Solar Powered

sunahura

sunahura

Active Member
The utility people are bitches, I'm slowly turning my whole grid to solar and wind, I got to power a 1000 watt sunmaster plus veg room, WTF. Exspensive to start, but once you see the lights come on and stay on for 12 hours straigt. You get hooked, this is a 2 - 3 year project, wish me luck, I hope others follow, if possible.:bigjoint:
 
Jack*Herrer420

Jack*Herrer420

Well-Known Member
sunahura said:
The utility people are bitches, I'm slowly turning my whole grid to solar and wind, I got to power a 1000 watt sunmaster plus veg room, WTF. Exspensive to start, but once you see the lights come on and stay on for 12 hours straigt. You get hooked, this is a 2 - 3 year project, wish me luck, I hope others follow, if possible.
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Good luck, I've also been researching solar/wind/generator power myself, though I can't afford it now, I hope to eventually have my whole house and grow off the grid. :bigjoint:
 
Punk

Punk

Well-Known Member
Sadly, there's more cloudy days than there used to be, and thats a statistical fact.
 
MacGuyver4.2.0

MacGuyver4.2.0

Well-Known Member
I just got quoted for a 5KW PV solar system. With the rebates and federal tax incentives, I will end up paying about 33% of the total cost. Total system payback in less than 8 years! :mrgreen:

Check out realgoods.com for the skinny on these awesome systems!
 
Trazzer

Trazzer

Active Member
My dad owns a electrical company and just finished his solar installation certification, I was talking to him last night and he was telling me as an installer he gets the systems for under half the price, I am definetly gonna take advantage of that haha:bigjoint:
 
sunahura

sunahura

Active Member
Trazzer said:
My dad owns a electrical company and just finished his solar installation certification, I was talking to him last night and he was telling me as an installer he gets the systems for under half the price, I am definetly gonna take advantage of that haha:bigjoint:
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That the stuff, half off.
 
Dahmer8afew

Dahmer8afew

Active Member
If you have your own solar/wind system, does the power company still know how much total power you're using? Or only the amount of power they provide?
 
Hayduke

Hayduke

Well-Known Member
I too am planning to go off-grid in the next 3 years. I will be using the sun to grow.

I do not yet have enough understanding of PV systems to say for sure, but...

Unless you remain tied to the grid, I do not think it is feasible to collect and then convert from DC to AC enough juice to push a 1000w light. Most people who are off grid are conserving heavily. I have read journals of folks who do grow indoors off grid, but it is with CFL's and very small WITH generator back-up.

Of course if you live in the sun-belt, can also produce enough power to cool your room AND run it during the day...or have unlimited funds it is possible.

I cannot wait though to start to build...I also look forward to being able to use the sun to grow 6 monsters!

:leaf::peace::leaf:
 
sunahura

sunahura

Active Member
The solar and wind project isn't that hard to do, it's just about trying to power a 1000 watt bulb. This shit is exspensive.
 
sunahura

sunahura

Active Member
I'm hoping the power of solar panels will go up and the price will go down, CAN somebody say Pentium II! cause thats where solar panels are stuck. The battery technology is decent, but solar technolory is way behind, it's easy to power a 1000 watt bulb because the battery is powering the inverter, a pure sine inverter will actually kill the hum of your ballast, but a modified square wave inverter will not not and is not recomended for sensitive equipment. Charging the 12 volt battery is the key and charging many batteries is even better, but the cost of charging the batteries now thats where the shit starts to cost. 100 dollars for a 15 watt solar panel, 500 dollars for a 400 watt sunforce wind turbine. once a good battery is charged it should last 10 hours 50% discharge.
 
hammer6913

hammer6913

Well-Known Member
Trazzer said:
My dad owns a electrical company and just finished his solar installation certification, I was talking to him last night and he was telling me as an installer he gets the systems for under half the price, I am definetly gonna take advantage of that haha:bigjoint:
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trazzer, u need a big white brother, ive been checking into this also, and cant afford it. so let me know when we can start adoption proceedings. lol
 
hammer6913

hammer6913

Well-Known Member
i have been looking at getting fork lift batteries. u can get those for free. find a loading dock and they may have old batteries there. plus if u fix em u can sell em.
 
FrostickZero

FrostickZero

Well-Known Member
I've been doing research and it seems like the problem its how much wattage/amps the solar system can hold. Also wiring the batteries a center way will either increase the voltage, increase the Amp Hours or increase both the Amp Hours and voltage.

I found a thing that says to find the amp hours an item uses you use this formula

watts/volts = ac amps

ac amps x 10 = dc amp hours

ie. My New tv draws around 170 watts and it runs off of a 110v circuit so to find the ac amps of it I would have to do
170w / 110v = 1.545 ac amps
1.545 ac amps x 10 = 15.45 DC amp hour draw

so going by that math here's what a 1000w light on a 110v circuit would roughly use
1,000w / 110v = 9.09 ac amp hours
9.09 ac amp hours x 10 = 90.90 DC amp hour draw
 
Sillybee

Sillybee

Member
Ohhh my family has a summer house out in the country (Iceland) and we have a huge stream running right through our land and also a half buried shipping container that we have been using to work reindeer meat
because the first owner was this big hunting guy, but now its empy and not used for anything :P

Want to have a water turbine in the stream to grow in the container but would need to wait for like 80% of my family to yeah die and me getting the land up for craps :D
 
stelthy

stelthy

Well-Known Member
I was just wondering, does anyone know what's the smallest solar panel is that could power either a single 250W, or a single 400W setup? Being able to get power legally for free sounds almost to good to be true :) depending on the price of the panels, their efficiency and installation cost... This could very well happen soon, I also like the way it almost certainly erases the carbon footprint, taking the power usage off the grid is defo. a STEALTH thing to do, pure genius :) - STELTHY :leaf:
 
FrostickZero

FrostickZero

Well-Known Member
stelthy said:
I was just wondering, does anyone know what's the smallest solar panel is that could power either a single 250W, or a single 400W setup? Being able to get power legally for free sounds almost to good to be true :) depending on the price of the panels, their efficiency and installation cost... This could very well happen soon, I also like the way it almost certainly erases the carbon footprint, taking the power usage off the grid is defo. a STEALTH thing to do, pure genius :) - STELTHY :leaf:
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If you buy Solar panels you would need around 500w to 700w but if you buy solar cells most common ones are 1.8 watts, 0.5 volts, 3.6 Amps. If you are building it from solar cells you would need to build 6 26 cell solar panels.[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Build it your self to save some money because pre-built panels cost around $200 to $300 for a 100w so for around $200 to $300 you can build a solar panel that is almost $1 per watt.
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