Looking for a little D.I.Y. help

First I'd like to say I apologize if this is a easy question, but I can't seem to find the answer for this question. I am wondering if a 12v car battery can be connected to a power strip to run some of my grow area supplies (fans, lightings, etc.) I basically want to make a grow area underground in a 55 gallon drum. I can't run extension cords to run the power supply, and i can't run a generator. Any links, and answers are welcome.

bump, anyone got any answers out there for me?

Dont think the car battery would run near enough light for what your wanting plus you would have to charge quite often. It could power a 12V fan for awhile though.

There's really no way without using a bank of batteries with a charging system, a current conditioner probably of some kind, and a whole slew of other things to deal with. You'd spend more money setting up a rig like that than you would just building a light-tight grow shed in your backyard and having an electrician run a direct line to it.

Rankdank said:

First I'd like to say I apologize if this is a easy question, but I can't seem to find the answer for this question. I am wondering if a 12v car battery can be connected to a power strip to run some of my grow area supplies (fans, lightings, etc.) I basically want to make a grow area underground in a 55 gallon drum. I can't run extension cords to run the power supply, and i can't run a generator. Any links, and answers are welcome.

Click to expand...

What about cable rated for underground use? Like the above posts stated, the battery option isn't viable for most, as it's a lot of gear.

you need more than one battery and an inverter that you can get an auto part stores. i've seen inverters as high as 1500 watts, but like said above you still need to charge the batteries.

Thank you everyone for posting. First, Not sure why it got moved, thought i posted in the D.I.Y. area but if I didn't i do apologize, Not trying to make things harder on the admins. But back to the subject at hand. The reason I'm doing this is for more stealth, my parent own 100 acres of land. My thought was that if I ran 2 batteries into a inverter as posted above, Charging wouldn't be a problem. The only thing I'm truly worried about is the lights/fan/pump (doing hydro) will fail because of no power. Any advice would be appreciated, My goal is to grow 4-5 ounces in a grow period. I have a "pc grow box" but I'm thinking it won't give me the yield I want.

you would need 5-6 batteries or more depending on lights, and need to charge them every day or two

Your idea absolutely will not work. 10 batteries MIGHT last you all day. MAYBE. Your car battery can't even run the cabin lights in your car all night without dying. Good luck trying to draw 100 times that much power for any length of time... Not to mention the fact that you would have to run 10 in series just to get to the correct voltage... And then you only have the mah of one battery. Pullin off a battery operated grow would take some heavy electrical engineering... Honestly... You don't have the knowledge required to pull it off.

Evlaar said:

Your idea absolutely will not work. 10 batteries MIGHT last you all day. MAYBE. Your car battery can't even run the cabin lights in your car all night without dying. Good luck trying to draw 100 times that much power for any length of time... Not to mention the fact that you would have to run 10 in series just to get to the correct voltage... And then you only have the mah of one battery. Pullin off a battery operated grow would take some heavy electrical engineering... Honestly... You don't have the knowledge required to pull it off.

Click to expand...

exactly what he said.....10 12V DC batteries in series does equal 120V DC but household pumps and fans run on AC power......it depends on how youre trying to do it...run your accesories off the battery??or run an inverter off the battery?? since your asking this question it sounds like you prob cant do....you usually end up with a degree when you understand how to do stuff like that.