Free Energy Growing

[Big Sky]

Dude thats a bummer about your home burning down. I cant imagine that feeling. We had a big bush fire go through in my state and wipe out a few houses. I remember it because I was working away from home and I jumped in the work car in the morning with my work mate who was distraught. He was watching his house burn down on the nightly news. He recognized his roof from an aerial shot. A fireman was bashing on the door and his wife answered. He said "grab your kids, and go NOW NOW NOW!" she yelled at them to grab their shoes and he said there was no time. As a result, that day all he had was the clothes he was wearing and his family with their clothes minus 3 sets of shoes.



Yes I forgot you you guys were that much different to us!
In my country;
Red = Active
Black = Neutral
Green+Yellow (old standard all green, some still around) = Earth (ground)

I believe in your place white is active? I cant remember.

We still use Breakers here too. But also RCD's. Sometimes you get them in the same package which is known as a combo breaker. I am not sure if you call them the same things over there, or if your quick disconnects are our RCD's?

As you know, Breakers trip when the current goes above their rated trip point for too long a time. I believe your breakers come in different sizes to ours as well as your wire is refered to in 'gauge' where ours is refered to by cross sectional area. So as you know, if you have a wire of a certain gauge it can theoretically only carry so much current. Therefor you select a breaker that will trip out before the wire burns out. Thats how we do it in upside down world anyway. Our standard for power points is 2.5mm squared. Now this can handle something like 25Amp in theory but all the power points are rated at 10Amp (usually). So most houses have a 16Amp breaker for power points. Some people will whack in a 20Amp.

Along with this, they also put in an RCD. The active will go in the top of 16Amp breaker, then come out and go into the top of the RCD. Out of the RCD and out to the field. The Neutral will return to the bottom of the RCD, Come out the top and through to the main neutral. The RCD itself now has the active coming in and out as well as the neutral coming in and out.

As you know, the amps in a circuit is the only thing that is the same at all points. (ignoring places the circuit splits and runs parallel, but the sum of those should be the same). So if you have 8A running through your 16A breaker, and through the RCD you should have 8A coming back to the neutral to the RCD and back to the main neutral.

So the RCD monitors both of these two. If there is an imbalance, it trips. How much of an imbalance? Well standards here dictate 30mA. Which as you know is three fifths of fuck all. If there is 30mA difference in the balance then it can only be going one place. Through earth and back to the main neutral via the M.E.N. This means there is an earth fault somewhere. Imagen if it is the fridge. As soon as someone comes and grabs the handle they could potentially get an electric shock. But they should not with an RCD. If the fridge is WELL insulated from the ground. Like it has rubber feet and is not touching the floor etc and the RCD has not tripped, it will trip as soon as someone touches it and completes the circuit to ground. How fast? I cant quite remember what the standards dictate. I think its 200ms. Most will trip in something like 23ms. Thats fucking fast. You wont feel anything.

I suspect you already know all I have typed anyway, but I think its good to mention in case anyone is going to replicate your good work.

Peace.

hey man yeah it sucked sooo bad i cried like a beotch over it-
i was at work- left the electric blanket on low- never own one!!!
but i did and the place went a blaze- i was an hour away at work and nothing i coul do about it but work, go home, and see what was left over-
all my music gear and collectibles was the biggest loss-
i lost about 10k in guitars and amps- everything i ever worked for-
but you rebuild and live on -
that kinda shit humbles a man -
so im realy grateful for the experience in the end


thanks for the info! i learned something! you seem to know your electrical !
I had no idea of the RCD's and we do not use them here-
Our breakers are about it- standard wiring is 12 gauge-
it runs 110-120v
up to 30 amps safley but most hmes here o the 15 amp breakers with a few 30's-
i am guilty of replacing all the 15's with 20's!!! im one of those folks for sure lol-

anything over 30 amps here in the states and we swap over to a 220v system.
we use this for dryers and washers, dishwashers, heavy load appliances etc-
you would think the world leaders would sit down and say..ok heres a system that works the best, lets allllll use it! lol
nope- would be to logical lol-
crazy aint it?
lol

you know a little more about electrical then i do from the sounds of it- i'm a novice with bass nutz lol-
i know 120 hurts like hell when it bites, but it usually wont kill anyone- so far ive tested for RF frequencies, and non grounded areas , cant find any-
i think there might opssibly be an RCD type system or RCD built into the AC/DC distribution panel- its very possible cause there built for cars basically-
RV's so they ground out with just a copper wire-
This has my gears turning for sure and I appreciate the time you took to inform me of this kinda thing-
so far its made it almost a solid year without a hitch-

most of my appliances household wise have been swapped out for power consumption saving-
instead of having a huge fridge- well its just me and the wife- i do the cooking, so i opted for a 4cuft mini fridge with freezer that only burns 104watts-
i swapped out my huge water heater and tank for a tank-less propane one- i swapped my stove over to an old propane one and put in a wall furnace as well for heating in the winter-
soon i'll get a large antique wood burning furnace/stove, love those-

almost all my grid power use goes to furnish my grows-
then i have this solar grow as a personal smoke and self sustainable grow-more of an experiment then anything but it doubles as a life support system if i needed it to-
makes life a little less worrisome-

 

[Big Sky]

Big Sky
Could you give an estimate for the cost to outfit a system capable of producing 50 kwh per day?

we could sure try!
this depends on so many factors especially the climactic area you live in-
instead of telling folks where you live-
do you have a lot of sun? do you have a lot of wind? both? more of one then the other?

this is going to determine the type of energy system you want- when you get into very large loads you not only have to think about how much power you need, but you need to try and consume as less power as possible by swapping a few appliances out with energy efficient ones-
water heaters for example are usually electric and waste so much electricity its silly-
Go tank-less propane with a battery ignition-
on demand hot water- burns no electricity-
downsize a few things like swapping your lighting over to 12v, ceiling fans , fridge all can be purchased in 12v applications for free energy systems-
these things might get a little expensive but there cheaper then buying solar panels
lol
s oit balances out- after doing so you might need just 40kw in free energy vs 50-

now if its just for indoor growing then you want the full 50kw you estimated i imagine-
so the factors are just the questions above-

rough guess utilizing wind and solar together in a hybrid system(the most efficient)
your looking at around 1$ per watt-
40-50k$

 

[iampolluted]

just wanted to add to this... in the u.s. (on a 120v line); the black is hot, white is neutral, and green is ground . 220v 3 wire has 2 hot's (black and red), no neutral, and a ground (green). 220v 4 wire has 2 hot wires (black and red), a neutral (white), and a ground (green).

wanted to clarify this for those who didn't/don't know.

 

[Big Sky]

thanks dood i totally didnt post any of that-
lol
excellent addition to the thread!

 

[Big Sky]

yeah just fyi- i double checked the wiring and iampolluted is totally correct- i had my green and white backwards and black is the hot wire-
its been almost a year since the wiring and system was finished , my first major wiring job in itself-

 

[Iffy-Caradoc]

Very smart, technical setup.
Kudos dude.
Stay safe

 

[village green]

we could sure try!
this depends on so many factors especially the climactic area you live in-
instead of telling folks where you live-
do you have a lot of sun? do you have a lot of wind? both? more of one then the other?

this is going to determine the type of energy system you want- when you get into very large loads you not only have to think about how much power you need, but you need to try and consume as less power as possible by swapping a few appliances out with energy efficient ones-
water heaters for example are usually electric and waste so much electricity its silly-
Go tank-less propane with a battery ignition-
on demand hot water- burns no electricity-
downsize a few things like swapping your lighting over to 12v, ceiling fans , fridge all can be purchased in 12v applications for free energy systems-
these things might get a little expensive but there cheaper then buying solar panels
lol
s oit balances out- after doing so you might need just 40kw in free energy vs 50-

now if its just for indoor growing then you want the full 50kw you estimated i imagine-
so the factors are just the questions above-

rough guess utilizing wind and solar together in a hybrid system(the most efficient)
your looking at around 1$ per watt-
40-50k$

I appreciate that. I will research average wind speed and hours of sunlight for my area. Do you have smart meters where you live?

 

[exploziv]

great project, man! thanks for sharing!

 

[Big Sky]

ok here is a look at the internals of the AC/DC distribution panel-
the solar connection is just simple wiring to the main breaker and ground/neutral bus bars-
black to main breaker, white neutral bus, and green would go to your grounding bus bar-
this connection would mimic the same exact connections as a reg box style AC panel in your house-
since my system was only 1000w..i used a brand new 20 amp capacity extension cord, and cut one end off and hardwired it right into the panel -the other end plugs into the inverter or main AC power source-
its insulated and over actual amp use in rating so if i want to go up to a larger capacity i would just use 12 gauge wire and a 5000w inverter instead that is equipped with lead out connections and ditch the cord all together-


what i like about using this type of ac distribution panel is the built in 12v converter-
this allows me to power any 12v appliances without having to spend a fortune on a separate 12v system- it all works in unison with the ac panel- so you can run 12volt lighting for example in your home and still run an AC appliance and have AC sockets at the same time-
so if i go bigger I'll upgrade to a 60 amp distribution panel of the same make -

 

[Big Sky]

I appreciate that. I will research average wind speed and hours of sunlight for my area. Do you have smart meters where you live?

oh yeah i think those things are everywhere now-
your on the right track and with the kind of wattage your looking for i dont think you will ever need a meter

 

[snooze]

I have to say this is really inspiring. I always feel guilty using so much electricity and have always wanted to do something like this. Well done!

 

[alx1234]

very nice thread, ty for your contribution

 

[Penguin59]

Thanks for showing off the setup Big Sky! Never thought I would see the day where something like this would be so well documented. Has inspired more than a few people I'm sure.

 

[Big Sky]

thanks everyone for the great vibes- i'll keep it updated im hitting week 3 now on flowering in the solar grow with the two scrog clones i'll get some pics up tonight-

 

[Holdin']

Beautiful, beautiful work. Not only as a fellow grower, but also as an HVAC technician/electrician I can thoroughly appreciate every minute of thought into the design and every minute of work you put into this. Thank you very much for sharing. Residential solar/wind energy hasn't hit my area very hard yet, but this is truly inspiring to do some research. Thank you!

 

[Big Sky]

hey holdin!
thanks for the kind words-
im no pro electrician but i'm pretty decent at it and a quick learner -
I take that with the highest regards man
cheers!
iit took a good solid 1-1.5 years to get everything fully functional, parts, research took the longest-
stuff would sit around disconnected or UN-installed for periods of time- i would have to stop and research in steps , but it worked out in the end-
i can say i learned a lot more about electrical and voltage, amps etc then ever after putting this together-
so i really stress to folks on not being afraid to go in head first- eventually you will figure it out and learn so much-

 

[cobcoop]

WOW! I've been toying with the idea of installing a UPS to deal with power outages, but you sir just blew my fucking mind!

 

[Big Sky]

sweet! glad i could help!
cheers!

The free energy grow is doing good- ive been slacking a little on the updates , i have a lot of projects going on atm and the free energy grow is about to soon get a much needed upgrade-
im going to split this in half and run two entire grows in one closet under new LED 8 spectrum lighting-
I'm drawing up the plans now -
i'll post them up when the plans are finished-

cheers everyone for looking in and thanks for all the support!

 

[Grizz]

let there be light.. awsome job and thanks for opening our minds,

 

[Big Sky]

cheers!
it really does make a difference what area you live in-
an area with a lot of rains, would prob bring better wind generation- areas of sun brings better solar- im upgrading this to a hybrid system soon-
but until then i have figured out an optimal way to maximize yields and plant count while keeping the power draw very close to before-