# hps light question



## TurtleLA (Mar 21, 2011)

Found out a today a friend has 2 hps lights sitting in his garage. He is willing to let me have them for next to nothing. They are 400W each. Will that be enough light? I'll obviously need a portable generator and will need atleast a 900-1000W generator. Noise is a concern. Are they any decent generators anyone suggests other than honda or yamaha or should I just suck it up and pay the extra money. Thanks


----------



## TurtleLA (Mar 21, 2011)

Also two 400W's each draw 3.3 amps so to be conservative I can assume in reality each will draw 4 amps. A yamaha ef1000is is rated at 8.3 amps. Shouldn't that be enough to handle amperage?


----------



## Gnwdad (Oct 14, 2007)

Wirelessly posted (My Phone)

Just make sure the generator is greater than 800 continuous watts, I would think that 4 amps each is on the high side. You can always install capacitors to lower the amp draw on start up. Also you can start one light then the other once the first has warmed up. I believe you're going to want a third light though.


----------



## Death From Above (Sep 28, 2007)

If your going to spend on a Yam EF1000is you might as well spend a little extra and get the EF2000 in case you want to expand in the future or make other use of the generator.


----------



## X-Shark (Oct 3, 2007)

Death From Above said:


> If your going to spend on a Yam EF1000is you might as well spend a little extra and get the EF2000 in case you want to expand in the future or make other use of the generator.


X-2


----------



## flounderslayerman (Jun 3, 2011)

Death From Above said:


> If your going to spend on a Yam EF1000is you might as well spend a little extra and get the EF2000 in case you want to expand in the future or make other use of the generator.


X-3


----------



## bamafan611 (Mar 1, 2010)

X///4


----------



## metallurgynerd (Jul 7, 2012)

Also, I'm pretty sure the 400W lights will already have capacitors installed, especially if they only draw 3.3A each. And if so, your starting amps should already be 3A or maybe less. Can you (should you) add another capacitor if there's already one there? I wouldn't have thought so but I'm still new to this.


----------



## bamafan611 (Mar 1, 2010)

Nope, If it has one, one is all you need.


----------



## Mudigger (Aug 5, 2011)

We use a noisy 2 stroke generator (it was cheap and lite) and have had no problems with spooking the fish. We wear earplugs, though.


----------



## Slayerdog (Jul 14, 2012)

I am running a honda 1000 running 2-200 watt 110v lights and a battery charger on the trolling motor battery. Havent spooked any flatties. They think I cant see um (shhhhhhhhh) dont tell um!


----------

