Solar Power/Grid and Led

Has anyone tried using solar power to their grow? I would like to add solar power but not be completely dependent on them since the sun isnt shining 24/7, is this possible? I read somewhere about "grid tie inverters" but the specs are above my head. I would like to add 200 watts to a 350 watt LED cob system.

If i connect directly to the solar panel and the sun dims will it hurt the maxwell driver or will it just dim the lights till they go off?

shackleferd said:

Has anyone tried using solar power to their grow? I would like to add solar power but not be completely dependent on them since the sun isnt shining 24/7, is this possible? I read somewhere about "grid tie inverters" but the specs are above my head. I would like to add 200 watts to a 350 watt LED cob system.

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I have some experiance with solar, but what is your goal? Why run only grow lights with solar?

1212ham said:

I have some experiance with solar, but what is your goal? Why run only grow lights with solar?

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Mainly to save money in the long run. It will run both solar and grid, grid tie inverters use both grid and solar from what i understand. When solar fades the system will start pulling from the grid.

shackleferd said:

Mainly to save money in the long run. It will run both solar and grid, grid tie inverters use both grid and solar from what i understand. When solar fades the system will start pulling from the grid.

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I have 3.8 kw of solar panels on my roof, it reduces cost of growing considerably but it is a expensive capital outlay. It runs my house, powers lights and heats my hot water, hot water diverter, runs aircon....if theres no sun , i pull from the grid, if theres too much power that i cant use i export it (sell) to the grid if the hot water cylinder is already heated to max .


you cant use them to directly run your lights as you need a solar power inverter, that supplies you house/shed etc, im tied to the grid with a import/export meter i spent $14,000 to give you a idea.

its not simple unfortunately or particularly cheap, a long term investment and probably not worth it for most people

You can do it with a stand alone system. You need to have a big battery wall to store the power in, which is where the big costs come in. Getting a 200w panel system with a controller and inverter is prolly only a few hundred bucks, but if you want to be able to store the power, so you can use it when the sun's not shining, the battery wall to store the power in will be much more, depending on how much power you want/need to store. Also you can't really "add 200watts to a 350w cob system". Unless you want to tap into the grid like the above poster, you will need to power stuff from the stand alone system separately from your wall plugs.