Need advice. How long will a generator last?

Does anybody know what the running time/lifespan a battery powered generator would be, if i ran a 600w hid light through it?
I've seen you can buy 3000w generators with 2000w continuous power. They are costly, but you can attach four 10ah batterys, they each produce 560wh with fast charging packs.

I will note, I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to 10ah batteries, and 560wh. I just know that's the best battery for the best rechargable generator, and that's how much they each produce.

I can charge the batterys on the sly for nothing(family house), although do have a slight worry that charging alot of high powerd batteries each day, would make it quite obvious I'm up to no good.

Any advice would be great
 

printer

Well-Known Member
If you mean use a bunch of batteries to run through an inverter (an inverter takes dc power from a battery and produces AC, like plugging into your wall) and then powering a light controller (or ballast) to HID you are wasting power as heat and that is a wasteful and expensive way to go about it. It would be better to get a string of Leds with voltage requirement matched to your battery voltage and use a controller that keeps the current and voltage constant. With an inverter to step up the voltage from the batteries you are adding another conversion that loses power and generates heat.
 

reddevil6

Active Member
560wh means it can run 560w for 1 hour or 1120w for 30 mins 280w for 2 hours and so on.
So 4 of them could run 2240w for 1 hour 1120w for 2 hours 560w for 4 hours 280w for 8 hours an so on.
 
560wh means it can run 560w for 1 hour or 1120w for 30 mins 280w for 2 hours and so on.
So 4 of them could run 2240w for 1 hour 1120w for 2 hours 560w for 4 hours 280w for 8 hours an so on.
Thanks mate.
Would take quite alot of battery power to get through 18hours on 600w then. Would need to recharge all batteries within 4 hours, and change all batteries every 4 hours non stop. Just for 1 continuous light.
 
gas generators aren't meant for constant use, if you want a permanent generator to run your lights, look for a diesel generator.

This is what I was looking at. Think theyd be the best for what I'm looking for
 

Southside112

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you have too many challenges to deal with. Also sounds like your a kid and planning on charging batteries at your parents house and growing in a makeshift grow area in the woods. All terrible ideas. Why not just do an outdoor grow and have the sun as your light source?
I would wait until you have a better plan or I almost guarantee this will end in failure.
 
You're almost right. Grown man moved back into the family home. Its more a case of I dont want to bring trouble to the family house. The running costs on charging batterys/generators is fine.
Pretty much its a home made mine shaft in woods yeah. There must surely be something out there that will run 1 600w light for 8/9hours per charge. Even if I bought 2 whole generators. The cost for them would definitely be paid back after 2 crops, then the rest would just be recharge costs, that i can get for free.
 
Sounds like you have too many challenges to deal with. Also sounds like your a kid and planning on charging batteries at your parents house and growing in a makeshift grow area in the woods. All terrible ideas. Why not just do an outdoor grow and have the sun as your light source?
I would wait until you have a better plan or I almost guarantee this will end in failure.
Also I live in england.. outdoor crops arent always great, too much crap weather.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
This is not a generator. It is an inverter, it boosts your battery voltage and switches it back and forth to make AC power. It will have a conversion efficiency of around 90-95% depending on design. It uses 56V battery packs, the highest capacity battery on this site is 5.0Ah battery. So each pack can give 250W for one hour, two packs for 500W. So 24 batteries for 12:12 if you change them once a day making two trips. Install them in the morning, run them and then pick them up to charge at night. The pack seems to only come with the charger, the pair for $100. Not the best reviews on batteries though.

 

dbz

Well-Known Member
You're almost right. Grown man moved back into the family home. Its more a case of I dont want to bring trouble to the family house. The running costs on charging batterys/generators is fine.
Pretty much its a home made mine shaft in woods yeah. There must surely be something out there that will run 1 600w light for 8/9hours per charge. Even if I bought 2 whole generators. The cost for them would definitely be paid back after 2 crops, then the rest would just be recharge costs, that i can get for free.
You should just buy your weed
Chargeable battery packs isn't going to produce you enough weed to pay for anything. They won't keep up a decent light.
If you really really wanted to do that, then the best you could do is a Sunny area with quite a few solar panels to recharge a sizeable battery bank. Even then with any decent amount of cloud coverage you would likely be fucked unless you had a lot of solar panels and batteries (To charge enough batteries to provide hundreds or a thousand watts per hour for potential 12-14 hour darkness coupled with a whole day of cloud cover).
That doesn't even take into account atmospheric control in a "mine shaft" as you called it, you would need some type of heating at least even if cooling were covered by ambient temperature.
You need way more batteries than you think for a decent grow, and a shitton of solar panels, unless you plan on carrying hundreds of pounds of batteries multiple times a day back and forth. BTW batteries are pretty damn heavy
Long story short, not a good idea. Don't do it. Or do, and if you grow a decent crop spend thousands to grow not near enough to pay yourself back or likely even maintain the grow.
 
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