Energy Saving Ideas When Growing

[Keeno]

Energy Saving Ideas When Growing

With energy costs rising and many a grower looking at their setups wondering how to scale back or use less, there's never been a more important time to share ways and ideas of saving some energy while growing.

Share your energy saving ideas below

[IMO]

I’m planning on lots of insulation this autumn, my set up is in will be again in a spare room and I’m going to put some kingspan behind the curtains to insulate the cold window from the room, il also be running the fan on a minimum to keep the heat in the room.

[Keeno]

I’m planning on lots of insulation this autumn, my set up is in will be again in a spare room and I’m going to put some kingspan behind the curtains to insulate the cold window from the room, il also be running the fan on a minimum to keep the heat in the room.

I think insulation will be the unsung hero product of growing moving forward IMO. Nice shout mate.

[IMO]

Here’s a thought I wonder would it be more efficient to have heat matts around or under the pots to keep the root zone warm and then run the room cooler without effecting growth much?

[Keeno]

Here’s a thought I wonder would it be more efficient to have heat matts around or under the pots to keep the root zone warm and then run the room cooler without effecting growth much?

I believe you may be onto something here. Even if heat mats are not up to the job the idea is sound in my bro-science head...

Its not a hidden concept that in full water plants will do very well in not-so-perfect environments, as long as the roots, feed/solution is within range. I remember seeing this in practice in some truly monstrous grows back in the day. As long as the roots were kept at the correct temps then the plants in these grows would be just fine with some very high temps.

Ive been doing something related for the last few grows. Not this one as be fooked if I'm actively cooling with energy costs lol. But as per what you are saying about keeping the cold out. Toward the end of grows, I've been dropping temps very low in the grooms. I've been doing so in a attempt to test if I can retain some of the more volatile terps. I've been funneling the air from my dehumidifier under the canopy, keeping the pots warmer than the environment. My last few grows while doing this have been my best gram per watt conversions by far in 12 years growing. Resin production is also up, although this may be strain-dependent.

My point is that yes, it's an old proven bro-science fact that keeping the roots in ideal conditions will allow the rest of the plants to not be in perfect conditions.

[IMO]

Defo going to put some thought into this for the autumn grow

[bimblebrains]

i'm playing around with light cycles atm with reducing light hours during flower and also the 12 and 1 veg technique...i go more in depth with the details in my latest couple of threads if anyones interested,the flowering cycles i'm still playing with but the veg part is done and proven to work really well and with only 13 hrs lights on per day,so a 5 hr saving on electric just with that,if you wanna see plants vegged like this then see my newest grow diary

[Keeno]

I'll be converting to EC fans as part of my attempt to reduce costs. I've put together some numbers below of AC v EC fans to show you what got me excited about, especially with rising energy costs. Moving from 6 - 8 inch fans.

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6 inch AC fan

Power consumption: 59.6 Watts
Rated air-flow: 428 m3/hour

6 inch high powered AC fan

Power consumption: 109 Watts
Rated air-flow: 720 m3/hour


6 inch EC fan

Power consumption: 42w
Rated air-flow: 560 m3/hr

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8 inch AC fan

Power consumption: 104 Watts
Rated air-flow: 796 m3/hour

8 inch high powered AC fan

Power consumption: 153 Watts
Rated air-flow: 1008 m3/hour


8 inch EC fan

Power consumption: 90w
Rated air-flow: 1230 m3/hr

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Ive listed both high and low power AC fans to give some scope to the most important factor in my changing to EC.

I would say from years on forums that the most commonly used extraction fan size is 6 inch. The 6 inch EC fan is far better than the AC as you can see above. It doesn't move quite as much air as the high powered AC fan, but it runs as a much lower wattage.

I have instead jumped upped to 8 inch EC fans. I only need 6 inch as im sure the vast majority of members here would. But.. by running the 8 inch EC fan at half power you will be moving as much air as the low powered 6 inch AC fan, almost as much as much as the high powered AC fan. All while running at less than both in power draw. You will also have a much quieter system running fans at half power.

I'm doing a full write-up on this once I've got my new ec fans.

[Nom]

My revolution vector runs at 76 watts and pushes 764m/3h unlike ac fans when you dim them they use less electric. So this runs at 20% to 30% on a controller so usually runs at 15 to 23 watts pushing 150 to 230 m3/h. My other fan is an infinity fan does 683 m3/h for 64 watts and is set to run between setting 2 and 3 on a controller giving 136m3/h at 13 watts and 204m3/h for 20 watts. The infinity is good value for money, much better than the revolution vector because of the initial cost. To run the infinity for a year at my max speed (setting 3) would cost roughly 175.2kw/h which at 47p per kw/h is £82.72. For a high powered ac fan since it uses the same amount of leccy whether you dim it or not the cost would be 954.84kw/h costing £448.77 based on the ac fan using 109 watts. A 6 inch infinity costs £120 with a manual controller. And would save £366 a year so would pay for itself in like 4 ish months wtf. Hope i didnt get something wrong but i dont think i did

[Keeno]

Here’s a thought I wonder would it be more efficient to have heat matts around or under the pots to keep the root zone warm and then run the room cooler without effecting growth much?

Dries the pot out though. I found pot on mats means roots won't go down far