[topogigo]

now i want to do something on this line totally awesome kudos on the self sus. cab hope i can get it going like u

[SupaFunk]

Loved this thread.

My buddy and I have talked for hours about whether a system like this would be do-able here in the UK.

[Evil6]

Wow. Congrats on this and thanks for sharing! Definately something for the future man.

[skunkfunk]

Wow talk about inspirational. You have one foot in the future definatly. Nice grow too.

My mind is now in overdrive to the possibility's of using free energy to run a grow op, just don't know if we get enough sunlight in the U.K to do this.

Thanks for showing us your knowledge.

[skyview]

This would be a great article for Home Power magazine!
Do you think it's possible to use more LEDs instead of the HID? If so, wouldn't that dramatically lower the number of solar modules you'd need?

[GP73LPC]

Originally Posted by skyview

This would be a great article for Home Power magazine!
Do you think it's possible to use more LEDs instead of the HID? If so, wouldn't that dramatically lower the number of solar modules you'd need?

i'm no electricity guy, but watts are watts.

if you replace the HID with LED and the total wattage is the same then you would still need the same panels.

now if you reduce the total wattage then you could reduce the number of panels.

hope that make sense.

[antheis]

Originally Posted by skunkfunk

Wow talk about inspirational. You have one foot in the future definatly. Nice grow too.

My mind is now in overdrive to the possibility's of using free energy to run a grow op, just don't know if we get enough sunlight in the U.K to do this.

Thanks for showing us your knowledge.

You could look into wind energy.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by GP73LPC

i'm no electricity guy, but watts are watts.

if you replace the HID with LED and the total wattage is the same then you would still need the same panels.

now if you reduce the total wattage then you could reduce the number of panels.

hope that make sense.

pretty much spot on..one factor that still saves power using led is heating and cooling the grow area itself- fans can run at much lower speeds with 20$ controllers using less wattage overall. not a bunch but there is a little saved with using LED-
but for the most part thats the the way it is- watts are watts-
500w grow would still be a 500w grow just a little less energy to cool etc-

[Stonefree69]

Alternative energy used to be my forte for 2 decades. Solar pv can now be had (if you find a decent price) for about as low as $1/watt! Solar used to cost about $1,000 to light up a small light bulb in the 70's (remote fire watch stations or luxury yachtsmen still loved them).

Also look into wind power, they both compliment each other well. When the sun isn't shining the wind is usually blowing. You can cut your battery bank size in half too (2 1/2 days of backup vs 7). Bergey makes some of the best wind turbines, some even outlasted the smokestacks they replaced during an Antarctic storm.

My bro-in-law installed the electric system for the Grand Canyon skywalk and it has a million dollar battery bank. Funny the Indians don't want a maintenance contract, but since deep cycle batteries are extremely durable guess they can top them off and equalize (fully charge) them every few weeks.

[Big Sky]

Originally Posted by Stonefree69

Alternative energy used to be my forte for 2 decades. Solar pv can now be had (if you find a decent price) for about as low as $1/watt! Solar used to cost about $1,000 to light up a small light bulb in the 70's (remote fire watch stations or luxury yachtsmen still loved them).

Also look into wind power, they both compliment each other well. When the sun isn't shining the wind is usually blowing. You can cut your battery bank size in half too (2 1/2 days of backup vs 7). Bergey makes some of the best wind turbines, some even outlasted the smokestacks they replaced during an Antarctic storm.

My bro-in-law installed the electric system for the Grand Canyon skywalk and it has a million dollar battery bank. Funny the Indians don't want a maintenance contract, but since deep cycle batteries are extremely durable guess they can top them off and equalize (fully charge) them every few weeks.

wind turbines where taken into account when i built this system , its all in the charge controller- you might spend 200-300$ on the nice big hybrid charge controller but the one i used is wind/solar built-
just add wiring from any DC turbine to the internal wiring bus and presto-
hybrid system-
So wind was covered just never got around to buying the turbine before i sold the system recently-