off grid electricity

mikek420 said:

When I look at ways to connect it and when I contacted the supplier, they told me I needed batteries. What are the batteries for?
I have a budget of around 1500. I did find a 2000w generator for 1350 whic fits in the budget but what else is needed to plug my lights in and grow?

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Wow.. I didn't realize how much of a basic understanding of power you lack. Your estimates for dependable power generation is way off. Even if you did buy a generator, your budget seems so tight there would be no allowances for fuel, i'm guessing you're burning around 4 gallons of fuel a day.. The tanks on the micro generators have to be refilled every 4 hours. Or if you go with renewable energy, the costs of a battery bank have exceeded your budget.

What I dont understand, you have prior posts showing an outdoor grow, it makes no sense to me why you wouldn't continue in that direction.

Lets start with the most basic question, where is the location of where you want to grow?.. Is it windy enough to support power generation?.. Is it sunny enough?, you still need quarters to live in. Will you need a portable refill tank for your generator?.[/QUOTE]

mikek420 said:

This thread turned into more of a pissing contest...

I have talked to the manufacture of the particular generators I was looking at. For a 2000 watt wind + 600 watt solar including the inverter, tower, wiring panels etc it will be 2000 and change.

For a 2000 watt wind generator and all equipment it will cost 1505.

I was thinking to be extra safe I would get the first package and add a 400 watt wind generator as well for 3k watts at top power. So with 50% power I would have enough to run the big led. Does it sound like a good idea? Can I link two wind generators to the same inverter?

Hopefully I get to start this by the end of this month! I will post pics to my grow and stuff after I get it going. Hopefully the ones of you guys that are still with me and leaving helpful comments will see this progress and let me know What they think! Have a good and stony day!

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Pissing contest,,,shit! This is nothing!
Enough of that.......
What are you doing to store the energy you make? Solar and wind don't plug directly to your wall you know.....It runs to battery banks and is used from there. DC to AC by inversion.....The simple cost of the batteries alone made me stop with this idea......Now there are the Tesla powerwall's coming out next month.....You have to order them but pricing is 1/10th that of normal battery banks and less then 1/10th the size to boot....

I think your not being realistic about generating power for small scale ops......Lets just say I have experience with generating power for a far larger operation......For size it was cost effective but, your talking trucking in 500gal diesel fuel blivets and at that time the storage foot print sucked as you could not stack them (Old Military air drop blivets).....It's simply not going to be any kind of cost effective to run a home and all operations of said land by generation...Even if fuel drops to under 2.00 a gallon.....you'll need around 20K watt capacity for straight run at least!

If you plan to save and use. You have to divert all produced power to a storage system. From that system the battery storage is usually broken down into at least 2 available sections. Both in or available to use at any time. 1 to receive and store power and the other to actually use to draw from as the other charges.....If I remember right, the Tesla powerwall can do both at once (I could be wrong on that) but you'll still need several to run a system of your needs!


Doc

GrowerGoneWild said:

Wow.. I didn't realize how much of a basic understanding of power you lack. Your estimates for dependable power generation is way off. Even if you did buy a generator, your budget seems so tight there would be no allowances for fuel, i'm guessing you're burning around 4 gallons of fuel a day.. The tanks on the micro generators have to be refilled every 4 hours. Or if you go with renewable energy, the costs of a battery bank have exceeded your budget.

What I dont understand, you have prior posts showing an outdoor grow, it makes no sense to me why you wouldn't continue in that direction.

Lets start with the most basic question, where is the location of where you want to grow?.. Is it windy enough to support power generation?.. Is it sunny enough?, you still need quarters to live in. Will you need a portable refill tank for your generator?.

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Shit GGW, Your right but not even close at consumption rates! Even a 7500w will suck around 5-6 gallons every 12 hrs !!!!
Diesel at 20K w is more like what he would need and that's not saving much more at all!
Even Propane is going to hurt for any long term running generation!

Doc

Shit GGW, Your right but not even close at consumption rates! Even a 7500w will suck around 5-6 gallons every 12 hrs !!!!
Diesel at 20K w is more like what he would need and that's not saving much more at all!
Even Propane is going to hurt for any long term running generation!
Doc[/QUOTE]

Yeah.. so I'm a little off.. my guestimates come with a refund

Psssh.. I bet I have spent more time on the generator start switch than these guys browsing generators on the internet.so I might know a thing or two about generators and what it takes to keep em running.

Seriously.. whats wrong with growing with the sun?.. I've spent my time in CO in the it seemed like a warm place in the summer. FoCo seemed a bit cooler tho'.

Hmmm.. wind generation might be a good idea tho.. 'cuz wyoming sucks so hard.

Dr. Who said:

Tesla powerwall can do both at once (I could be wrong on that) but you'll still need several to run a system of your needs!

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I thought the tesla powerwall was used to buy energy off the grid at non peak hours to save on energy costs. I guess you could use it as a "bank" with other forms of power generation when using it with the grid.

GrowerGoneWild said:

I thought the tesla powerwall was used to buy energy off the grid at non peak hours to save on energy costs. I guess you could use it as a "bank" with other forms of power generation when using it with the grid.

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You can charge it at nite for lower energy cost or charge it solar or wind

GrowerGoneWild said:

I thought the tesla powerwall was used to buy energy off the grid at non peak hours to save on energy costs. I guess you could use it as a "bank" with other forms of power generation when using it with the grid.

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It does both but was designed for solar applications in mind first......The off peak hour thing is just another way of getting people to buy the product with out the cost of adding a generation system!

"musical tone of voice"
But just a minute! That's not all! What if you could save money on the power you all ready buy!
Well then the Tesla Powerwall is for you too! You don't need to have an expensive solar array or,,,a wind system!
Come on, we all know that the wind don't blow and the sun don't shine all the live long day! RIGHT?

Well with the miracle Tesla Powerwall system you don't have too!!!! Simply hook it up to your local power grid and set it to charge at the off peak pricing hrs and SAVE SOME CASH!

Just 1 easy payment of 2999.95 for the 7k or 3499.95 for the 10K!

LOL!!!!

But wait there's more no maintenance needed on like battery's

Dr. Who said:

It does both but was designed for solar applications in mind first......The off peak hour thing is just another way of getting people to buy the product with out the cost of adding a generation system!

"musical tone of voice"
But just a minute! That's not all! What if you could save money on the power you all ready buy!

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Awesome... That better come with a set of those ginsu knives and scissors. I'm gonna need them to cut down these fat stalks!

GrowerGoneWild said:

Awesome... That better come with a set of those ginsu knives and scissors. I'm gonna need them to cut down these fat stalks!

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There was a thread awhile back where someone broke down the numbers on the tesla power wall and on a full charge it would only run a 600watt hps for 10 hrs.
Large forklift batteries of the same storage capacity could be had for almost the same money but require maintenance.

Have you considered an underground greenhouse? Could be perfect and save you a ton of money if your location is right

Hay if I could afford them I would bring Tesla battery's I would bring them to work to charge them lol

torontoke said:

There was a thread awhile back where someone broke down the numbers on the tesla power wall and on a full charge it would only run a 600watt hps for 10 hrs.
Large forklift batteries of the same storage capacity could be had for almost the same money but require maintenance.

Have you considered an underground greenhouse? Could be perfect and save you a ton of money if your location is right

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Yeah I was looking at that amp wise......It would increase with the proper linking of more sets.....Still better then direct generation 24/7......I'm just to comfy plugging "in" and paying my bill, I'll stay on the grid.
I do have an automatic 25K Generac back up. (for when the grid goes down)

I've looked into most options for off the grid ops and most people don't want the noise cost and maintenance of running a generator but considering that the op isn't worried aboutnoise so I'm guessing not worried about nosey neighbours. Then the underground greenhouse is maybe the best option. They can be used ur round and are about as stealth as can be.
Couple hundred bucks in materials and you could have a kick ass grow.
But that's land and sun availability dependant

ryan s said:

You would be mostly correct about that legal mumbo jumble. But I would have to disagree; A $1500 1200w set-up will pay for its self after one use and can be put in a spare bedroom. You could make some money, but definitely not enough to live on. And at that point if you smoke you will want to play with a lot of the bud, so definitely I agree its not really a business model. In Colorado there is a requirement of residency for 2 years before you can apply to own a business...

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The electricity,heat & humidity is so insane were i live that it cost me approximately 650+$ to grow 2-3 pounds JUST for electricity. Yet it still cost me 440$ to grow only 1pound. A large grow op is much more worth your time and money then a small one would be, atleast in my state.

For completeness...
I mentioned a project that attempts to power a small city in CA. Its Ivanpah I was referring to. Not pretty. $2.2 billion later and they push their goal out another 5 years. Google, the second largest investor after the $1.6 billion us taxpayers have contributed, conciders the project too unstable to plug it servers into. Another goal that was not reached.

So yeah, a failed prototype produced by the best and the brightest with free money. Lets build more!!!!

bravedave said:

So yeah, a failed prototype produced by the best and the brightest with free money. Lets build more!!!!

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Ive seen solar & wind power for stations that send weather data or a traffic warning light..

I've never seen sun/wind energy used for critical applications..

Costilla county is where I was going to have my grow. I'm still waiting for the realtor to get back to me in regards to when I can actually purchase it, I've left a couple message and will try to call him when I get a day off work. I was having a friend help pay for the turbine and equipment but I think he is not going to now, his loss when it finally comes down to the harvest. I will only be using the 2 little leds, I know what I can expect out of a harvest. I'm on my break at work so I will have to look up underground greenhouses, and designs. That looks interesting as I want to build something underground. That way it doesn't look like anyone lives there until next year, when I build a proper house. Hopefully I can find a generator that will run the lights for around 1000, and be able to generate heat at night. I'm not planning on leaving the site, however I want it to appear like there is no one there (fence the yard, underground house then a generator) hopefully it won't look weird with no one there and a windmill lol

Here

mikek420 said:

Costilla county is where I was going to have my grow. IHopefully I can find a generator that will run the lights for around 1000, and be able to generate heat at night. I'm not planning on leaving the site, however I want it to appear like there is no one there (fence the yard, underground house then a generator) hopefully it won't look weird with no one there and a windmill lol

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Again, I dont understand why you are so stuck on generating power, I'm looking at the at the USDA Frost Zone map and the average temp, you clearly have a chance in May to September to grow in a greenhouse. And looking at your old posts I see you were popping autos. Even autos can finish outside in AK.