Could it work???? is so Eat you heart out Charles Fritts!

[Kaos6669a]

Charles Fritts had an idea about converting light into electricity... hmmm

So i had an idea... Could you line a grow room floor with Solar panels covered by a glass top (To prevent water damage) be used to power the ventilation fans for the grow room... Thus only using power for the light, reducing the cost for growing?

[eyec0n]

Yeah. In theory. But in reality its a silly idea. Our lights arn't as powerful as the sun and thus wouldn't generate the same electricity (which is very low anyway). Solar panels are still one of those things that cost a lot, its definatly on that list of thing you dont buy cheap from china.

If someone could do the math and figure out how much energy 150watts of cfl or 250 watts of hps would give to our solar panels it might work. I'm still thinking the cost would be way more than just running our pc fans of wall power. PG&E cares about the 1000watt hps light your using, not the pc fans.

[hashaman]

Solar panels commercially available today are usually operate around ~20% efficiency. That is to say, 20% of the light which actually hits the panel can be converted to electricity.

That alone makes it not worth the effort. Then add in the fact that our puny bulbs generate nowhere near the number of photons generated by the sun, ruducing the output even further...

When it comes to renewable energy, it's usually go big or go home.

[Kaos6669a]

Ah well - back to the drawing board
Nice idea - bad technology

[eyec0n]

sort of. seems kinda silly setting up solar panels to run your pc fans.

Also, I wouldn't throw the idea compleatly out because its nifty. You can power calculators off small solar panels and they need an LCD screen and a CPU. You might be able to get it to work if you had enough of them.

[hashaman]

A small specialized math processor draws exponentially less power than anything involving a motor and moving parts. For one 12v DC/.5A average computer fan under a 400W MH (more lumens = more photons) grow light at an average of two feet away (room for the plant ) you'd need about four square feet of photovoltaic surface area, which would run around $200 to power a $5 fan.

Mounting a panel on the roof and using that to help alleviate the power draw of a grow room is a whole 'nother story, though...

[ISTANDALONE]

i do have a large stream/small river running right through my back yard. i'd be cool to have a small hydro-elec dam making some juice. i still doubt it'd be enough to power a 400w hps and 250w mh, though. i think the idea kaos6669a had was brilliant. it's just too bad our technology isn't advanced enough to recycle all the light out plants don't use. thumbs up for thinking outside the box, though.

[DrBudGreengenes]

Originally Posted by ISTANDALONE

i do have a large stream/small river running right through my back yard. i'd be cool to have a small hydro-elec dam making some juice. i still doubt it'd be enough to power a 400w hps and 250w mh, though. i think the idea kaos6669a had was brilliant. it's just too bad our technology isn't advanced enough to recycle all the light out plants don't use. thumbs up for thinking outside the box, though.

If you have 2 feet of drop you can make more power than ya' know what to do with lil' turbines run 24/7........Buying the Batteries to store it will cost big $$$$$ ...........L16's are 199.99 each ....I have 22 ...you would need as many or more

[420Grower420]

even if you were to do that, wouldnt you rather have white reflective floors to send the light back to ur plant ratehr than black solar panels absorbing the light?