Solar Powered Grow Room

Hey anyone and everyone, i was wondering if anyone might know how much kw/h it takes to run a 400w light, a 4 lamp T5 and a basic 30 gallon or so air pump, was thinking it would be kool to be able to run a system off of Solar Panels but wanted to see exactly how much money that would entail, i cant find the specs on the net anywhere and i would need to know about how much energy i need to figure out what panels i would need to buy, thanks much and peace.

u would have to grow with that setup for 100yrs to get your moneys back. not really worth it in my opinion. wait a few years till the solar panel technology gets better and the start-up prices come down.

Yeah what he said. But my buddy has solars on his house, powering his whole house including his garden. Its pretty cool, there isn't a lot of monitoring going on when it comes to his electricity.

dude fuck it for real if you got that worked out and all draw up...i garantee people all over this site and all the magazines would want to know how you did it and how well it worked...when it comes to solar and going green saving money isnt the issue....herb is all about being progressive and thats the best way i can think to help progress the community...not making strains stronger but growing them cleaner...good luck keep us up todate!

siris9 said:

Hey anyone and everyone, i was wondering if anyone might know how much kw/h it takes to run a 400w light, a 4 lamp T5 and a basic 30 gallon or so air pump, was thinking it would be kool to be able to run a system off of Solar Panels but wanted to see exactly how much money that would entail, i cant find the specs on the net anywhere and i would need to know about how much energy i need to figure out what panels i would need to buy, thanks much and peace.

Click to expand...

you calculate kw used by adding up the wattages of all appliances and dividing by 1000. the lights will state the wattage directly but for the pump you take its rated current times 110 volts divided by 1000.

I'm not sure if you've done the whole research, you need to tap into the rest of the house's supply, excess solar energy makes the meter run backwards, send current back to the electric company, they will owe YOU money in this case.

There are plenty of grants you can apply for to get startup costs, but it really is a big investment, and a ton of work.

If you were thinking you could just buy a panel and lay it on your roof with a couple wires, it's a lot harder than that.

For example, my sis has one panel on top of her cabin, and she uses little christmas lights for lighting inside, and even that is too much juice.

Technology is quickly advancing, I agree people need to invest in current technology in order for solar panels to evolve, but right now that part of my carbon footprint will be left as a plaster casting of my foot in the dirt.

PV systems cost about $8-$10k per kwh installed you will be running somewhere around 1/2-1 kwh for a system that small so if you think that a $8,000 investment is worth it for such a small grow, you go right ahead. Personally and unfortunately I don't think it is anywhere near the cost at the moment. You can usually get about 30% paid for through state or federal grants but this still leaves you spending around 6k on the system out of your own pocket.

Well im really just reaserching, im not buying, i know they are expensive and i would like to save up, by the time i do im sure panels will go down not to mention i can use it for more than just my grow op so thats not a downside at all, if i can run more than my op then im saving on even more costs than just a couple lights and a pump, maybe even my whole bill, while cutting down on emissions, but thats far off from what im concerned with right now, just starting research, hell i will probably research how much water power and wind power that would take aswell, cant hurt, thanks for the info and suggestions all, i will post what i find out.

hey guys can I talk about the elephant in the room?




I say instead of taking a solar panel and turning the sun into electricity to

then convert it back into a weaker 400watt sun,

would it not just be much easyer and cheaper to just use the sun and eliminate the rest of your newfangled contraption?



I mean thats like using steak to feed your cows so you can butcher them to have steaks

just eat the damn steaks man!!! you dont need the cows if you already gettin the steak for free!!

its true and outdoor is great, but winter time where i live doesnt support life, unless your furry and store food, or eat trees, but your right

Yeah, in winter I get 8 hours of sun far on the horizon. If you live up north solar panels won't do much in the winter, they need good direct sun to be even close to efficient. Like in SoCal-Texas-Florida, down closer to the equator.

damn i was just about to post about a solar room.....chk it yo, think it would work Backup Power Source Solar Standby Power System with 2 Solar Panels, Model# BPS-3600-S | Complete Solar Packages | Northern Tool + Equipment

Wind power!! In the Midwest some wind farms produce as much as 42% efficient ( IE its producing power 42% of the time) compared to a measly 10%-20% for solar. Still spendy though, a 100 KWH windmill is gonna cost like major bucks, it will pay for itself in 8-12 years and has a life expectancy of 30 yrs if maintained well. after it pays for itself put it to use running 100 thousand watt lights, hmm what could the yield be with that?

I think its Airex that has a 400W wind turbine for $600. Does 400W in 20mph wind. Mast/towers cost about or more then the turbines in general.

Solar elect isn't cost effective. Solar water heating is a good bang for the buck.

Solar and wind can be grid-tied (where is spins the meter backwards. the the elec company gives you credit. they will never send you a check) and no batteries, but no wind or sun, no 'free' power.
Or can be off-grid. These are typically battery bank systems and more costly and maintance is needed with the batteries.
You can also have a hybrid.

whatapothead said:

u would have to grow with that setup for 100yrs to get your moneys back. not really worth it in my opinion. wait a few years till the solar panel technology gets better and the start-up prices come down.

Click to expand...

if this jawn i posted puts out 3600 running watts for 8,000 then i dont thingk it would take 100 yrs to pay for maybe a few grows with a thousand watter, at least thats what i see correct me please

tusseltussel said:

if this jawn i posted puts out 3600 running watts for 8,000 then i dont thingk it would take 100 yrs to pay for maybe a few grows with a thousand watter, at least thats what i see correct me please

Click to expand...

Your right in that it its not 100 year or even anywheres near it. Solar is typically 10-15 year pay back.

Now if you are selling the weed, you can make it back a lot quicker.

Yep, a good investment for sure, but I'm going to wait for technology to catch up.

Talk about wind power.

Why not methane composting?

Biodiesel generators?

Run a generator on hemp oil if you want to be a real hippie.

I'll pay the bloodsucking power company to burn more coal to power my grow lights.

Shit, electric cars run on coal, and the people who drive them think their drive a zero emission car.

Vagalistic Dankbitch, i like that

so far what ive found in my area is that if i want a clone room with a 4' 4lamp T5, 2 400w lights, plus the 2 air pumps for the bubbleponics systems it should cost me a little over 1kw/h, add in the fan(s) it wont make much diff, a system to run just this would cost me somewhere around 9 G's but you can get a 30% rebate reducing the cost to 7 G's plus where i'm from the gov't gives out grants for those who apply, they give somewhere around 7-9 mill a year for thise purposes, so in the end i could be paying anywhere from 3-5 G's which isnt that bad but if thats the case i can retrofit my whole house and probably pay as much as i would for the 1.5kw/h system

any 1 tried this, since last post