Solar Powered Grow Room?

I'm moving to a remote location that is subject to hot humid summers and freezing during the winters. The power company wants 20K (not kidding) just to run the lines to my property. I'm seriously considering going stand-alone solar, especially given the fact that I can get a 30% tax credit for any money I spend on solar.

Clearly, light efficiency (both from an electrical and heat standpoint) will be critical in this situation so I'm considering going completely LED. I'm also considering an underground room for temperature stability. I currently have a 3.5 X 6 (plant space, not total) room with a 600W HID and 2 240W BS LED panels that I put 6 to 10 plants in coco in smart pots. I really don't need as much production as this room produces so I could shrink the grow space down a bit.

I have a 3rd BS panel that I use for my early veg in a tiny veg closet. I've had 3 failures in two years on the Blackstars. I've been able to repair them myself, but it's a real PITA. I was considering purchasing two more BSs just so I could cannabalize them over time for parts if necessary but I'm not so keen on that idea after this latest failure. Frankly, if I wasn't needing super high effeciency due to the solar power issue, I would stick with HID because my results have been excellent.

I'd love to hear from anyone that's in a situation similar to mine with some real grow experience. Thanks in advance.

One option is to grow enough outdoors during the summer to sustain you all winter. You could build a greenhouse thats mostly underground. Only the top glass/plexiglass will be above the ground. Then you might be able to run it for most of the year just with a propane heater that would double as a CO2 generator.

If not i would see if there are any naturally flowing streams or hills that might have water flowing through them. Ive found, from research, that water is much more reliable and powerful than sun and is generally more consistent so you might be able to get away without a battery system but anyone livin off grid would need some sort of battery system.

Wind power is another ones thats a little cheaper and takes up a smaller footprint. honestly id go with all of them. There was a guy on discovery that lived completely free of power and actually started twistin the dial back on his elec meter and started getting paid for generating energy hahaha.

I agree, I think at least one back-up source is a good idea. I know someone who does not have power lines to his home. He has a windmill genset and a solar array which he uses to keep a very large battery bank charged up. Big family too and they do ok. Lot of that around the mountain states.... windy and a lot of sun.

You could definitely run a small grow on solar by using LED especially if you use high efficiency fans. If you are technically inclined for DIY LED you could almost double the efficiency of commercial panels. The low hanging fruit is in the vegging room since LED is so good at it and since it has to run long hours every day.

Unfortunately, wind is not considered viable where I am. I looked into some residential wind kits and they are very expensive compared to their potential in my area. I would be better off spending the money on more panels and batteries. We do have a small creek, but it's fed by a very small spring and barely moves unless it's rained recently. So hydro is not an option either. I've also looked into geothermal loops for AC but those are expensive.

So for now, I have to decide between solar and the grid (I'm aware of grid-tie systems) and whether 20k on the power line run is a better investment than 26k on solar (due to the 30% tax credit). We'd prefer to go solar so even if it's costs a bit more, we'll do it. Grid power is very unreliable in this area and we'd be at the very end of the line, so we'll have a large (10-15kw) propane generator either way we go.

I'm definitely interested in DIY LED. I'd love to bypass the inverter and power my lights directly from 48v DC if it would make a big enough difference in effeciency.

I'd also love to grow outdoors, but don't wan to rely on that since I've never done it before. I'm also not sure what strain could survive the brutally hot summers here.

Well, at this moment, to convert the solar energy into electricity is still a very costly idea, normally if we want to supply a 160W LED light, we have to spend 1500$ in the solar panel, and the worst is that they only output at 12V DC, so it is almost impossible to run high power LED grow lights by solar panel at this stage.
What's the cost of gasoline in your place? Probably an electricity station is a good option for your situation if the gasoline is competitive. Here is the link of an electricity station:
http://www.bhkw-prinz.de/intelli-production-gmbh-intelli-heimkraftwerk/2659

there is a product called sun domes. Actually install on the roof and do require work. But they focus outdoor light directly down so you would be on outdoor time with the convenience of being indoor. A lot of people use them for growing coral in large reef tanks and they work great.

http://www.sun-dome.com/

I dunno, free light. Maybe you could figure out a timer to close them off for 12/12

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/1-year-anniversary-our-400-gallon-natural-sun-lit-reef-191555.html

somebody1701 said:

I'm definitely interested in DIY LED. I'd love to bypass the inverter and power my lights directly from 48v DC if it would make a big enough difference in effeciency.

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Surprisingly the cost of DC-DC constant current drivers seems to be higher than AC-DC. On the other hand if you built them yourself I am guessing it would be cheaper and potentially 95% efficient with no power factor correction to worry about. The LED power consumption for vegging and cloning would be almost negligible ~25watts. If you used 200W for flowering you could yield 200 grams of OG dank or 400 grams of big skunk.

somebody1701 said:

I'd also love to grow outdoors, but don't wan to rely on that since I've never done it before. I'm also not sure what strain could survive the brutally hot summers here.

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You could always shut down during the hottest months and just keep your vegging going? And maybe use a greenhouse to extend growing during the cool season.