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Boots Sugarleaf
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I am following this thread, thanks for sharing.
It is something I intend to do next year myself
It is something I intend to do next year myself
No we are not moving battery! They weigh like 75lbs each. We have 3ft zero gauge wire running through to the inverter from the battery banks. Plus so ever one not confussed THE CHARGERS are only TEMP until SOLAR PANELS are built up then they will only be back up for cloudy days. It takes 1-125w panel per battery to charge. We are building our own solar panels so it going take time with error i'm sure. This is still in testing that's why it's not in FULL DETAIL but any questions one might have SHOOT AWAY......Plus the inverter you got pasted YES" thats it but $100.00 more then we payed EBAY" $199.99 go there and the Iota chargers.
So, to sum it up for people, the Iota charger is plugged into a normal household AC outlet. The charger is then hooked to the batteries (6 of them). Lastly, you connect the inverter to the batteries and your ballast plugs into the inverter. Correct?
Yes and No!
The charger is plugged in to wall, the charger connected to one end of battery bank which is 12 battery bank. Then the invert will connect to other end of bank then your lights will plug in the inverter but you gotta turn inverters on and off manually on your light cycle.
Your household AC charges your batteries after the 12 hour light cycle? Do you need a timer for this?
No timers and NO not after unless you have enough Amh to run for 12 hours and that veries from your battery setup and Amh that are stored. So unless shit load of battery the charger will charge as battery are draining but these are smart chargers MEANING they dont run the whole AMP out out al time only uses as much AMps as needed to charge and if you got enough Amp hours will result in less charging time at full AMP out meaning it will run less then the hids but u gotta make sure the Amh hours are high our you might be facing high electric bills. This is where trail and error has played. So i could not fully know if this setup would be cheaper to run unless i knew the watts running and how long. Then you can get a ball park figuare of your Amp needed to run D/C to A/C without running the smart chargers. It has to be a smart charger they a 3 step charger means IT ONLY BUMPS AMPS UP a need to hold battery % but the inverters have alarms if alarm sounds mean your Amp hours are not enough and you are running most power of the charger which then will convert to inverter and thats where it cost more to run but most don't know this and think can take a fe battery and run system without charge while running lights. Amh is what makes this setup succeed. If you short the hours you short the run times meaning to much charging and not enough runtimes.
You're going from AC power -> DC power storage (deep cycle battery) -> AC power for lights?
what makes you think charging the Batteries with a battery charger via AC, then coverting that AC to DC, then pushing that DC in to Lead Acid Batteries which charge at less than 100% efficiency, then converting that DC Power Stored in the Batteries via the less than 100% efficient DC to AC conversion, and then you loose lots of Amp Hours in the Battery anytime you drain the battery at high dc loads. Pure AC Grid power is always going to be cheaper. There is no point to use those batteries at all because they are for sure costing you more money than just running the HIDs off grid power.
Buy a KillaWatt Meter and log the amout of power you are using with the Iota Charger during a daily recharge cycle. Then Log the power consumption of the 600w ballast and tell me which option uses the least amount of electricity.
so tell me how many KWH your use to recharge your battery bank that runs the ballast.
How many KWH do you use when you run the ballast directly from Grid Power?
What is the difference between the 2 different ways? I would like to know what your test results are. I have batteries and inverters and chargers but can't see how using the batteries would be any more efficient. Maybe I'm wrong so school me.
I guess it would depend where you live on what it would cost to run a 600. Around my way it's like 28.00 a month for 12h days. Now that's not much but going and putting 6-600 on your grid YOU TALKING LIKE 150.00 more a month
Sorry if I missed it but what does your bill come out too now? I think I read you save about 1/2
Im in a med state so power isnt really an issuse, but I have researched power company's back east and everyone has a privacy statement that they will not turn over your records without a warrant ect. I understand your trying to stay off the radar but I have nevre read of a grow bust that the power company notified the police that the bill was too high, only the police contacting the power company after they got a tip of an OP.
great thread though, at the end of the day, do what you gotta do to sleep well and live free