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Rather build a greenhouse and grow autos in winter. Normally Eskom only have issues in summer as the don't have enough dry coal to burn. But it is up to you. I have emergency lights that go on when the electricity goes off. But that is just to not interrupt the light cycle. Eskomsepush.

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If you are looking for a geni, I would go for one that starts up automatic when the electricity goes off. The problem is that you would then need to grow with LEDS or have a battery back up for the switch over period, as HPS will not like the drop in power. And probably not go on immediately after the generator kicks in. LEDs would be fine. The other option is to have battery backup for LEDs. Or just invest in an solar system, if you have 25-30k. You will probably save in the long run. And you would have electricity.

 

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18 minutes ago, SkunkPharm said:

Rather build a greenhouse and grow autos in winter. Normally Eskom only have issues in summer as the don't have enough dry coal to burn. But it is up to you. I have emergency lights that go on when the electricity goes off. But that is just to not interrupt the light cycle. Eskomsepush.

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Thankfully its the dark cycle you don't really want to interrupt, as that is when the plants do most of their growing. As long as you don't have extended periods of dark in veg your plants will be fine, otherwise they'll switch to flower. I have been thinking about this a lot and thinking about getting a genny and lights and all that jazz. But decided its more effort than its worth.

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I've got one of those emergency LED's in my tent, it turns on when the lights on off. Only problem i have is that when the lights go out during my dark cycle, the emergency light comes on. This is a problem.

If the shedding wasn't so erratic, it would be easy to manage. Yesterday it was off from 06:00 to 08:30, 14H00-16H30 and the 22H35-23H06. Every day it's at different times and my light period is from 18H00-12H00. So yesterday the ladies got 2 and a half hours or light in the middle of the dark cycle FML!

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I'm having the same issue.also autos few weeks away from harvest.

I have one of those magneto emergency lights you talking about ,they really are handy during loadshedding.

We've been getting power outages like 3 times a day and it's just hectic.I'm just worried when lights go out mould or p.m would settle in and ruin everything  😯

 

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digital timer and a few emergency lights.

Timer governs schedule,its battery and the emergency lights Batts recharge when eskom is actually online. How the timers will help telling an auto switch over switch to not switch is going to be fun

 

Sadly that's about all I can afford to do right now.

 

Looking at battery fan options for some humidity control

 

 

 

 

Edited by McB
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I haven't really put any though into this as loadshitting hasn't been an issue... Until it was...

My thought process is as follows... 12v LED strips, connected to a battery, perhaps via an arduino connected to a 9v battery just to power the unit. One could connect an RTC board to ensure time is always correct, breaking out to relays for on and off. Lights will run on a 12v battery, perhaps alarm battery. These lights will run at the same time as primary light cycles, however, if power goes out, the arduino will ensure that the 12v strips remain on. May not help the flowering process, but definitely help not to stress the plants too much.

Digital timer will still be needed for primary lights so they don't lose time. When power comes back on, the 'sun' will simply come out behind the 'clouds' again

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1 minute ago, Trailblazer420 said:

I haven't really put any though into this as loadshitting hasn't been an issue... Until it was...

My thought process is as follows... 12v LED strips, connected to a battery, perhaps via an arduino connected to a 9v battery just to power the unit. One could connect an RTC board to ensure time is always correct, breaking out to relays for on and off. Lights will run on a 12v battery, perhaps alarm battery. These lights will run at the same time as primary light cycles, however, if power goes out, the arduino will ensure that the 12v strips remain on. May not help the flowering process, but definitely help not to stress the plants too much.

Digital timer will still be needed for primary lights so they don't lose time. When power comes back on, the 'sun' will simply come out behind the 'clouds' again

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Cvmon... Write it 😂... I have the test hardware

Arduino nano if I'm not mistaken 

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It probably still will because the emergency light switches on when mains are disconnected. The digital timer doesn't power the lights itself, but relies on an external power source. The purpose of using the arduino is that once the 220v disconnects, the 12v portion will remain active, keeping the light cycles constant, even though during load shedding you won't run at full capacity.

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The issue with this way is you will need to power it up at the exact time you want your light cycle to start due to the lack of an RTC module. This could however become an interesting little project over time with addition of a real time clock module, temp and humidity sensor and LCD

you could potentially control Temps and humidity by controlling fans based on readings

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4 minutes ago, Trailblazer420 said:

The issue with this way is you will need to power it up at the exact time you want your light cycle to start due to the lack of an RTC module. This could however become an interesting little project over time with addition of a real time clock module, temp and humidity sensor and LCD

you could potentially control Temps and humidity by controlling fans based on readings

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I've been thinking of doing something similar with a Pi. Was super baked one night and i had this brain fart. My mate was like, "lets do it, I have a Pi". And then we forgot

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Wait a minute. I have my lights on a digital timer [mention=1249]Trailblazer420[/mention]. Are you saying that if i connect my emergency light to it, it won't power up during lights off?

Nah my head was up my arse. Needs a dedicated circuit and a ups inline to work. Then timer off would equal lights on

 

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It happens 8-)

Here is the code:

Only change is the connection between relay and Arduino plugs into D13, not into 7.

 

void setup() {
  
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}


void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(43200000);                       // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(43200000);                       // wait for a second
}

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