Any sparkys in here ?

[Luke Skywalker]

If you use high light transmission materials, yeah, you should be able to get enough light for a plant to grow indoors.... You can get omnidirectional skylights which are a lot smaller than the avg one, just appears to be a small globe on the roof, but this is designed to catch and concentrate sunlight and then put it down into the skylight... you end up with a lot more light than a straight pane...

 

I'm just building a greenhouse/shadehouse/hothouse (all three, I plan on having a lot of orchids and other plants.... hee hee) straight onto the house we'll buy/build, preferably build...

 

Actually we are going to have a large orchid hothouse of sorts built in if we build our own home, probably about 3 or 4 meters on each side and going up to the roof, which will be either those skylights I described or just clear perspex/poly... I'll grow ferns, orchids and bromeliads...amongst other things... a warm, scented paradise to walk into in the middle of winter and enjoy a beautiful breakfast with your family... We'll have a little workstation to look after the plants in there of course, and a small table and chairs for the family....

 

*sigh* One day.

[Mr Nice Guy]

Sounds like a bit of a crazy idea man wouldn't it get a bit loud running a gen 24/7??

 

Anyway I think solar panels are the go can anyone give me some good info costs etc.... For say 5kw

 

Cheers

[white_cluster]

my neighbour has this little gardenshed sized greenhouse made of this shit that look almost totally white on the outside, but on the inside its real bright and totally transparent material, its real thick and looks like perspex but corugated like box cardboard. Fulla flowers though which is a shame, but what is that shit called and how much does it cost???

[Buddy]

Thanks for the input and ideas but Im afraid solar panels in the blue mountains in winter wont supply a constant 5000 watts suitable for hydroponic lighting because of the snow and bad weather....the plants will grow of course but as we all know, light and warmth is the main factor in producing the kind of buds we all strive for so it must be intense and reliable.

Noise isnt a problem, the nearest neighbour is half a Km. away and a generator would only be running for 12 hours through the day because of the grow being SOG.....mothers and clones will be under fluro's and a 250 watt MH at 18-6 in a veg room supplied with power from the house.

[skankmaster]

White Cluster, i think the stuff you are talking about is called corex. Is it really thin? There is some stuff i saw on a home reno. show a few weeks back that was about 1,5 cm's thick and opaque. It was being used as windows in a area that has extreme weather patterns. It was basically made up of hollow square tubes fused together to make a sheet. Idea is that the hollow parts act as double glazing for insulation, it was really bright on the inside of the house but when you looked from outside it just looked like smoked perspex. I cant think of what it was called but it was a sort of polycarbonate sheeting.

[skankmaster]

What about running a low wattage high speed electric motor to the alternator part of a genny? I am not sure what sort of wattage you would use to power a 5kva genny at 3200rpm, but it would be nowhere near running a few thousand watts of lights.

[Buddy]

Yeah, thats another avenue to explore.

I also thought of a high speed steam engine similar to the ones used on boats to generate power. they can be purchased for $3000 odd dollars second hand with boiler......coal is plentiful around here and its free if you know a coal miner who gets a free couple of tonne every month as a perk from his employers......be a bit impractical I think due to the high maintanence.

[Guest reshroomED]

What about running a low wattage high speed electric motor to the alternator part of a genny? I am not sure what sort of wattage you would use to power a 5kva genny at 3200rpm, but it would be nowhere near running a few thousand watts of lights.

Sorry mate, can't be done.

As for solar that would be a *lot* of dollars.

For this situation the genset is the best solution.

 

ed

[skankmaster]

Thanks there Ed.

[skankmaster]

After a cone it sounded like a good idea anyways...