Every cannabis home grower’s wish list includes having and maintaining a solar-powered grow room. Whether you are a hobbyist or a commercial grower, a solar-powered indoor farm is undoubtedly something that will prove to be cost-effective in the long run. Luckily, the research in this field is improving as the years go by. Does adding solar power ideal worth it for your set-up? Here are some things that can help you decide.
Solar System For Cannabis Indoor Farming House: Saving Your Bill
1. Know Your Personal Goals
Growers may have different motivations for wanting to integrate their solar panels for wanting to have solar panels in their cannabis grow room. It might be because of wanting to reduce their carbon emissions, having a more stable and reliable source of power, and being independent of the electric grid. There is no wrong reason to invest in solar power, but owners should make sure that they have the right reasons for doing so.
2. Decide The Site You Would Pick: Your Home or Your Greenhouse
If you install the solar panels in your home, there are several advantages:
- There is usually more space for panel installation on the roof of your home. This will enable you to install a more extensive solar system that can be able to power your home and your greenhouse as well.
- It is more cost-effective, which will allow you to generate more power for the investment. You only have to wire your greenhouse to your home for it to get the power.
- Putting solar panels on the roof of your grow tent or greenhouse can block the lighting that can also help your cannabis plants grow well.
But you can also choose to move your plantation to cannabis grow tent. It also comes with many significant benefits. Learn more via this link.
3. Calculate How Much Electricity You Consume
First, you must identify how much electricity you will be able to consume for you to power the entire grow room. For instance, imagine that you have a set-up in one 4 feet by 4 feet tent with 4 cannabis plants, a centralized flooding and drainage system, an oscillating fan, 20 gallons of water, and one 600 Watts HPS bulb.
If you use a 24-hour lighting schedule in the vegetative stage in one month, the total power consumed will be about 14,400 watts per day, or about 400 kWh per month, just lighting alone. After the first month, the lighting needs will be reduced by half for two more months.
Because of this, the year-round grower will benefit because this setup will need about 7,000 watt-hours per day or 196 kWh per month.
If the plants inside the grow room will be on a standard feeding schedule, flooding the table can be done four times per day at about one hour each time. Owners should make sure that the pump can deliver water to the plants much quicker and that the plant will be able to make the most of the time for feeding and hydration. Additionally, for a 20-gallon container for nutrients, growers can choose a pump that is capable of producing about 130 gallons per hour.
For calculating the watts required to power up the pump, you should multiply the amps by the volts. So, for this basic beginner set-up in the example, the maximum rating will reach about 450 kWh per month for power to be supplied to the whole room.
4. Identify the Power Rating
Depending on where you and you’re grow room are located, as well as possible obstructions to the sun, you should make an estimate on how much direct sunlight you get per day.
So that you can calculate the capacity of the solar panel that you will need, you should divide the average daily kWh consumption by the number of hours of sunlight that charged your solar panels.
If you want to get your own solar set-up for your cannabis to grow room, you can get a DIY one that costs about 5,000 dollars to 15,000 dollars. But, you can get one that is professionally installed, it may require a whole lot more than that. Before buying one, though, the best thing to do is to research carefully and weigh your options.
Types of Solar Grow Lights That You Can Use
- Fluorescent Lights – These bulbs can be useful for smaller grow rooms, seedlings, house plants, and supplementary light. It can be one of three styles: T5, T8, and T12. The T means Tube, while the number shows how many eighths of an inch the diameter of the light is. These lights generate electricity through electromagnetic induction.
- LED Lights – These bulbs are compact in size and use lesser power but a higher intensity for light. It also generates lower heat levels compared to more traditional lighting options. LED style lighting is a great first option for a solar-powered indoor garden. They may be an expensive initial investment, but they are absolutely worth it in the long run. With the right planning and expectations, LED lighting can be possible.
- High-Intensity Discharge or HID Bulbs – These grow lights are very powerful, but they can be expensive to run because they require more energy. They are great for plants that require lots of light for flowering. They can come in High-Pressure Sodium Bulbs for the flowering stage or Metal Halide Bulbs for the vegetative stage.
Other Things You Might Consider
- Statistics – Look at how much energy you consume from your household consumption plus the additional consumption from your grow room.
- Light Sources – Decide on the type of lights that you will use for your grow room and check the total costs of expenses and compare them against the benefit of every kind of light you can use.
- Maintenance – Consider the replacement fees that come with going solar. You should check on the warranty of the solar panels and inverters, then incorporate all of these into your long-term payoff structure.
Benefits of Setting Up A Solar System for Your Cannabis Grow Room
- Security – Using solar grow room will give you safety because being off-the-grid will not call for extra attention from the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the local police when your electricity bills and infrared signatures in the house become too high. If you have a solar system, you will be able to run your indoor farm without any interruption. This is important when your plants are at their crucial growing stage, as losing power can lead to stunting the growth of your plants.
- Environment – By taking and producing your required energy solely from the sun, you are using 100 percent renewable energy. The solar system for growing cannabis can supplement the electricity bills and is beneficial for all who are involved.
- Saving Money – Producing cannabis in an indoor grow room using solar panels can come with hundreds of dollars worth of savings for your electricity bills. This system can offset an approximate monthly 800-kilowatt hours worth of electricity, especially since a single grow room can consume power that is double the electric consumption of an average American household.
Final Thoughts
If you want to reap the rewards of your investment in solar power, you must carefully plan out your design and layout of your indoor farming grow area. It would be best if you studied all your options so that you and identify the threshold where you will gain the profit from your investments. Though technology is quick to advance, it is helpful to experience the current solar systems available at the present so that you can learn about how this type of technology works, while being able to save money and help the environment.
