# Solar Panels in a Grow Room?



## titanium3g (Feb 17, 2008)

Would solar panels in a High wattage HID grow room produce any energy? I don't know much about solar panels or if HID lights affect them. I'm sure people have thought of this but I have not read about it


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## FaCultGen (Feb 18, 2008)

lol ... hmmmm that seems like a great idea... but you would need a crapload of space for all the panels... that would be sweet to be ablt to make your garden self sufficiant...

like a cycle of light and energy, batery to light, light to plants/panels, panels to one of those things like in a car that makes energy (wtf are those things called), back to the batery...

hmm could be some NASA shit lol


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## GNOME GROWN (Feb 18, 2008)

FaCultGen said:


> lol ... hmmmm that seems like a great idea... but you would need a crapload of space for all the panels... that would be sweet to be ablt to make your garden self sufficiant...
> 
> like a cycle of light and energy, batery to light, light to plants/panels, panels to one of those things like in a car that makes energy (wtf are those things called), back to the batery...
> 
> hmm could be some NASA shit lol


that would be beautiful!...if that did work u could get a light just for a few solor pannels and run a 24hr vegg rm!..


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## abso1utepain (Feb 18, 2008)

would be great but panels arn't that efficient, you'll probably get between 10-15% of the power back that your lights used, but if your running hydro you could probably use that power to run pumps and other things, now try and find panels and equipment that are cheeper than your entire grow room. a basic setup for a home now runs about 18-20 grand(+install), that usually still needs complementary power from the electric company. its a great idea, but not worth the cash.


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## sopenderope (Feb 18, 2008)

solar panels placed under artificial lighting will produce voltage.
we were discussing using small solar panels for growth stimulation in the thread "Photovoltaic root stimulation".

i only did some extremely small scale testing but you can get electricity with solar panels under artificial lights


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## titanium3g (Feb 18, 2008)

sopenderope said:


> solar panels placed under artificial lighting will produce voltage.
> we were discussing using small solar panels for growth stimulation in the thread "Photovoltaic root stimulation".
> 
> i only did some extremely small scale testing but you can get electricity with solar panels under artificial lights


Lol, I was stoned trying to read that thread and came up with this question. I guess I didn't understand what was going on....I love this lemon skunk x Mr.nice


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## jbreeze (Feb 18, 2008)

Im sure it is possible..Jack Johnson just recorded his album in a solar panel powered recording studio(im assuming on a site full of smokers that someone knows who jack johnson is)


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## joepro (Feb 18, 2008)

the $ facters in why or why not.-other then that is a great idea!
the amount of sun needed you might as well grow outside.(cut out the middle man)


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## FaCultGen (Feb 18, 2008)

i saw this house on tv that had solar panels and a wind genorator... it was producing so much power that the little electro measurer thingy was going backwards...it was supplying a small amount of electricity to the town near it...


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## fdd2blk (Feb 18, 2008)

a grow light might put out enough to power fans. that would be cool.
might not save major dollars but it's still kinda cool.


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## titanium3g (Feb 18, 2008)

Hell, even if all it does is power a little fan you at least helped stimulate the United states economy buy blowing cash on a solar panel.


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## LoudBlunts (Feb 18, 2008)

FaCultGen said:


> i saw this house on tv that had solar panels and a wind genorator... it was producing so much power that the little electro measurer thingy was going backwards...it was supplying a small amount of electricity to the town near it...


yes that is how it works. you got the people who still want to be on the power grid and you have the people who want off the power grid completely.

i've seen a setup with i think it was like 45kwh or some shit setup/system (solar panels and wind generators)..... it was completely off the grid. and once you are into setups like that....you use batteries to store the energy and shit. hell the sun produces so much light....you cant possibly use it all up. they install it so when you are taking in more light than you are using....it sends it back to the power company transformer or whatever and your power meter spins backwards. They also _*PAY*_ you for each kwh or some shit. im not sure of the exact details as this was like almost 3 years ago


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## fat sam (Feb 3, 2009)

yeah that would work, if not for the whole grow then at least a good chunk out of it, i think the reason nobody does it is because the start up costs are so high, i was watching this show called planet green or some shit and these guys travel around checking out alternative power and shit and it showed this guy who had a creek by his house and he had a pipe in it and he ran the pipe into a small shed where it turned a small generator like the size of a a small motor and he said it made enough power for him and his 2 neighbors so its out there but it just costs a lot


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## jbo (Feb 6, 2009)

Habor Freight has little panels to put on your dashboard to charge your battery in times of storage. I bet that would work for a small scale test to run a fan or something right?


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## kharne1 (Nov 16, 2009)

Here's a link to a pretty cool webpage demonstrating with good photos and simple to follow instructions how to build cheap, easy solar panels at about 10% retail if you are cheap like me, good with your hands, and resourceful even with a small toolbox.Check it out if you will:http://www.mdpub.com/SolarPanel/index.htmlFor cheap diy windpower, here's a link:http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_wind.shtml


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## lightmonger (Nov 17, 2009)

I understand it's a cool concept and all, but if your buying a solar panel, why wouldn't you just hook it up outside where it would generate the most electricity?


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## Calijuana (Nov 21, 2009)

lightmonger said:


> I understand it's a cool concept and all, but if your buying a solar panel, why wouldn't you just hook it up outside where it would generate the most electricity?



I think the main positive to having the panel inside is that it wouldn't be affected by outdoor climate (e.g. cloudy days, also you would presumably get the same amount of electricity stored for every time the light is on for 12 hours (or more)


but yeah in all honesty outdoor solar panels would be far more efficient, you'd think


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## mossad420 (Nov 21, 2009)

Calijuana said:


> I think the main positive to having the panel inside is that it wouldn't be affected by outdoor climate (e.g. cloudy days, also you would presumably get the same amount of electricity stored for every time the light is on for 12 hours (or more)
> 
> 
> but yeah in all honesty outdoor solar panels would be far more efficient, you'd think


yeah even on cloudy days you would be better off with them outside, you dont pay for the energy the sun gives. when you factor that into the equation it is much more efficient to have them outdoors, plus having them on your roof doesnt take up any indoor space. The sun gives off much more energy than artificial lighting. For people who have the extra money, its a very smart investment as you can power your own home and feed the grid, literally making money(not a lot from the average setup but still, theres potential). Same with wind.


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## Big P (Nov 21, 2009)

sopenderope said:


> solar panels placed under artificial lighting will produce voltage.
> we were discussing using small solar panels for growth stimulation in the thread "Photovoltaic root stimulation".
> 
> i only did some extremely small scale testing but you can get electricity with solar panels under artificial lights


ya your right i did some testing too, i used a solar powered calculater in my office



lightmonger said:


> I understand it's a cool concept and all, but if your buying a solar panel, why wouldn't you just hook it up outside where it would generate the most electricity?


 
lol you even got me there i thought it was a great idea too but duh!!! you would do better just throwing it outside, lol i feel stupid, amazing what you can find out with a little group brainstroming

1) solar powered calculators work indoors

2) solar panels work better outside



i gotta say it was a great idea up until that post



we are such pot heads


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## Calijuana (Nov 22, 2009)

mossad420 said:


> yeah even on cloudy days you would be better off with them outside, you dont pay for the energy the sun gives. when you factor that into the equation it is much more efficient to have them outdoors, plus having them on your roof doesnt take up any indoor space. The sun gives off much more energy than artificial lighting. For people who have the extra money, its a very smart investment as you can power your own home and feed the grid, literally making money(not a lot from the average setup but still, theres potential). Same with wind.




When you think about it too, even if you broke even with using electricity, you save however much you normally would put into the electricty bill.


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## doctorD (Nov 24, 2009)

The other neg to having it in your grow is that is will use the light to get its power. That meant its not reflecting it around the grow. So you will save a buck or tow but lose light and have a smaller harvest. 
Not a good plan. The only way to do it is outside.


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## edub247 (Dec 8, 2009)

how bought use the panels to give the plants shock theropy


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## repvip (Dec 12, 2009)

Hah! I too have been thinking about this for awhile.

When the power goes out, I have to power my pumps by a car battery and power inverter..

If the Cap recycle timer would run off a modified sign wave transformer (the cheap power inverters) I would power my pumps off the battery all the time, and have the harbor freight solar battery charger keeping the battery charged.

Last time the power went out my extra car battery was dead! It was almost an emergency.


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## burnonedown21 (Dec 12, 2009)

having solar panels under your grow lights is definetly not worth the money/loss of energy and frankly makes no sense.keep in mind that energy cannot be created or reused, a self sustaining growhouse is against almost every rule of physics there is, so if you can do that then congrats and here is your nobel prize So say you have a 1000w HID running. Also consider that no energy is being wasted in the form of heat. You pay the electric company for 1000w to run your light. You then recapture the 100w that you have not hitting your plants and convert the light to energy and inefficiently return it back to electricity to power a fan. Why not just plug the fan into the wall? The energy has to come from somewhere. Another point is that in an efficient grow room you should have little to no wasted light and only wasted light can be reused by a solar panel. Mylar/hoods should focus as much light as possible on the plants. So basically the bottom line is this, go spend $50 on making your grow light efficiently use all of its energy on your plants and just plug your fans/pumps/whatever into the wall. The energy has to come from the electric company at some point


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## repvip (Dec 12, 2009)

burnonedown21 said:


> having solar panels under your grow lights is definetly not worth the money/loss of energy and frankly makes no sense.keep in mind that energy cannot be created or reused, a self sustaining growhouse is against almost every rule of physics there is, so if you can do that then congrats and here is your nobel prize So say you have a 1000w HID running. Also consider that no energy is being wasted in the form of heat. You pay the electric company for 1000w to run your light. You then recapture the 100w that you have not hitting your plants and convert the light to energy and inefficiently return it back to electricity to power a fan. Why not just plug the fan into the wall? The energy has to come from somewhere. Another point is that in an efficient grow room you should have little to no wasted light and only wasted light can be reused by a solar panel. Mylar/hoods should focus as much light as possible on the plants. So basically the bottom line is this, go spend $50 on making your grow light efficiently use all of its energy on your plants and just plug your fans/pumps/whatever into the wall. The energy has to come from the electric company at some point


 
Really? Little to no wasted light in an efficient grow room?

You realize how stupid that sounds... right? Because you are so smart? Your plants are lucky if they even use ~30% of the light from an HPS bulb... meaning 70% is... what? WASTED! This doesn't even include the energy wasted in heat.

BTW, nobody was talking about a "self sustaining growhouse"..


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## burnonedown21 (Dec 12, 2009)

FaCultGen said:


> lol ... hmmmm that seems like a great idea... but you would need a crapload of space for all the panels... that would be sweet to be ablt to make your garden self sufficiant...
> 
> like a cycle of light and energy, batery to light, light to plants/panels, panels to one of those things like in a car that makes energy (wtf are those things called), back to the batery...
> 
> hmm could be some NASA shit lol


hmm no one in here was talking about a self sufficient grow room? And i understand that energy is lost in heat. So so say your plants get 30% of light and you lose 20% of energy to heat. you now have 50% of your lighting to recycle, you lose atleast half of that with power dissipation/uncaptured light/ solar panel inefficiency. So you are left with 25% of your lighting to be recycled. so wouldnt it be better to spend your money on making your plants get as much light as possible then trying to recycle the unused light with solar panels. im not trying to act like I know everything, its just that to me it makes no sense to waste time/resources on this idea


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## MacGuyver4.2.0 (Dec 12, 2009)

This topic has been discussed on various forums across the globe and the answer has been a resounding NO among all forums. While you will have some reflected light, you should have a majority of it hitting the canopy. What is NOT being absorbed by the plants leaves is all that is left to power solar panels. Considering I have a 5.9KW solar grid array outside powering my home, (Kyocera 210 volt panels) I know a thing or two about solar. There would not be enough space or available full spectrum light left to power PV panels correctly. Your best best is to make your room as reflective as possible. Bright white painted walls work well as does white Poly Panda Film or heavy silver Mylar. The best refelctive films I have found (97%) are from 3M corp for backlighting LCD displays and it costs a small fortune!


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## buggin69 (Dec 14, 2009)

you'll always lose a bit in the conversion... and since you're constantly converting and losing light to the plants and losing light energy to distance traveled you won't actually create a sustaining cycle... but you can capture lost light and store/use that energy... or you could spend less money on mylar and direct the light to your plants.


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## fat sam (Jan 1, 2010)

the problem is this.... solar panels are only like 3-4% efficent at turning the light they recieve in to power, so right there its a total loss... then you have to remember that a 1000 wattt hps only turns roughly 450 watts of acutal light.... the rest is heat... then there is loos from the ballast and wires so really there is no point..... now if you were using a fat solar setup to supplement a greenhouse then there is a lot to gain


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