or added stealth mini. You decide.

I just had an idea for a 4-8 plant flower/grow chamber mod. I don't know if anyone's mentioned it before.
But I'm sure someone has, here it is.
Say you had limited space for stealth, but you felt the great need to seed. And you didn't want to have to
worry about having to cover up any stray cords from leading into vital, conspicous areas. And you didn't
want to be paranoid about the constant energy drain.
What you could do is:
1) Turn off the lights in rooms when you're not in them.
-aka- Stop being a scaredy cat.
2) Invest in UPS. Uninterrupted Power Supply. Usually confuser (computer) people use them
for safegaurding their private systems/files, from experiencing any ill effects if any
sudden power loss or disruption may occur.
*Note: Tech types usually only mention this to their boss in times of need in order to look good.
Or when it's time for a raise, and it makes for a decent time wasting project.
Anyway.

Now how could UPS, help me?

I'm glad you asked. And the answer is. Daisy chain. Yes flowers tied together.

Nooooo! You fool! Daisy chain! The art of tying together smaller less powerful
attributes, in order to achieve a more powerful desired affect.

*(I've used both Effect and Affect, hope it's correct) - -Anal Andy

What the whole plan is this. Say you want to add an additional area to your current grow/SOG/Scr0g.
And this area/box will just be used for a 2-6 plant flowering expansion (12/12POWER).
Basicly, you just want to be a little greedy, and you're still a little paranoid.

What you do is 1st. Invest in at least 2-4 UPS's. Two days before the morning you plan
to put the plants to flower, begin charging the UPS's one at at time. The whole idea
behind this is to draw the power at a slow rate. Stop, draw again, stop, and so on.
Also, you will now have a portable battery pack, and outlets, which can now power you concealed
mini-grow. Of course, now you have to remember to change the battery pack every 6-8 hrs. But now
you can stop stressing about the power issue,and a portion of the concealement debate.
Now you can get more creative.

You can even mod your rubbermaid or growbox. How? You can create an internal battery slot.
By creating a false bottom and adding a slot on one of the narrow sides of the case. Make sure
that if you do cut it in a way that you reclose it.
By doing this, you can now store your contained rubbermaid, growbox, where ever you feel like putting
it. Angle it however you want. Without having to worry about covering up more wires, and thinking
about the constant power draw.

I think that this would work best with a small contained system, where the light can be lower wattage,
closer to the plants, smaller fan system, 12/12 light power drain, and then stacked in the back or your
garage.
Major run-on. Wheeeewwwwwww.
Set your flower night to your night, this way you don't have to stress changing the battery so much.

At your bedtime plants go off, leave the last battery on. Before you leave, you change the battery.
A few hours later, the lights come on. You get my drift. I'll leave the rest of the thinking to you.

Hope this wasn't a waste of time, mine or yours. Hopefully this helps, or at least reminds people.
If this technique is currently being employed.


Planting the seeds of destruction,
One by one.


DaSprout

I think that the UPS might help by keeping up the power supply without any power surges... I dont know im just saying this..

Mr.Untouchable said:

I think that the UPS might help by keeping up the power supply without any power surges... I dont know im just saying this..

Click to expand...

Do you feel that this may be a viable course. Say if you're an out of work tech guy. You already have a few ups' lying about. Why not try to expand my grow a little. Maybe some cfls. Decent exhaust. Passive intake. Mylar lined. Fabric air bubble filter, aka loosely tied button down.

Also, does anyone know about this light and its affects on your grow, and air quality.

Viatek Ionic 15 Watt Ionic Bulb Air Freshening CFL Light Bulb Ionic Compact Fluorescent Light bulb uses just 15 watts while producing 60 watts of light. The ionizer inside the bulb helps to keep air fresh. Reduces smoke and more! Detail Page

It states:

"The Ionic Bulb works by emitting powerful pollution fighting ions. These ions attach themselves to pollutants and drops them to the floor where they can easily be vacuumed. Smoke and nasty odors are neutralized."

Would the ionization hurt you plants? Would the initial odor "dust off" contaminate your stash? Or would it take a long build up to affect you grow?

I anyone knows of this product, please reply. I would like to know if the odor eliminating effect is actually worth the trouble.
Plus its a light! Two to four of those with your HPS for some lateral mid-to-upper range lighting would be sweet.

i haven't used one, but sounds like snake oil to me. (wanna buy a lower east river crossing? LOL)

All of these ion generators create ozone. Now the tree hugging crowd will say "great! we need more ozone!" But look deeper. That generated ozone takes a lloonnggg time to wander up where its needed. Until then, its a pollutant/poison to use humans (just watch a summer weather forecast, the 'ozone level' are almost always included. Not to mention the air in a house is far more polluted then the outside air. (city/country proportions)

Using a CFL for ozone generation actually makes sense. FL's need HV to excite the molecules to generate the photons. HV is a natural ozone genertator. Dump the extra HV towards generating the ions (ozone) and its a win-win situation. (If you want ozone also)

So, from my point of view, kinda a waste. If you want a tiny bit more light, get one. if light is fine, just get a ion generator, and save the light usage of the electrons.

I might try out a couple. Unless...

i doubt 15 watts can put out enough lumens to do a significant grow
maybe with about 30 or 40..

Most UPSs - especially the consumer end units for 1-2 PCs - usually will only run for 10-15 minutes or so at 75% capacity. Those are usually rated around 500 watts or so. Say you only draw 100w for this grow - still only run for an hour or so

We had some bad-ass ones at my last job - 3000 watt capacity, running 5-6 servers. Even those would only run 20 minutes with all that draw.
I believe the list price on that unit was about $4,500.

Not a viable option.

i think changing batteries and charging them would be more hasle than its worth

Yeah. Sounds right.
Idea declared.
crackpot.
pot.

the idea isn't crack pot. Folks have been trying to improve methods of storing energy for later use for years. I did see a solar power panel setup that makes sense. The way it was setup required a special meter. The meter would be able to accept the energy your solar panels produced during the day when the sun is producing the power, it would run backwards. Then when your production was less than your consumption it would run forward. This makes sense to me. VV

Nice one VV.
Thanks. I didn't even think of that.

IMO, the issue isn't really the power storage, but the economics.

If you NEED to store the power, then sure there are all kinds of battery storage systems out there.
But they cost $$$$$ even for a small ssytem.

Not really a crackpot idea itself - just not economically viable for this situation.

If this prohibition continues. One day. Pool size underground setup. Small hidden tunnel/doormway into your basement. Solar panels or array, generators. Large amounts of $$$ made. Especially in the North East.
One day.

What you are describing really needs a proper storage battery array, not a bunch of daisy chained UPSes. In fact, most UPS manufacturers explicitly state that daisy chaining UPSes is not supported.

Dealing with battery arrays is an arcane science all of its own. Working out the connections safely can be confusing, and you have to deal with issues like outgassing, fluid levels, etc. If you really want to get into this, check out the forums at otherpower.com . I agree that the solar power case is the one that would make it worth the trouble, as it allows you to go 'off the grid.'

There are some parts of the country, particullary the Northeast where this is the only vaible way to make solar pay. In the summer time when your solar panles were able to produce power you would be banking energy to use when the sun doesn't produce enough. I wish I could remember the name of the company. It was a program some months ago on NPR.
The thing I liked about it was it didn't matter how many people were participating. If a lot did it would mean the power companies would have less to produce seasonally. Since Air Conditioning is one of the least efficent energy users this could work out well. Brown Outs on hot days would go away. VV

might work if your using noob grow setups but those power back up would not runa 400,600, or 1000 watt light for more then a few minutes ona full charge and to get the larger one capable of even handling the needed watts would be real exsoensive let alone handful to daisy chain.

Oh yes! Really expensive. But if running a decent sized room, it may be worth it. At least as an offset. Most areas have incentives (cash back, up to 50%) for going solar. Plus, probably won't get busted from electricity usage. (priceless)

One really has to ponder this. I've been pondering solar for quite some time. Not for just growing, but in general. The grid-tie is the cheaper, since there is no batteries or bat chargers. This is also the type that the elec co pays you back. (but thats misleading. You don't get a check, you get a credit. Most elec co.'s use 'net metering') But once the sun is low, no power and back to normal. This may not be so bad for flowering, since its a 12/12

The off-grid is the battery style is nice since it stores. But you need more panels. Ones to run stuff now, and more to charge the batteries which will be depleted during the overnight.

A for the bang-for-the-buck, solar PV is still not a good idea. (but the panels are rated for 80-85% power for 25 years not bad) Solar water heating is much better at the pay-back.

FilthyFletch said:

might work if your using noob grow setups but those power back up would not runa 400,600, or 1000 watt light for more then a few minutes ona full charge and to get the larger one capable of even handling the needed watts would be real exsoensive let alone handful to daisy chain.

Click to expand...

Sorry. I've been gone for a while. Saw an interesting thread on here. I believe it was a DIY battery backup for your low watt items (water pump, fan). Doesn't have to be specificly for lighting. I've also been looking in to solar. Currently it's not a total viable option for me, but they're coming onto the next gen "solar windows", and commercially available panels.
Maybe within a decade, I could be in the right position $/technology/position.