DC Power for Backup
by Rik
(Fontana, California)
I made an aeroponics system and am 1 week into it. I've been concerned about power outages. I have a box from at&t that has an AC input and converts it to DC to power the system in case of power outage (to give a customer access to a phone line at all times). I bought a cheap DC water pump and tested the box (which has a small 12 volt battery inside). My test showed 4 hours of on time- battery alone. I was thinking of putting it on a larger battery and running some computer fans also in case it were to happen.
My question: Are there any reliable brands out there for DC equipment. Is there any formulas or sights that might help me with a carbon filled 4 inch tube with two different types computer fans on each end. I have tried different scenarios with just changing polarity to exchange air between 2 10' x 10' rooms. Thank you for your time.
Answer: Rik- most hydroponic gardens can survive short power outages with little negative affect. The main exception, of course, would be an aeroponics system. With nothing around the roots to act as a storage buffer for moisture, a power outage affecting your aeroponic water pump can begin to damage your plants within the first hour. Your plan to use a 12 volt battery to power your water pump is excellent, as four hours should be enough to get you through the majority of power outages you might experience.
If you are running your pump constantly, you will be able increase the life of the battery four fold by using a 5-1 timer. A 5-1 timer is a timer that turns your pump on for one minute every five minutes. These timers can be purchased at your local hydroponic gardening store, or else can be ordered through a company like Discount Hydroponics or Alternative Garden Supply.
In my opinion, powering fans would be much less of a concern. While the conditions may not be ideal, plants can tolerate no air circulation, low CO2 levels, and high humidity for much longer periods of time without suffering any appreciable damage. If you are still interested in providing some air movement, check out:
backwoodssolar.com/catalog/fans.htm
Or any other website dedicated to solar powered equipment. These types of fans and equipment are designed specifically to run off a 12 volt DC power supply (which a solar panel would than keep charged up, if you were to hook up the solar panel component). Unfortunately, I do not have any personal experience with setting up a DC powered backup for anything, but these websites would be the perfect place to get the right kind of advice for the project you are interested in completing.
A couple of additional things to keep in mind- you will want to make sure the timer for your light has a battery backup, so any plants in the flowering stage can resume their appropriate light cycle without any change or interruption. Also, for anyone using a deep water culture type system where the roots remain permanently submerged, you may want to put the air pumps in your nutrient reservoir on a battery backup. I hope this helps you out Rik, and Happy Growing!
Comments for DC Power for Backup
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AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
