In my experience you should use DC lights right off the battery. The extra watts that the inverter is consuming means that your inverter is about 50% efficient. When I stopped converting DC to AC just to turn it back into DC I got all my missing power back.

@deepforrestalchemy9189

9 ай бұрын

Absolutely agree.

@sammat1267

9 ай бұрын

What DC lights would you recommend?

@Pneumaticcannon

9 ай бұрын

Not converting to AC will save you overall efficiency. Most inverters themselves are more than 80% efficient.

@dylandesmond

9 ай бұрын

​@@sammat1267led

@blessisrael6455

9 ай бұрын

This is a subject which I’m ignorant in, is there a specific kind of grow light that’s DC, so I know what I’m looking for….

I absolutely love the theme of running into issues. You seem much more trustworthy showing the failures too! It helps me troubleshoot and come up with ideas when I run into problems too. Thanks for showing the issues and your solutions/thoughts!

hmm yes growing plants without the sun using the sun 😂

Pop some real panels up on the roof. The fold out ones are ok for camping and portability but you’ll get much better result with fixed panels. Im leaning towards using it for bubblers when growing outside.

@remka2000

4 ай бұрын

Makes sense. Or just a couple of pumps maybe ?

The power loss is in the change from DC to AC to DC..... Solar and battery are DC... Which is converted to AC for the household plug... Which is then converted back into DC by the power supply for the lights... You should be able to plug the lights directly into the DC outlet on the battery... I will be doing this same.. with 1000 watts of light via 2 x Viparspectra KS5000. My thoughts.... (2) 48 volt, 5kw batteries..... The ks5000 lights are 48 volt... I should be able to get nine hours of 1000 watt draw....

if u put on the sides like a mirror or like a reflektive blanket on the sides so the ligth can bounche around all plants will grow

With solar "off grid" or not dependent on a main source. Your battery needs to be able to run the load for 3 days and the array or solar panels need to be able to charge that on a good day. Dont forget to factor in length of day in all seasons and load variability seasonally. Great video and honest review

@-whackd

9 ай бұрын

My favourite way to grow solar vegetables is to grow them outside

Power factor basically tells you how effecient the load is ( LED light for example). Power factor of 1 means the load is utilizing the power source ( the battery) efficiently. The ideal power factor is 1. The less the number the higher the losses.

@Ultrazaubererger

9 ай бұрын

Low power factor might increase losses in the inverter but not by that much.

Try the system as a flood and drain system with perlite - vermiculite running battery about 5 mins per hour in lights on time and maybe 5 mins per 2-3 hours during lights off time: check moisture levels at end of the off cycle. Extend the lights on to maybe 16 hours per 24hours. Needs some math but may work out!

One more 350W panel would have probably balanced out your power input/output equation.

I've been using a AC200P for two years with no issues. They're a great company. Hope to get a similar system to this up and running in the spring.

Thank you Hoocho.. i always enjoy your content.. and today is no exception... There are a few of us in the cannabis homegrow community that are doing this very same thing... growing with the sun... and batteries..

8:30 The reason the 65 watt light draws 136 watts is because the DC to AC inverter plus the electronics inside the blue eti is using 71 watts. The light itself is only using 65 watts.

I just found your channel two days ago. I am so happy to see the Bluetti AC300 and B300 being used. I have that system but now that I have seen what you’ve experienced I need to buy more solar. I haven’t had a power outage since the purchase but use to experience them at least once if not twice a year. I got it to run my refrigerator and freezer in a power outage as it can handle the surge of power when the motor turns on. You know there is an inexpensive gadget that you can go around your house and plug int each electrical thing you own. It will give you the information for power usage etc and you can put in the cost per watt - it will calculate what it costs to run that appliance for a 24 hour period. This would be useful so you know how many B300 batteries you need and how long they will last without recharging them. I bought the device but haven’t done the data gathering yet. It is winter here and that means no gardening for me for a while. Seed starting next month. I saw in another video of yours the wicking system with the float regulating the water. I would love to build that system. It looks like it could give some freedom in the summer to be able to go away for a few days without having to ask people to stop by and water the garden. Love the idea of saving water by not overwatering and providing the right pH and nutrient levels. I have so much to learn about gardening. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Heya Hoocho, have you ever thought about letting gravity work for you? If you put the reservoir on top (I know counterintuitive with all the weight high up) and have a small stir pump of like 2W in there to keep it constantly fresh, oxiginated and moving, then one BIG pump to pump the water from a low reservoir to a high one in intervals. Then you could save up on power since the flow will be gravity assisted from top to bottom over a constant time and the pump will just need to run to top things off. I hope you will pick up on this project again! Love your videos and greetings from Germany.

I would put that array up on the roof so the dogs wouldn't get tangled, and they would not ever be in the shade.

I've been waiting for someone to use solar for hydro food! Heck ya!

Power factor is a ratio(division) of efficiency, so if your lights use 130w to produce 60w of light, 60/130= 0.46 You pay for 130w, you work with 60w

@Ultrazaubererger

9 ай бұрын

Most residential customers only get billed for real power, not apparent power.

I have been using a small sollar array and battery to run the small 12v pumps for my outdoor hydroponic towers. It allows me to place them and move as needed without worying about running chords or available outlets.

I've got a sun dome setup that opens via a 24hr 240v relay. Grow lights turn on the very second the flaps close.

Double your solar array, simple! (And maybe DiY a better powersupply then the one spiderfarmer sent to get the PF in the high 80's to 90's)

I wonder if you could dim your lights (and thereby reduce their load) in tune with the production from your solar panels. This would have the effect of simulating cloudy days, rainy days, etc. on your indoor garden, which is kinda neat.

An excellent power source to run outdoor hydroponics or aquaponics just run low voltage or 12 volt pumps

hey boss, i hope Bluetti come back to you with options and choices within their range to actually make something like this practical/feasible. you should hit them up for a store and or product tour to share with us, they may even be able to address some of the questions here. id love to run indoor gardens off solar, better for everyone, base load etc etc and the emergency aspect. who doesn't want to support Aussie made where possible. great insight to the issue on the whole, cheers to both parties.

Tip: I set mine up similar using a 2kwh EcoFlow solar backup generator with 400kw worth of panels. One enhancement I made was integrating some smart plugs to make up for drops in efficiency of batteries. Depending on the time of day and the season, I would auto adjust the lights to reflect natural variations and save myself from draining the battery with a higher output than input. Hope this helps😊

@moniquehurley5907

9 ай бұрын

Also add some diamond reflective sheeting around the shelf to maximize light with small lights

@SirChickon

9 ай бұрын

i believe you mean 400watts not kilowatts

Nice 1 Mr Hoocho. Don`t forget the fridge & kegulator as the house loads. Would nt want a warm beer

@Hoocho

9 ай бұрын

Priorities

Now you can charge of your gas. You would have to use a pot to protect from the flame

I found I have a 12v ebb and flow started on bell siphon ended up going onto pump control due to power draw I’d imagine same with nft

Welcome to hoocho🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Power factor isn't an issue here. You're probably thinking of general efficiency. 60W lamps are describing output power, where the input power is higher (because no machines are perfectly efficient, these lamps will be generating some heat instead of light)

@Hoocho

9 ай бұрын

The watt draw is 65 watts measured at the the PowerPoint on the front of the device with a 3rd party watt meter

@Ultrazaubererger

9 ай бұрын

60W is probably the "LED-Power", the 5W extra is the power supply. (In reality it's probably more like 55W LED, 10 power supply) Of those 60W (55W), more than half will be turned to heat by the LEDs.

It's actually easy and you're gonna like this people use the mug of beer example: the entire mug of beer is how much total power is consumed. But, some of it is foam, and the rest is drinkable beer. You see electrical loads do not deliver 100% work for the amount of power consumed. Some of the power is used up in the process of doing work, therefore "wasted" , aka foam. So the power factor is just the proportion of useful power consumed to total power consumed.

@patricklantz9208

10 ай бұрын

Love the show. I'm hooked,I want to do this. Anyone recommend a farm i can learn at in usa?

@Hoocho

10 ай бұрын

What I don’t understand is how the measured “watts” can be different to total power consumed. Apparently power factor isn’t measured for residential power… does that mean you’re sneaking extra power through your meter?

@Magrath

10 ай бұрын

Technically yes. I've been told the utility companies don't like that and may come after you for it. Industrial plants will have capacitors to offset the motors (inductors) to balance their power factor. As residential it's probably nothing to worry about since you're such a small fish. I don't even know how they would know. @@Hoocho

Power Factor There are three different types of power. There is real power measured in watts (w), reactive power measure in volt amp reactive (var) and apparent power measured in volt amp (va). To visualise this we can use a power factor triangle or use the beer analogy (google it for a cool diagram). Real power is a purely resitive load (think the liquid beer), reactive power is the power consumed by a capacitive / inductive element of a load (think the foam on top of the beer). Apparent power is a measure of both the real and reactive power combined (think the whole glass of beer with the liquid and foam). Now reactive power is related to power factor. A purely resitive load would have power factor of 1, meaning would get all beer and no foam in the glass. A power factor of 0 would mean you'd have all foam and no beer in the glass. Reactive power can be thought of electrical energy bouncing around in side a circuit not doing useful work. So if the spider farmer light has a low power factor (think hootcho ment low when he said high power factor) then there will be some electrical energy bouncing around inside not doing useful work (aka not turning into light). Hootcho, is the Bluetti displaying power in watts or var? What is the power meter displaying in ? Some other contributing factors play apart in overall efficiency these include but not limited too: Inverter losses in the Bluetti power pack turning DC into AC. Losses from the power supply in the LED light turning from AC back to DC. Losses in the LED diodes themselves. Losses in the actual cabling and wiring.

Awesome this is what I am currently doing

Those SF600s measured was the 3 together that’s why they measured so much higher than the actual draw per light.

Great to see someone who had the same idea as me, i literally bought 1.8kw worth of solar panels for $650, rails for $350 and now powering my entire set up with bluetti with 2 additional batteries and I have too much surcharge since it's summer now in qld

Here's a rabbit hole I live in zone 4 so I've turned my 1st floor northern facing apartment closet in to a dwc garden I've been trying cut the energy bill could you mount the solar panels behind the system using the 3 spiderfarm light (on grid) to charge the battery bank to run other things that run 24/7

I love the idea of testing this. Of course it make no economic sense used in this way, however if you were to use it in conjunction with natural lighting , say in a greenhouse, then you could supplement the light or extend the number of hours the plant gets light. Anyways thanks for taking us though this so we could see before spending any cash on a similar setup.

You need proper panels on your roof, 1000w worth. You only get 8 hours of good light per day, and the first 2 hours and last 2 hours are not going to pull full ampage, so 1000w of panels can reliably give you 5kw or 6kw per day reliably, you have 6kw of battery so you can fill it on a sunny day with a 1kw solar array, but rainy days exist, so you need 2kw solar array at least for this setup.. And even then if it rains for 2 days in a row it will run the batteries dead in 20hrs, so you get 2 days power for the system if it only runs 10 hours per day, not including the pump that needs to be on 24/7

I think the right way to go is to get solar panels for the roof of your house and get enough to run your whole house. I personally wouldn’t be happy unless I got at least 10kW, preferably 20kW. Solar panels+batteries is a financial commitment, so you want to do it when your country+state is giving you financial incentives to do so and you still realize it will take time to make your money back. And me personally, when I do it, I want to do it all myself. I’ve seen way too many horror stories of people spending $50K, only to get a system that either woefully underperforms and doesn’t work at all. Or things break and the company goes out of business and you’re screwed. Translation: you need to truly educate yourself and know what you’re getting yourself into before doing it.

A very simple explanation for power factor: The load draws power in a weird way (at the wrong time in the sinewave, but you can ignore that). In this case it is not a problem as long as you just connect a few of those lights. The number shown by the plug-in meter is accurate for energy used. Your inverter shows apparent power* which is the number the boost circuit cares about. If it goes up the load on the boost circuit goes up. Your plug-in meter shows real power, which is the number the battery cares about. If it goes up your battery will drain faster. *or something close to it, either on purpose or by cheaping out on the sensor.

Welcome to hoocho😍😍😍

Great watch

I've been thinking this system may be useful in northern climates that get little sunlight in the winter. Combine this with a passive solar greenhouse. During the day when the sun is out the lights are off and the batteries are charging. During the night when the blanket is down, the lights are on the push the DLI to the optimal amount. It will also provide heat to the greenhouse to keep the temperature up.

maybe a dimmable LED with a better efficacy rating would help? You could at least reduce the power draw if the sun's not playing ball. Also noticed the leads from the solar panel going to the bluetti means the door has to remain a bit open, potentially leading to bug invasion. I'd be interested to see a solution to this, fingers crossed without drilling holes into the house for those of us renting.

@eddieyu80

9 ай бұрын

The LED driver IC is key. Many cheap IC using PWM mode to power LED, which is bad for plant. Plannnnnnt does not evolve to such sun that blinking. Constant current LED driver is better and bring better yield of crop under same power comsumption. (This is proved by many theses papers already.) Besides, Hoocho just needs a cheap power management device to save power furing the night. Many Arduino garden DIY projects can help. (Many YT videos are available.) Last, Hoocho lives in Australia, a sunny country. LED is better for sun light supplement since he has a large DIY green house.

@Jon-yh3gb

9 ай бұрын

What I did was cut a solar cable sized hole into a pice of wood long enough to span my window. This let the window close (sealing against the wood instead of the normal windowsill) I referred to it as my acme portable hole since it's only in use when the power is knocked out. Also have to pop out the screen, for a permanent installation, I'd suggest poking a hole in the screen for the wire and seal around the wire with duct tape or caulk.

So with your hydroponic do you use all leafy greens or any other leafy greens besides lettuce? I was thinking spinach kale something that doesn't get too big but I could cut it down to manage thanks I am also thinking you could do herbs as well With this system? I would have to set this up in my garage and most likely use heating pads for winter time.Thank you

Love your work mate 👍🍻

You need to get yourself a BioLite and a bag of hardwood pellets from Bunnings mate. Absolute wonderful power backup for your phone and you can boil a cuppa while your at it🤘

Hoocho, Power factor of 1.0 (100%) is of a purely resistive load. When you start introducing digital electronic power supplies (that are cost effective): they cause a delay in power usage. Think about a motor and how it draws a high amperage at the beginning: same idea. Electronic components take time to charge and the power used wont be at the peak of the AC spike, but when the AC is crossing the zero point (thus causing a high amp draw, skewing the power factor.) AC crosses 0v (50 times per second for you), and goes up to ~339v (at the very peak of the wave): even though you call it 220/240v. Ideally devices would only use power when it's available and everything would have a nice power factor. P.S. you can buy power factor correcting devices, they will store the power and "sync" up to the supply to create a 1.0 PF.

Hooch, do you get much algae build up if you leave the holes uncovered or not because it's flowing?

what about solar on your roof? Also thanks for using and showing us during a power outage...

I love this, so fun an interesting. I did this build many months ago, based on the first version. I get alot of algae build-up though :( IDK how to fix that. Love the content!

@shinybulbasaur8692

9 ай бұрын

Cover everything that doesn't need the light with reflective material that's the only way but at least it's easy to clean off compared to a aquarium

@phillips33223

9 ай бұрын

@@shinybulbasaur8692 cleaing out those pvc pipes was a pita, probably cause I sealed everything. Since they are round..maybe covering them with just aluminum foil would be ok?

If you really want to bake your noodle look up AC Phasor diagrams... Inductive, capacitive and resistive loads... oh my... kW, VA, VAR etc...

@asimbamedhaf5223

9 ай бұрын

No thanks, my university days studying that shite are over 😅

How does the Output of power supply to the lights read? 24v? I know they are spider farmer... Yup, let me know what the output of the brick is please and thank you.

@Hoocho

10 ай бұрын

These panels are weird, I remember the actual PCB runs on ac power. Which is stepped down with a brick. I’ll have a look when I get home and get back to you.

Downvote was for 'it is what it is' and 'LCD display'.

And they are quiet, unlike a noisy generator…

WooooooWWWWW!!! That was a crap tone of sugar!

@jakoblarok

9 ай бұрын

Oops... sorry. I habitually replied to the video because KZread recently disabled adblocker addons; and upon realizing that i was inadvertently using the adblock on KZread (just never thought about it, because ads are so hit or miss, there - even with an adblocker) i resolved to try to watch non-scammy ads (scammy: freemium mobile games, fake diet drugs, matchmaking schemes, など)..．but i was watching a soy sauce ad as a replay from an NHK "cooking segment" (the NHK being chock-full of paid promotion and ads that pretend to be content; because (at least according to the unsophisticated advertising of Japanese companies) Japanese people still haven't developed the deep cynicism to product marketing that western countries (esp. the US) have. Then again, it's not like everyone I know here is rushing out to blow their money on diet pills and mobile games and Kikkomen 醤油、just because they advertised on KZreadz, so who knows??? Also, just to note - the recipe that they long-formed down my eyeballz did include them dumping a third of a cup of straight-white refined sugar into the dashi broth, which should come as no surprise to anyone that loves the taste of "traditional Japanese food", as they had it in Japan. Tons of sugar and salt. Still, at least it's safer to eat than ingredients that come from the toxic land of mainland china, where every creek and river is full of literal poison... Gods Bless Japan, and Gods Bless the Modernizing Nations

The title should read How to grow $20/head lettuce with the Sun.

@Hoocho

10 ай бұрын

Oh man, it would be more like $100 a head hahahah

The Bluetti system is very nice, but at that price tag its just not affordable, and not great for grow lights.

🍺🍺

Why is everyone growing lettuce? It’s the least nutritious thing there is - can you survive on lettuce? Is the system going to pay for itself?

Oh, here we go, right? We've got this bloke, right, who's doing all this over-engineering stuff, using fancy gadgets to mimic what Mother Nature dishes out for free! I mean, it's like buying a GPS to find your way from the bedroom to the kitchen. "Oi, just use the window, mate!" I get tech, you know, when it's really pushing the envelope, making life better, or just inventing something new and exciting. But this? We're way off the mark here. It's like using a rocket ship to get to the corner shop - a bit of overkill, isn't it?

@Hoocho

9 ай бұрын

Yeah, but it’s kinda fun right.

@Jon-yh3gb

9 ай бұрын

​@@Hoochocould use natural lighting if outdoors and have the solar provide just the fertigation, or pump air in dwc. Though outdoor wicking looks like optimal off-grid (in warm enough climates) I would guess places where it's too cold for lettuce to grow outside also are not ideal for PV solar arrays or batteries. Fun (and because of loosing power during storms) was enough motivation for me to build a diy equivalent to that bluetti system. Smaller battery, but more panels and lower cost. My salad shelf was also an expirament but I 3d printed a flood and drain system (figured intermittent pumping would use less power than nft) worked well enough until roots clogged the drain, drying & ruining the pump. :'(

Although I like the idea, this is insane. Just think about all the stuff that needs to happen to build that setup, all the factories involved, the extraction, the manufacturing, transportation of the raw materials. Probably with stuff from all over the globe, and in end the result still does not live up to the simple idea of placing plants in the sun DIRECTLY. And for what, to grow some salad? Pure fugging insanity ...

Chemical-laiden, toxic simulated “food” with heavy metals. Congratulations. At least you got the best-looking tub possible.

@stambo1983

9 ай бұрын

You know food is made of chemicals?

6.5 minutes before revealing that this video is an ad? weak.

@Hoocho

9 ай бұрын

It’s literally the first scene on the video…

@jeremiahbullfrog9288

9 ай бұрын

@@Hoocho Thank you, i must have gotten distracted. I apologize for the negative comment.

@Hoocho

9 ай бұрын

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 😂 no worries

@timpage5021

9 ай бұрын

It’s a grow review. Nothing wrong with doing a bit of marketing especially when you’re using the product in real world applications Would you prefer to just go buy something cuz the manufacturer said it was worth it or see said product in real world applications?

@jeremiahbullfrog9288

9 ай бұрын

@@timpage5021 Yes i had missed the upfront disclosure and have apologized to the creator. I have no problem with any of this. I made a mistake. Certain channels try to hide their potential bias; this channel is not one of those. Have a great day.

Hahaha, how ironic, but for things you can better grow inside it is a nice concept.