Free Energy Growing

[wasgedn]

somebody here on ic said that the ingredients for solar panels are ingredients which are not sustainable and the place where they get this stuff are badly contaminated after mining or something like that...
basicly he said :solar energie isnt that ecological due the ingredients of the tech
is this true?

 

[queequeg152]

somebody here on ic said that the ingredients for solar panels are ingredients which are not sustainable and the place where they get this stuff are badly contaminated after mining or something like that...
basicly he said :solar energie isnt that ecological due the ingredients of the tech
is this true?

sort of... its more the REFINING of the minerals and metals used.

if you do it correctly its not that bad and your waste stream is properly handled and disposed of.

if its done badly the waste stream can contaminate all sorts of shit.

i think one of those massive 5mw wind turbines pays off its Co2 "debt", in like 3 years usually?... i think most solar panels in regular climates is like 5-7 years. thats jsut co2 though.

its mostly true that there is not enough of these rare earth minerals around to power the whole globe with solar power.

its the same with wind power and neodymium... there is not enough of it on the earth to power the whole globe.

its also kinda true with nucelar power too lol... very rare metals like are needed to make super super super high quality forgings for reactors that are radiation hardened and resistant to shit like hydrogen embrittlement.

thing is though with all of the above... these assumptions are all made based on known reserves. the same shit was said about uranium... everyone thought there was like 50 years worth of economicaly extractable uranium... later when it started getting real expensive... what do you know? they fucking found a shit load of it all over the place.

when shit gets stupid expensive we ALWAYS find more of what ever the fuck it is... look at oil. we get it from the fucking ocean floor 10,000 feet down with ridiculous contraptions.

if neodymium or some shit was 1,000 dollars a gram you can bet your ass they would be fucking raping the Marianas trench to get at is.

with solar panels in particular though... the thing is you can make a solar panel with a shit load of different minerals not just germanium or what ever.

they just might not be as efficient or cheap. you cannot really say the same with neodymium.

 

[repuk]

Impressive job, Big Sky

pretty much spot on..one factor that still saves power using led is heating and cooling the grow area itself- fans can run at much lower speeds with 20$ controllers using less wattage overall. not a bunch but there is a little saved with using LED-
but for the most part thats the the way it is- watts are watts-

Going LEDs, and DC only, could be a big step forward.

watts are watts, but going LEDs, DC only will provide several advantages:

- Heat will be lower (less venting and cooling needed)
- Efficiency increase from current 60-80% to almost 99%.
- No need for inverters, sine wave or not.

Solar installations work with DC, the idea is using DC for everything.

LEDs work with DC, you'll need to either source a LED lamp with standalone DC power, suitable for 24V, or build your own rig using COBs for example, and DC-input LED drivers.

Similarly, DC Fans/blowers can be found. If this proves to be hard to find for the extractor, a small inverter could be used.

What's the power used in extraction? if it's > 50W I'd rather go for a suitable brushless motor along a suitable ESC controller (could be sourced on RC Hobby shops) and build my own extraction system.

The key thing is most power will be generated in DC form, and stored in DC form, and also consumed in DC form w/o the need for Inverters, which lose energy and efficiency (to generate heat) in the process.

So DC flow would be:


Solar Panel -> Controller / Regulator -> Batteries
----------------------------|__________> LED drivers / DC Fans

There's one drawback though; LEDs don't cut it when it comes to "high performance" sativas, no matter if you deploy 1000W of LEDs. Your current setup is actually the minimum (400W HPS) to get good performance out of them.

Don't get me wrong, been there, and still got a watt per gram, but buds don't develop as much, and so goes with "dankiness".

There are sativas still that will perform really fine as long as they're not too demanding with regards to lightning , like e.g. Mandala Seeds' Eight Miles High.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Repuk: you are still forgetting about batteries. The loss in heat from inverting isn't that much. growing on solar is just so silly. It's never going to be worth it. It just will never make sense. The only reason anyone would ever grow inn solar it's simply because they don't have power. Anywhere you don't have power its remote and you can run a small greenhouse instead. If there isn't enough sun for the greenhouse, there isn't enough sun for solar. Just never makes sense. Especially after batteries to store the energy

 

[repuk]

You're right that would be "greener" and possibly easier to grown in a greenhouse, but there could be lots of reasons why this may not be possible: weather, light hours, etc.

You can always suplement solar panels with wind turbines, or create an hydro one if there's a nearby weater stream...

My point is that making all components in the system as low consumption, and DC-native as possible is the best method to take the best advantage of the precious energy gathered in this way.

 

[C&O]

Anyone know of any similar projects they'd be happy to share?

Want to turn a commercial coke fridge into a grow cabinet or something to that effect, the idea crossed my mind to make it dwc once I realised the space when removing the old compressor.

 

[Drop That Sound]

Fisher & Paykel, and other smart drive washing machines can make for a decent hydro generator. Hydro would definitely be the best primary source of energy. Roughly 800 watts a piece with minimal work, as you re-use most the parts there, including the plastic wash bin already with bearings and the motor still attached. Then you hook a pelton wheel up to the shaft inside and blast it with a jet of water. The motor stator is redone in a different configuration, but doesn't look to hard to do.

Would work great if setup properly, especially if you have a mountain stream flowing most the time. Even if the stream was below, you could use a ram pump to pump water up to a holding tank/res, and then have a DIY generator or 2 plumbed in below it.

Look up DIY "washing machine generator" and you'll see what I mean, the guy even builds an automated shut off valve (for when your batteries are full) out of an old drill, a cheap circuit board, 90 degree angle grinder gear box, and a standard hose faucet, and saves hundred of dollars compared to buying something premade.

Vertical axis wind turbines can be made from plastic/metal 55 gallon drums cut in half, hooked to the same washing machine smart drives that can be found free if you keep your eyes open.

I been saving a few washing machines just for this purpose, because I live on the side of a hill in the rainy state, not really to grow with though. My hydro generator shack i'm dreaming about will have 3 diy hydro washing machine gens that will power my off grid washing machine and dryers, and on demand water heaters, etc. Along with a wood gas gen, some VAWTS, and many other forms of alternative systems. Luckily I have a spot to dig a large pond 300-350 ft above my little place. Wish I could find the time to set it all up, someday I will!

 

[flylowgethigh]

I just found this thread. Why the F is the OP banned?

So I was wondering what I could do to have assured lights and cooling in this 3rd world banana republic we have become. I find that panels are not that expensive, relative these daze. 10 of these would make 3500 watts. Can I power the tents and run an AC for the lung room on that? Round number, not too large an array at 12' x17'

https://www.solar-electric.com/rec-solar-rec375aa-w-alpha-series-375-watt-module.html

Maybe these fools will have another solar tax deal soon. It's what dims do.