Power outages and hid lighting

Living in florida there are more power outages than I care to think about, however they can't be ignored. My question is this, with hid lighting what happens to the lights when the power goes out for five seconds comes back on goes out and comes back on again a couple of seconds later. This is not uncommon where I live. Florida is the lightning capital of the country. Squirrels also seem to be a problem here and sometimes I think if the sun shines to hard it causes a power outage. Will these types of interruptions kill my lights?

it is extremely hard on the lights.. not to mention that is a perfect way to change your girls into hermie's due to light stress.. i would really recommend getting some type of battery backup where the power goes out, the lights stay on until the power kicks back in. depending on the light size that may be easy or not so easy to do..

This is a topic i did alot of googling on but really couldnt find any info about. I actually had a MH bulb catch fire once when i tripped over the cord, ripped it out of the socket then plugged it immediately back in. Apparently you need to let the bulb cool down before you try and relight it. I think there was a chance that i cracked the glass casing when i was screwing it in but not 100% sure. Either way, i think that if this was a common occurance there would be more things written about it. There is something you can buy to prevent "hotstarts" but im too lazy to look it up for you.

why is your electricity supply so crap? is it bad wiring or does Florida just have third world services?

tapper21 said:

why is your electricity supply so crap? is it bad wiring or does Florida just have third world services?

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I just had a brand new 200 amp service installed and my circuits for my grow room are dedicated to the grow room only, nothing else is on those circuits. One circuit runs my lights the other runs my air conditioner, dehumidifier and inline fan. Both are twenty amp circuits which means they are both running at a bit over half capacity so it's not the wiring. I even used twenty amp receptacles. So, I have to vote for third world electrical capacity. I have actually been told some of the outages are caused by squirrels. It seems they somehow short out the transformers on the poles and we have a ton of squirrels. There are basically three types of trees in florida, palms, pines and oaks. There are ten tons of acorns lying around all over the place. You would think the squirrels would eat them instead of the transformers.

Some of the newer lights (I have a 400 watt MH that does this) have a delay built into them that does not allow the ballast and light to power back up until it has cooled down enough to not have the kind of surge that can kill these lights. My 400 watt hps does not have this and before I upgraded my electric service if the circuit tripped I had to wait about 20-30 mins for everything to cool down before firing it back up.

Heads Up said:

Living in florida there are more power outages than I care to think about, however they can't be ignored. My question is this, with hid lighting what happens to the lights when the power goes out for five seconds comes back on goes out and comes back on again a couple of seconds later. This is not uncommon where I live. Florida is the lightning capital of the country. Squirrels also seem to be a problem here and sometimes I think if the sun shines to hard it causes a power outage. Will these types of interruptions kill my lights?

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These types of repeat outages can be very bad on your light and your plants. HID lights need to be properly cooled once switched off regardless of whether it was intentional or an outage. The damage caused by failure to let them cool could be as simple as reduced bulb life or as serious as the bulb catching fire or even exploding.

Allowing your lights to go off and on in such a way causes the same results you might expect if the sun went up and down repeatedly throughout the day. Your plants are subjected to unnecessary stress and abnormal growing conditions and as a result could slow growth down significantly or even herm.

In conditions like what you described you need to look into an uninterrupted power supply(UPS). There are quite a few available for a wide range of uses so recommending the right one for your situation would be very complicated.

I strongly suggest you take the time to look around for the system that best fits your needs and budget and pick it up right away.

Getting a UPS to Handel a HID room is quite expensive. I know... I'd get a timer delay or a ballast with one built in connected to my lights. If you live somewhere the power is unreliable as I do, then you either move or plan the best strategy you can. I have delay timers on my HID lights and refrigerator. If I had I would have one on my house heat pump too. The delays provide protection for your lights. A backup power system for a decent(small) CFL setup, is much more reasonable. This is something that can come on when the power (Lights) go out. It is enough light to keep the girls awake, think cloudy/rainy day. This could run for the 15-20min the lights need to cool and restart or for the few hours the lights are out. Any longer and it's a backup generator I'd have kick in.

Heads Up said:

sometimes I think if the sun shines to hard it causes a power outage. Will these types of interruptions kill my lights?

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Actually that is pretty true. Solar activity on the sun is so powerful that sometimes it breaks through Earth's electromagnetic fields and disrupts a lot of the machinery that generates and carries power.

Really the only thing you can do to combat outages is buy a good generator to use when the power is out. Don't use home generators for more than a couple of hours thought. They aren't made for that purpose the ones you can use day in and day out are fucking huge and cost more than a car.

renyman said:

http://www.horticulturesource.com/c-a-p-custom-automated-products-hid-lighting-controller-electronic-hot-start-hi-temp-protection-15-minute-delay-50-115-f-p4851/?osCsid=bb2282e24ece7f48b8d5cb3cd329508d

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Thanks for the link.