Novel ideas on electricity efficiency

[DragonKilla]

Hey all.

I’d like to start a thread that pools everyone’s cool and novel ideas on electricity efficiency. Maximizing yield per kilowatt hour is my game. I love continually tweaking and improving.

My most recent addition was chrome domes inside 8 inch air-cooled tubes to get the lights really close to the plants without burning them. I have all six lights hung from a customized aluminum frame, these are all run off a single light mover. Flexible 10” ducting at each end never shifts more than 45degrees so it’s set up in a way it will not split or put the mover under undue stress. I have also insulated all the ducting running away from the lamps because I use AC and CO2.

Anyway, love to hear about others' ideas.

 

[YarraSparra]

Cute idea.

The obvious one is lighting, since that’s going to be your main electricity drain. Stick with HPS. If you can afford to, get new globes every 2 crops. The arc tube rapidly loses efficiency. Depending on the type of HPS globe you get will also affect its lifetime. Globes containing more mercury have lower light efficiency, shorter life but better spectrum. Sodium is exhausted in the arc tube and converted to sodium oxide (the oxygen comes from the aluminium oxide tube tube). The phenomenon is known as cycling.

The other thing that can happen is a tiny puncture of the arc tube leaks some of the sodium vapor into the outer vacuum bulb. The sodium condenses and creates a mirror on the outer glass, partially obscuring the arc tube. The lamp often continues operating normally. Much of the light generated is obscured by the sodium coating and no longer leaves the lamp.

YS

 

[Supercharge]

Reflectors are very important too. Do not buy dimpled reflectors. The hype behind them if totally flawed. Dimpling scatters precious light in all directions. If you look at a dimpled reflector and can see tiny points of bright light, that’s photon hitting your eye (or otherwise wall) instead of the plants leaves. The closer the reflector is to the bulb the less distance reflected light has to travel. This involves the inverse square principle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law

 

[neverbreak]

reflectorized lamps are the most efficient reflector u can get - also called chrome domes. never became popular, no idea why - maybe the price. i have used a generic version of the original dutch brand by sunshine systems. unfortunately since they started getting manufactured in china 1 in 5 lamps i buy fails at start up, and others fail within 1 month. very annoyin.

neverbreak

 

[derelict]

i agree, in principle, they are the most efficient lamp, but are fraught with engineering issues. for one thing, the closer the reflector is to the arc tube, the more reflected light slams back into the semi transparent ceramic alumina-oxide case. this hastens it’s half life. the small fold that runs along the axis of the lamp is designed to circumvent this issue, it’s not perfect.

 

[forsaken]

Light movers are an option and generally use only use a couple of watts to power the driver. Although they won’t give you more yield as a function of light output, they can give you a more uniform yield, potentially ameliorating issues of photorespiration. Photorespiration will decrease yield. But this can be avoided by not letting your plants get too close to the light in the first place.

 

[UltraMK]

I think you mean photooxidation?

 

[forsaken]

From Wiki:

Photorespiration (also known as the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle, or C2 photosynthesis) is a process in plant metabolism which attempts to ameliorate the consequences of a wasteful oxygenation reaction by the enzyme RuBisCO. The desired reaction is the addition of carbon dioxide to RuBP (carboxylation), a key step in the Calvin-Benson cycle, however approximately 25% of reactions by RuBisCO instead add oxygen to RuBP (oxygenation), producing a product that cannot be used within the Calvin-Benson cycle. This process reduces efficiency of photosynthesis, potentially reducing photosynthetic output by 25% in C3 plants. involves a complex network of enzyme reactions that exchange metabolites between chloroplasts, leaf peroxisomes and mitochondria. The oxygenation reaction of RuBisCO is a wasteful process because 3-Phosphoglycerate is created at a reduced rate and higher metabolic cost compared with RuBP carboxylase activity. While photorespiratory carbon cycling results in the formation of G3P eventually, there is still a net loss of carbon (around 25% of carbon fixed by photosynthesis is re-released as CO2) and nitrogen, as ammonia. The ammonia must be detoxified at a substantial cost to the cell. Photorespiration also incurs a direct cost of one ATP and one NAD(P)H.

 

[carBon.14]

what kind of system do you have in mind? sog requires horizontal lamps, but you can use horizontally hung lamps to between big plants if that's your style of growing.

 

[Fire Bean]

I think horizontal lamps are an awful waste of electricity. They don’t really have suitable reflectors. That style of growing is better suited to systems where electric consumption is not a problem.

 

[Plasma]

Putting in some CFLs for a bit of side lighting might increase yield to watt ratio marginally.

 

[marz]

If smell is not an issue, dont use a carbon filter because this requires a more powerful fan and sucks more draw.

 

[GoldiNugs]

Haha..when is smell never an issue? Thermal insulation is a must if you want to conserve power in an air-conditioned room. You also need a good AC unit with an inverter. Modern one’s generally have a high efficiency rating.

 

[BeenBurned]

Haha..when is smell never an issue? Thermal insulation is a must if you want to conserve power in an air-conditioned room. You also need a good AC unit with an inverter. Modern one’s generally have a high efficiency rating.

I agree with the insulation tip. After growing in a shite mobil home, then moving to a heavily insulated loft was like night n day. WAY easier to control the seasonal temp swings. Now if you dont have the swings we do here in Wa. well...
life is good :cool:

 

[Plasma]

Mitsubishi ACs are good. Damn pricey though.

 

[Joshy]

I agree thermally insulated rooms are great for AC. Run 14 x 600s in a room of refrigerated panels 2” thick. The only heat transfer is through the floor. Very easy to put together and take apart. I should point out electronic ballasts are more efficient than the old magnetics. If you buy to end lighting gear you’ll make up for the difference in g/watt yield.

 

[YarraSparra]

Thermal insulation is only necessary if you are running AC or a chiller or both. Unfortunately techy systems consume a lot of energy compared to lights and an exhaust fan. The pay off though is higher quality weed.

YS

 

[Fire Bean]

Hmmm…it’s a real tricky one. Say compare two systems, one full tech the other simple, same number of plants, same strain and same available space.


System 1.

8 x 600s on electronic ballasts

UC style with chiller/ air pump/re-circ pump

CO2 + climate controller

Dehumidfiers

AC

Internal oscillating fans

Fan for air cooled tubes

Primary exhaust fan through C-filter


System 2.

8 x 600s same electronic ballasts

Coco run to waste

Internal oscillating fans

Primary exhaust fan through C-filter


I think system 2 could yield as much as system one with the addition of a couple of 600s, and the electricity consumption would probably be equal at that point. BUT - if you were to tweak, like you say, thermally insulate the fuck out of everything, (fridge panel walls, insulate the UC system, all internal ducting etc) so that the AC and chiller barely ever have to turn on - then, efficiency-wise, you may tip the scales in system 1’s favor. And of course, having system 1 is a lot more fun ! ! !

 

[AfricanHaze]

Use mylar on the walls.
Keep lamps free of dust and regularly inspect for defects.
Have a second room for girls in grow ready to be turned in the flower room the day after you harvest.

These are my three pointers for efficiency.

 

[Fire Bean]

Point three is a good one. Easily overlooked, but you never want to have space going unused.