Solar Power Grow Room. Can it be Done?

Just wondering if a solar power system can be done to power 3 to 4 , 600 watt hps lights ?? just the lights only ??

If so is there anybody in the know to pricing on such a system .

BTW , I'm in Oz .

Happy smoking people and Thanks heaps in advance.

As LED grow lamps continue to improve they could be a better option than HID for solar powered grows. LED drivers are much cheaper and more efficient when powered by DC rather than AC.

My dream grow op would be solar. I'd use giant garage doors to open and close my plants off to the sun everyday. Oh great Ra...sun god? Anyway, I'd do F&D.

I have photovoltaic shingles installed on the southside of my roof but it only produces about 2 kilowatts per hour in the winter (or overcast days) and 4 in the summer (or super sunny days)... Not much production but I got a government credit and the investment pays for itself after a few years. I can't tell you too much about the specific details because I got it professionally installed but you do need a converter and a power storage solution and then it just transfers it to your normal grid. My meter knows when it is using solar power and subtracts it from the total energy used so that I don't get billed for it. I could even sell back energy to the company if I had enough of it (which I don't even come close to but it would be nice!).

Hey mate I'm from oz and a credited PV installer. Your looking at running around 2400watts in oz we get an average of 6 peak sun hours a day. So if you wanted a system to run the lights say 12 hours a day you will need at least a 5000 watt system which cost around 30 grand. Times that by 2 if u wanna run 24 hours. Mate it would be cheaper and more efficient to build a nice big green house. Not to mention you would need around 24-50 panels to get the power needed.

Ya, I forgot to mention that the 2-4 kilowatts are only generated over a few hours during the day (approx. 9am-2pm), so I average about 4-12 kilowatts in a day. It only cost me about 15k in total though!

Once PV starts to get cheaper and more advanced it will be possible. I say give it 10 years and you'll be able to do it for half the cost.

Blazn said:

Hey mate I'm from oz and a credited PV installer. Your looking at running around 2400watts in oz we get an average of 6 peak sun hours a day. So if you wanted a system to run the lights say 12 hours a day you will need at least a 5000 watt system which cost around 30 grand. Times that by 2 if u wanna run 24 hours. Mate it would be cheaper and more efficient to build a nice big green house. Not to mention you would need around 24-50 panels to get the power needed.

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Thanks for the info mate , just another quick question with our electricty cost so fucken high here , how much would it cost a month to have 2 lights running ?? and what would be the cheapest method of going about it be?? keeping in mind i do want to grow some quality buds to smoke!!

theres wind genaraitors, hydro power even geothermal, cost would be high but being off the grid would be a dream come true.

CHRONZA said:

Thanks for the info mate , just another quick question with our electricty cost so fucken high here , how much would it cost a month to have 2 lights running ?? and what would be the cheapest method of going about it be?? keeping in mind i do want to grow some quality buds to smoke!!

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you need to do the maths. multiply the kw used to power rooms by the hours being run then multiply by the Kw/hr rate. how high is the rate there anyway? it averages 10 cents here

At 10 cents a kilowatt hour it will cost you about $1.20 to run one 1000w/hps everyday. It's cheaper than car insurance.

I think yes, I try it here, http://www.sunpowerport.com.

I proposed using a big magnifying glass to heat a boiler for the international space station.

I looked into a dream setup with a friend who is a battery engineer for a solar company. Panel wise you could get a couple thousand watts going if you have the sun and space but the issue really is the battery. There are no batteries currently in production that could run multi-thousand watt setups. The actual material costs he figured to come out to around half a million to build a battery that could run a 4K setup for 24 hours without failing. Of course in case of bad weather you'd need something like a 5 day load to be safe.

Skylights are a cheap effective method of solar power. All you would need is a photocontroller and less wattage supplemental lights that turn on at dusk.

I just started working with Verengo Solar in Socal about a month ago and we offer a solar system at little to no cost for those who are a good candidates for solar. I deff think Commercial growers can really benefit from that. Solar is usually percieved as expensive but thanks to the government rebates we're able to offer some great deals. If you gorw with a 1000 watt system or higher I deff would encourage you to look into Verengo Solar. I'm sure you think I might be biased because I work for them but we have a A+ rating with the Better Business buearu with good reason. Feel free to email for info if your interested [email protected]. Nuthin like growing natural grade A Cali bud with natural clean power.

in order to run 1000 watts plus it will cost you large to convert to solar cells i priced one out while ago and think to run 6000 watts its was pretty close to 30,000 dollars worth of set up thats large chunk
now many people are converting to windmill style energy if your in a windy state for like 7000 it would get you on the right path )

Average solar energy system costs = $8.95 per watt ... Solar cell manufacturers employ similar ... you can buy a 2kW system for under $10000 ..

alright, without knowing your average solar exposure in winter (Lets say 4h/day), or how many hours you plan to run the lights each day (Lets say 18h/6h on/off), I estimate that you would need at least a 18252w{*4h} solar array with a 4200w inverter, and 12600Ah 12v battery bank. Mind you, those batteries are rated "times-two", because of course, lead acids should never be discharged beyond 50%. Decreasing the number of panels can be done and improvement in efficiency on the order of around 30% can be achieved if you do away with batteries and use multi-farad capacitors. Just understand that capacitors have a voltage drop problem when the current (charge) within them is consumed [Design your system to account for that drop]. There are not really any solar power ready capacitor bank options yet in the consumer market, but keep your eyes out for cheaper and more power dense super-caps in the future. The guys are right; Go pure DC with those panels and use LEDs. The solar panels, capacitors, LEDs; They may all be made of organic graphene based electronic technology in the future, really driving down cost (for all electronics). Good luck on your journey! Stay stoned!