Yep the last case senario is either solar or if you have a river nearby, microhydro.
If none of that above is possible for whatever reason, and, and this is a big AND, and if money is not a barrier, cause this would be costly....
Solar Grow
Solar:
- 3 x 130 watt panels
- 1 x 40amp regulator
- 1 x 500 watt power invertor
- 3 x 100amp deep cycle batteries
- 1 x Procyon LED light (see:
http://www.homegrownlights.com/100W.html) OR 130 watts worth of CFLs
The Procyon is the best LED on the market at the moment, and costs an arm and a leg. But again, this is a case of, 'where money is not an issue'.
The procyon will use about 130 watts per hour even though it says its a 100 watt light. Your light intake in watts is 390 watts an hour. Your usage is 130, so for every hour of light you use, youre also saving 2 hours in the batteries for later useage when the sun goes down.
So on a typical 9 hours of good sunlight day your batteries will be taking in 200 amp charge giving you a possible 18 hours of extra light after the sun goes down even though you would be only using 10 of that. But you need the buffer for bad light days and there are heaps of days like that.
Once it comes time to switch to 12/12 you will have more watts to spend. Instead of wasting them you will need to add in CFLs to make up the lumens needed to grow bigger bud.
The Procyon while being the best on the market still does not have the lumens per square foot to produce big bud and lots of resin on your plants. So this is where you get to spend those extra amps. Youve just gained another 65amps a day in battery storage because you switched to 12/12. On an average day you will now have 265 amps spare in the batteries which you need your CFLs to spend 3/4 of.
Remembering you still need a buffer for bad days. So that means you can add an extra 130 watts of warm white CFLs to your grow to give it more lumens per square foot.
Micro Hydro Grow
Micro Hydro is even better if you have a river close by. Hydro generation is 24/7 and not restricted by lack of sunlight. Pick up a 500watt generator and run the cable to your hut, using the same battery bank set up except with the following differences:
- 1 x 500 watt generator (12 or 24v)
- 400 watts of CFLs, cool whites for veg and warm whites for budding
- 1 x 500 watt invertor
- fans using up the other 100 watts spare
- 1 x 100amp deep cycle battery
Why use a 12v or 24v over a 110v microhydro generator? Well its about consistency in voltage. The 110v 500watt generators tend to have a variable output which can cause lights to dim and brighten thus shortening the life span of the bulbs. Whereas inverting power from a 12v supply, that supply being a battery, will condition the power to a smooth 110v output (much the same way a computer UPS works).
