does anyone have info on Generater's?

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sour power

sour power

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Looking to go off the grid.anyone with first hand knowledge plz pm me or a detail break down of everything I will need and can expect. The pros/cons.the different types of generaterts,and the most quiet.looking to use 15000 - 18000 watts so I know I need a beast
 
obsoul33t

obsoul33t

IBL
296
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multiquip whisperwatt ultra silent 25kv $$$$ .. the very best generator and least noise
60 days running 15k will run around 950=1100 gl
i recall figuring aprox $193 in fuel cost to produce 1lb

bigger generator had a lower operating cost per lb until you go up to the 80kv then costs went up . the 70kv was most cost effective but uses 2x fuel but runs more than double the light of the 25kv ... i recall the 70kv runs $148 in fuel per lb ..

these are rough but close number but figuring running at 75% capacity , now the 25kv is rated to only be able to run 9k watts in it's amperage rating but in reality we have run 20k watts on the 25kv genny .. the key is the start up you need to set it up to fire only a few ballast at a time until all are on .... hid draw their biggest amps at start up so ... nowirenuts.ca can build a sweet lighting controller to do this ..

cheers
 
3

321abc

69
6
Dont you need a lower running rpm gen? I remember reading 1500rpm? Was also told that you will need two, a spare if one goes down and requires maintanance. Big $$$'s
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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Sour, if you're in California you may qualify for one of these retrofit programs. My husband and I are exploring this option with the hopes/idea that we'll be able to do a full solar install and get off-grid, pay down the loan for the installation with the money we USED to pay to PG&E.
 
handyman1

handyman1

3
3
Check out Lister generators low rpm, diesel, run forever, not cheap.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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Sour, if you're in California you may qualify for one of these retrofit programs. My husband and I are exploring this option with the hopes/idea that we'll be able to do a full solar install and get off-grid, pay down the loan for the installation with the money we USED to pay to PG&E.
Well, yesterday afternoon I got to speak with a gal by the name of Parrish from the company that's been chosen by the state to handle the retrofit program and disburse funds. It looks like we not only qualify, but we're looking at a total package after they come out to the house to do their testing, etcetera, that's going to encompass all environmental and energy-using systems in the house, from HVAC to insulation to doors and windows to water heating and alternative energy systems (SOLAR!).

I am SO EXCITED! This is the first time I've asked about some program or another and not been told immediately that we don't qualify.

Emailing is your best bet for a response from CHFLoan.
 
Bud Spleefman

Bud Spleefman

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Buying the electric from the electric co is by far the cheapest option. Around here I know plenty of folks who are running 18,000 or more watts, the dude that runs our local hydro store told me his electric bill is $2200 a month! Mine is about 1200, maybe 1000 in the summer, and I have 14,000 watts. Why do you want to be off the grid? I guess if you have to a diesel generator is your only option. I looked at a Natural Gas one, and it was like 100 bucks a day to run it! Almost 3 times as expensive as buying the electric from the electric co.....
 
Bud Spleefman

Bud Spleefman

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The one family I know that has solar power has a room full of batteries and they wait for sunny days to run the washing machine, dishwasher, vacumn, etc..... and they don't grow. I can't imagine how many rooftops you'd need to run an 18,000 watt grow, probably you and three of your neighbors!
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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Buying the electric from the electric co is by far the cheapest option. Around here I know plenty of folks who are running 18,000 or more watts, the dude that runs our local hydro store told me his electric bill is $2200 a month! Mine is about 1200, maybe 1000 in the summer, and I have 14,000 watts. Why do you want to be off the grid? I guess if you have to a diesel generator is your only option. I looked at a Natural Gas one, and it was like 100 bucks a day to run it! Almost 3 times as expensive as buying the electric from the electric co.....
Wow, those are some fantastic rates. Are you sure you're not taking a commercial rate when you say you're running what adds up to several homes for less than $3K/mo?

Long before I ever started growing an average summer bill was approaching $1,000. That's just to run the household. That's why, despite numerous vigorous attempts by certain other growing friends to get me to go LARGE (they're all languishing in the hell of unmoved product now) I flat out refused. If our single family home, with three of the four bedrooms holding one person each and then one bedroom for my husband and I is resulting in power bills that are starting out at well over $400/mo, then how would I, how can I then increase that exponentially?

If you were looking at bills even remotely close to mine, you would be singing a decidedly different tune, and probably looking for that bottle of Astraglide.

Hmm... let me think here, why do I want to get off grid?

1) Regular power outages put me off-grid anyway.

2) PG&E(vil) isn't getting any cheaper, in fact, it's the opposite.

3) What's worse is they want to tie me into a grid where they can more closely monitor my power usage and, if they feel it's necessary, adjust what I can use! I.e. they want to be able to turn off my AC or furnace should they feel it's necessary.

4) None of that feel good "they'll only do it when it's absolutely necessary" bullshit is making it through my radar.

5) Pay PG&E several hundreds of dollars a month (when I'm not growing anything indoors) in perpetuity, OR pay down a 15yr 0%APR loan that makes me and my home more self-sufficient--that's not much of a conundrum there for me.

6) This whole program goes far beyond installing solar and focuses on a 'total package', which addresses all areas of power consumption.

Maybe your neighbors haven't done it right, Bud, I don't know how they're set up. But, I do know that right here in my county, downcountry from us, there is a huge swathe of county that does not tie into the grid at all--no service whatsoever from PG&E or any other power provider. In other words, they have no choice in the matter--it's solar (self-generated power) or nothing. They all have solar.

What's even more interesting is that they're in what is considered the (Sierra) foothills, which is subject very regularly to heavy, heavy central valley fog. So now I find myself wondering, if your neighbors are waiting for a sunny day to get even the simplest of chores done, how are my neighbors doing it when it gets so foggy so often down there? (I'm at 2500' elevation, the folks I'm referring to are around 1000' and under.)
 
Bud Spleefman

Bud Spleefman

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Seamaiden, no commercial rates, but we do have an Electric Coop, owned by the consumers, it's actually pretty cool, we get rebate checks once a year, based on our usage as a percentage of leftover profits. I am going to guess that your California Electricity is twice as expensive as our Colorado Electricity.... so I guess now that I reflect I can certainly understand why you'd want to go off the grid if you were paying what you pay.

Oh, and we've never had rolling blackouts like you Californians....

So, were we live we do lose power a couple times a year, usually during a blizzard. I have an 8,000 continuous/13,000 peak Briggs and Stratton gasoline generator we use when that happens... but I still only run a couple lights, need some watts for heaters, pumps, WATER PUMP for the well... the thing goes through like 8 gallons of gas every 12 hours.... so that's like 50 bucks a day, to make my grow limp along..... we do run stuff in the house, too.... TV, computer, a few lights.... we have a wood stove, so that can heat my whole house if the power goes down.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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I could go on a real tear about the big power companies in California, but what it really adds up to is the end result of California VOTING. We, collectively, just don't want power generation in any form to happen in our state. So, we have to buy power from other states (which is how the first Enron debacle began back in the 90s).

And then there's the issue of how PG&E has been handling their natural gas lines, but I'm fortunate in that we're not touched by them in that way, it's propane all the way.
 
osidecannabis

osidecannabis

118
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Seamaiden, no commercial rates, but we do have an Electric Coop, owned by the consumers, it's actually pretty cool, we get rebate checks once a year, based on our usage as a percentage of leftover profits.

Oh, and we've never had rolling blackouts like you Californians....

how did Colorado get some much cooler than California, it seemed to happen in a blink of an eye; thats coming from a Californian

and is "blackouts" the "P.C." term, i think they like to be called African-American-outs. not to be a dick, but you were clearly out of line.
 
Bud Spleefman

Bud Spleefman

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how did Colorado get some much cooler than California, it seemed to happen in a blink of an eye; thats coming from a Californian

and is "blackouts" the "P.C." term, i think they like to be called African-American-outs. not to be a dick, but you were clearly out of line.

Blackout isn't a skin color....... it's a lack of electricity. I thought everyone would know that........ :confused0054:
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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Wait a minute... is *that* what he meant? What do we call brownouts?

Btw, I never suffered rolling blackouts, brownouts, or otherwise due to power company tactics (read: antics). I have, since moving to the Sierra, seen some weird things happen with electricity, we did have one brownout last year that was just surreal. Everything winds down, in slow motion.
 
L

Lovecraft

3
0
Wanna throw in my two cents. As I understand it, you want to have a primary source and multiple secondary sources to supplement it. The main source being whatever is most plentiful where you live. Combining wind, solar, hydro and even piezo if you know what your doing. I have been trying to visualize a system that would transfer all of the "waste-energy" from indoor grow rooms into usable energy (electricity) thus reducing the net wattage used by the grow room overall. For example, hid's produce waste energy in the form of heat, water run-off (esp from hydro systems) produce waste energy in the form of gravity fed flowing water, fans (etc) put off waste energy in the form of vibrations, and the plants themselves put off a ton of waste energy in the form of trim and males which can be burned for steam energy. I am sure even

Now, that reduced net wattage means less wattage you need to generate via a separate off the grid generation system. Such a system being comprised of as many natural elements available to you. I like hydro and wind the best because imo they are much easier diy projects than solar, even though a solar steam unit isn't as tough to make as solar panels imho.
 
K

kolah

4,829
263
I live off-grid. I use solar power for most of my stuff but it's a must to have genrerators as a backup. (most of us have 2 or 3 just in case one goes down etc)

THE best generators on the planet are Honda's. Yes, the Japanese kick our ass in this department. All the contractor crews use them and most of us "hillbillies" living in the bush love them.

They have a throttle that adjusts automatically in relation to electrical load. Sometime it will just sit and purr at an idle when a load load is needed and other times it fires up to top RPM when lot of juice is required. They start up easy, are the best in gas usage and have always been rated the quietest gennies on the market. I have a Coleman for a backup and that thing just screams when it runs...as do most of the other gennies out there.

Hondas are the highest priced gennies...but ya get what pay for.. sometimes. I found my Honda EB5000 for 20 bucks on Craigs List. New they run approx 3 grand. This one wouldn't start and was let outside. The pullcord was broke, no biggy and I replaced the carb float and viola! she fired right up. Theres lots of good used generators for sale. Most of them sit and never run so the carbs gum up. When people finally try to start it and can"t they try to sell them. You can get a good used one for 250.

A cheap (and good) solar panel setup can be had off Habor Frieght for 400 bucks. The only thing extra you'll need is a battery.

IMHO, smalltime wind generators are a waste of time and money. You can squeeze more juice from the sun.
 
420bliss

420bliss

152
43
anyone ever thought of running a diesel gen off hemp seed oil? i have heard you can run a diesel off hemp seed oil with no conversion. anybody else heard off this?
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

Living dead girl
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638
Not specifically about generators, but I've been told (by an ex-beau mechanic) that diesels will run on red rags. I didn't believe him, just as I didn't believe him when he said mackerel will hit a piece of red yarn, until I tried it and got a fat mackerel.
 
T

ToastyRoadie

47
8
anyone ever thought of running a diesel gen off hemp seed oil? i have heard you can run a diesel off hemp seed oil with no conversion. anybody else heard off this?

Found this page recently, remember "safety first"...:cool0041:


Make hemp biodiesel

How to Make hemp Bio Diesel
Titration method


Safety first: Wear protective clothing and eyewear. This is a serious activity and it not recomended for a “weekend project”. This process is only for reference as to what skilled biodiesel makers would do.

Measure Free Fatty Acid content of your oil: Mix 1 ml oil with 10 ml Isopropyl alcohol = 2 drops phenolthalian solution (available in a hobby shop chemistry set suppliers). Drop-wise add 0.1% lye solution ( 1 gm lye in one liter water ) until the solution stays pink for 10 seconds. (20 drops = 1 ml) Record the milliliters of 0.1% lye solution used.

Methanol You will need 200 ml of methanol per liter of Hemp Seed oil. Methanol may be purchased as Drigas available at most automotive stores, read the label for methanol. Also Methanol is available from racing stores. Avoid hardware store methanol (wood alcohol) as it mat contain excessive water content.

Sodium Methoxide For each liter of hemp seed oil you need one gram of granular solid lye for each ml of 0.1% lye solution used in titration of free fatty acids plus 3.5 grams. Completely dissolve the proper amount of Lye in the methanol (Red Devil Lye can be purchased from the Grocery Store). This combined mixture makes sodium methoxide.

Mixer The type of mixer depends on the size of the batch. An electric drill and paint mixer on an extended shaft works well in a 5 gallon bucket.

Transesterfication: Once the lye catalyst is dissolved completely so that there is no sediment, then the oil may be added to the methanol lye mixture while mixing continuously. At first the mixture becomes thicker, then thinner as the reaction proceeds. Collect samples every 5 minutes with an eye dropper into a test tube or clear container. The Mixture will separate into a light top layer of bio diesel and a darker bottom layer of glycerin, soap and catalyst. Continued mixing 30 – 60 minutes until the yield remains constant. Then stop mixing. Go have lunch. When you come back it will have settled into two distinct layers. You have done it! Let the mixture settle for at least 8 hours. Pour off and save the bio diesel top layer into another container. A clear funnel bottomed container is helpful.

Rinsing: The raw Bio Diesel that you have just produced may have some catalyst, alcohol, and glycerin remaining which could cause engine problems, so for long term engine reliability this raw fuel should be rinsed with water. Gently at first then more vigorously rinse with water until the rinse water is clear and the pH of the rinse water is the same pH as the supply water. Settle, Decant.

Drying: Water in the bio Diesel makes cloudy so it must be carefully heated. At 100 C most of the water coalesces and falls to the bottom. This water must be completely removed from the bottom of the container before heating to higher temperature.

FAILURE TO REMOVE THIS WATER BEFORE FURTHER HEATING CAN CAUSE VIOLENT ERUPTION OF HOT LIQUID!

Once all water has been removed then heat the bio diesel to 300 f (150 c) to complete dryness. Cool, filter, and store bio diesel in a well marked dry closed container. 100% HEMP DIESEL FUEL (HEMP OIL METHYL ESTER – HOME FUEL)

This fuel may be mixed in any ratio with petroleum diesel. Dynamometer tests indicate full power output with up to 75% reduction in soot and particles. No engine modification is needed to burn bio diesel fuel.

http://www.hemp.com/hemp-university/uses-of-hemp/hemp-fuel/making-hemp-biodiesel/
 

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