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"Space buckets" are probably the smallest scale you can easily do. With the red/blue grow LEDs you can get more usable light from a solar panel than straight s
by keenerd 10y ago
"Space buckets" are probably the smallest scale you can easily do. With the red/blue grow LEDs you can get more usable light from a solar panel than straight sunlight can provide.
I've been looking for a change from outdoor gardening and a high density 1 m^2 indoor plot with 100W red/blue LED + 100W panel + automatic watering system sounds like a fun combination. Plus I can finally try growing tropical fruit and vegetables.
- mmastrac 10y ago> With the red/blue grow LEDs you can get more usable light from a solar panel than straight sunlight can provide This is interesting - do you have more information on it?
- keenerd 10y agoI guess I messed up the math the first time around because I'm getting something different this time. * 45% of sunlight is in the photosynthetically active wavelength range * Solar cells are 20% efficient * Red LEDs are 39% efficient and blue LEDs are 35% efficient So no, I was kind of off base there. Straight sunlight is still 6x more energy for plants. But it is close! 40% efficient panels exist and my LEDs efficiency numbers were from 2012 so the gap might be smaller. If you do this calculation yourself, remember to ignore lumens. They are a human perceptual unit and are completely meaningless for plants. Now for human-visible light it is a little different. With the most efficient solar cells and white LEDs we can do better than the sun. (Straight sunlight is 93 lumens per watt. A 40% solar cell and 250 lumen/watt LED outperforms the sun.) Maybe this is what I was thinking of.
- drieddust 10y agoThanks, this look interesting.