Aloha my Growmies , i decided to start this topic for various reasons, some people with limited resources, prople who want to run a grow out of solar power ( i will get some vids about some custum builds from a guy who did a lot and help in maria catastrophe in Puerto Rico )
Another ones.living in places where power cost is high and heat too, islanders and coast grow and sea level altitudes.
I have notice to have success dont need the most expensive powerful Led ot prefered light source
All info is welcome Mahalo Nui Loa
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i work in the battery industry, i get why 18650s are popular, but if your going to run solar, i suggest looking into golf cart batteries. there lead acid, deep cycle, and heavy as hell, but your not going to be moving them around (preferably) so weight is moot (imo)
they are 6 volt, but run them in series and your talking way more amp hours of run time than you would have with li-ion.
li-ion also has the problem of requiring special charging circuits, standard chargers will either over charge or undercharge, and balancing the packs can be a nightmare. but with lead acid, a standard 12v batt float charger or solar charger is plug and play.
if you have boxes of tested and rated 18650s, and the ability to weld them then by all means, use them. PLEASE dont solder li-ion batteries, not only does the void every warranty that i know of, you can overheat the cell and have a runaway cell (ie fire)
i have 2 military tank batteries the nearby military base was scrapping so i reconditioned the batteries and took them home. dude, i run my tv, laptop, modem, stereo and room lights for 2 days on my setup should i lose power (often during the winter)
if you have any questions about batteries, charging, and set ups ask and ill be happy to help any way i can.
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You should set up a thread about this.
We are all looking for ways to beat “the man”.
99%
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They have started to make Ion cell MC batterys, that are fairly cheap and they offer a good capacity for the price.
The 18650’s are great for small hobby packs, but they are also well known for having fails. And if you have a few cell’s die in a large pack, you will spend a lot of time debugging and replacing. Specially with a large pack, thats been taped up like that.
I was planning to build a 18650 battery pack for my 26ft sailboat, but my mate who import and sell these batterys. Highly recomended med not to, and go with the MC Ion batterys. As he said, for anything that don’t have to be super compact, special “fit” or take flight.
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Unless you can involve the sun, maybe solar tubes or something you need to keep the space small as in micro grow. A few of us had out eyes opened by what can be achieved with LED’s and very little power in a small space. Maybe check out @Mr.Sparkle among others on here.
A pair of these wired in series with a cheap DC driver could probably run 2 solstrips for a couple of days.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-130AH-130-AH-Leisure-Battery-DEEP-CYCLE-Motorhome-Caravan-Campervan-/112427659033
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I have considered different power options a while back.
If and when possible… utilize both wind and sun power to supplement each other and minimize need for batteries.
There is a ~10% loss while power goes into batteries and another 10% when it comes out.
heat can be stored for some hours… pure electricity for lights etc is more difficult and deep cycle batteries are generally the only option. that being said … even low power setup will require lot of batteries… remember… never a good thing to drain batteries near empty or empty.
IF you wish to have full power at high % of time… aggregator in needed as a backup.
IF you can accept period of low light … build your setup with two light setups. Full power … runs both lights setups 1 and 2. 1 is 250w and 2 is 20w. 2 is just the 20w lights.
Idea is to keep light cycle constant throughout power outage periods.
How much w is the power out light… that depends on you, your situation, your funds and your desires.
i specialize in resolving the unusual … for more … pm me.
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