Off-grid grow ideas

A solar powered grow room with 3 tents/cabinets; one for veg, one for bloom, one for mother and clones:
If we used one 600W HID for each area, the energy requirements would be around 1800W*h not including power conversion losses. Factoring conversion losses (Around 59%) would near 3042W*h. Okay, now let h=18; energy requirement is 32.4-54.8kW a day. Wow!
Now by those modest estimates, to run a system using HID off of solar power starts to seem ridiculous.

There is a way to grow solar without the 59% energy conversion loss!

Okay, where does all the loss come from? The answer seems to be mostly the battery charger efficiency (~70% efficient) and the inverter efficiency (~70% efficient).

To use our system when the sun is not shining, we need to store power. Alot of the time, people will use a battery to store and provide electrical power in a process of electro-chemical potential conversion. This is quite lossy, inherently. Another way to store charge is by using a capacitor. Capacitors are unlike batteries; The power is stored electro-statically, as opposed to electro-chemically. As such, they are quite efficient, and also last many orders of magnitude longer than (any?) batteries. So use capacitor banks to store the power to get the most out of your system!

We also need to convert the 12-14.4vdc to 120-240vac (using inverter) for use in our system; Wrong! The reason why AC electric power is preferred for power distribution lines is because HVAC has splended line transmission qualities (Less lossy, less heat, potentially less dangerous) and Nikola Tesla is a badass (He invented the AC power transmission, AC motor/generator, wireless power/radio, fluorescent tube, particle accelerator, etc... [free energy?]) Anyways, to have DC power source with an AC power consumption requirement, a power conversion has to occur, which has losses. One of the main culprits in this power conversion loss is an electronic component known as an inductor. (It is worth mentioning that by doing away with the inverter, we do not get to have AC power, which means no AC electronics, such as balast lighting... )

So we should instead use "pure" DC (inductor-less) if we want to achieve respectable efficiencies. Zener diodes can be used to drop voltages to required 12v, 5v, etc... Capacitor charge pumps can be used to increase voltages.

When working with a power supply, try to keep your load consistent with the supply, or else pay the energy cost!

Here is an idea:
Run an indoor all LED grow-op using solar panels and super-capacitor charge bank, all made of organic graphene technology I dare say!
Have the circulating fans be electrostatic (As opposed to inductive) and CO^2 generators that are yeast bio-digesters! Heaters/Coolers?; Run them off of methane from another bio-digester! BONUS: By using bio-digesters, you are left with excellent compost to feed your plants!
I am interested in a three tent system: Veg, flower, and mother with clones. The idea here would not be maximum yield for space, but rather minimize kilowatt hour consumption per gram (kWh/g), with some decent size colas for cheifin'!

Other ideas are to incorporate skylights with mirrors and some type of solar tracking to increase light density to plants; use thermal sinking with water conduction to regulate temperature; set up aquaponics; rainwater collection for watering; bio-plastic pots.

Instead of the obscene energy requirement of a traditional indoor grow setup which would make off-grid power infeasible, this type of system could yield itself as a viable option for the poor man off-grid indoor grow.

Let me know what you think would work good for cost effective off-grid energy ganja gardening!

In your essay you are talking about the poor mans off grid grow.


Graphene technology still is costly to produce.

Granted its a great conductor etc but really the poor mans choice?

If you have the sun requirements to power this kind of setup then surely the poor mans choice is to grow outdoors where possible?


I slightly understand everything you've been talking about and only recently seen the innovations about graphene technology possibly making its way into the mobile phone touch screen. But one thing that remained about graphene was its production cost for the amount produced in the end.


Another poor mans possibility is a greenhouse with supplemental hid lighting for those darker days/ longer night requirements.



J

Yeah, the main reason I mentioned graphene is that it could come way down in price in the next 5-10 years to a level comparable to present day organic thin film technology. Also, graphene capacitors, photo-voltaics, LEDs; Could all be printed out in a 3D printer in the nearish (10-15 year) future, meaning that anybody with the tech and chems could manufacture their own gadgets. You can actually make graphene at home from graphite, but as you said, it is costly to produce (Needs sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, graphite [http://hackaday.com/2013/04/09/synthesizing-graphene-in-your-basement-laboratory/]).

I was thinking for this to keep something going in the winter months in the cold northwest (Where the energy bill is already high!), although a greenhouse would serve this purpose just fine with a few extra hours supplementary lighting. I totally agree that growing outdoors is the best way to go solar! I was mainly speculating about ways to bring energy consumption down and cost for production minimal in the long run, where LEDs last 10-15 years VS 1 year for a HID, the cost of electricity from a utility company within a few years could easily outdo the cost of implementing a self-sufficient operation, CO^2 management, and nutrient sequestering.

I have to admit that I am a total futurist, and that style thinking went into the article.

Futurist!!! Damn man.

Its hard for me to think about 1 year let alone 15. Lol.


I like your thinking though.


I've thought about UPS and such for supplemental power whether with the right timing schedule you could power off the UPS for a few hours on a 24hour cycle etc.


Keep the ideas in your head and make a fortune in years to come.



J