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I don’t agree with all you write but I will say I have been thinking about building a solar LED green house with battery pack to run it winter or at night. In s

by 14 5y ago

I don’t agree with all you write but I will say I have been thinking about building a solar LED green house with battery pack to run it winter or at night. In summer just run it off the sun but as winter approaches fire up a LED grow light for extra light hours. Then I could cut my cost of food a lot but most importantly be resilient to supply chain disruptions.

hattmall 5y ago
I would really like to see some math / data on what amount of power / battery etc you need and what crops to grow and survive off of. Basically how much greenhouse space and electricity do you need per person and what would you be eating. We grow a seasonal garden, much larger than most people I know, about 3 acres and we don't keep tedious records or really optimize it but it seems like it would fall far short of being enough food to live off of.
- howLongHowLong 5y ago
  3 acres could definitely provide one with most enough to live on if one keeps animals, preserves surplus, and expands their definition of seasonal. "Four-Season Gardening" by Elliot Coleman, a great book on the subject, shows a green house strategy that involves no added energy (in Maine, no less). I imagine thoughtful addition of active control could improve output. The hardest part is growing enough protein, which is why livestock is sort of a necessity for subsistence living unless you live someplace with accessible and abundant fish or game. One past solution was collectively owned and worked acreage devoted to beans, milk or similar, though I suppose it could be argued that leads us back here, eventually, once someone gets the idea to sell the surplus of that. (It did once, already) TL;DR Check out "Four-season Gardening" by Elliot Coleman for interesting ideas on expanding your growing season without adding electricity
- dpflug 5y ago
  Just to map out the problem space: https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Calories_per_acre_for_various_foods/ https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Calories_per_acre_for_vari... https://www.quora.com/What-crop-including-tree-crops-produces-the-most-calories-per-acre https://www.quora.com/What-crop-including-tree-crops-produce... Most peoples' gardens aren't exclusively growing staple crops, so some land would need to be set aside for nutritional completeness. Calories/acre isn't a complete picture; root vegetables require less processing than grains. In a "collapse of supply chains" situation, that needs to be included. If you're using them to supplement sunlight, the electricity required depends on your local climate, efficiency of your lights, etc. I've found that the most readily available data on that is from marijuana enthusiasts, amusingly.
- 14 5y ago
  Well the LED light I plan to build eventually would use around 560 watts on it's highest setting. Then I would plan my battery storage according to that max number and the max number of hours I would estimate I need to run it at that power. I haven't done the math yet. I don't expect I could completely cover my needs for calories at such a small scale of one light but it could very effectively grow things like peppers and other crops that have really gone up in cost at the grocery store. If done right a light like that could easily grow in a 5'/5' space with things like peppers on the top and more shaded plants below. The goal would be reduce my dependency of the supply chain but in reality would take a lot to get completely off of it. You would need to do a much bigger garden so maybe the led light gets me the head start my plants need to thrive when the sun hours just are not there like early spring then out into the garden when the sun is there into summer. Hope that made sense.

by 14 5y ago

hattmall 5y ago

I would really like to see some math / data on what amount of power / battery etc you need and what crops to grow and survive off of. Basically how much greenhouse space and electricity do you need per person and what would you be eating. We grow a seasonal garden, much larger than most people I know, about 3 acres and we don't keep tedious records or really optimize it but it seems like it would fall far short of being enough food to live off of.

howLongHowLong 5y ago
3 acres could definitely provide one with most enough to live on if one keeps animals, preserves surplus, and expands their definition of seasonal. "Four-Season Gardening" by Elliot Coleman, a great book on the subject, shows a green house strategy that involves no added energy (in Maine, no less). I imagine thoughtful addition of active control could improve output. The hardest part is growing enough protein, which is why livestock is sort of a necessity for subsistence living unless you live someplace with accessible and abundant fish or game. One past solution was collectively owned and worked acreage devoted to beans, milk or similar, though I suppose it could be argued that leads us back here, eventually, once someone gets the idea to sell the surplus of that. (It did once, already) TL;DR Check out "Four-season Gardening" by Elliot Coleman for interesting ideas on expanding your growing season without adding electricity
dpflug 5y ago
Just to map out the problem space: https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Calories_per_acre_for_various_foods/ https://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Calories_per_acre_for_vari... https://www.quora.com/What-crop-including-tree-crops-produces-the-most-calories-per-acre https://www.quora.com/What-crop-including-tree-crops-produce... Most peoples' gardens aren't exclusively growing staple crops, so some land would need to be set aside for nutritional completeness. Calories/acre isn't a complete picture; root vegetables require less processing than grains. In a "collapse of supply chains" situation, that needs to be included. If you're using them to supplement sunlight, the electricity required depends on your local climate, efficiency of your lights, etc. I've found that the most readily available data on that is from marijuana enthusiasts, amusingly.
14 5y ago
Well the LED light I plan to build eventually would use around 560 watts on it's highest setting. Then I would plan my battery storage according to that max number and the max number of hours I would estimate I need to run it at that power. I haven't done the math yet. I don't expect I could completely cover my needs for calories at such a small scale of one light but it could very effectively grow things like peppers and other crops that have really gone up in cost at the grocery store. If done right a light like that could easily grow in a 5'/5' space with things like peppers on the top and more shaded plants below. The goal would be reduce my dependency of the supply chain but in reality would take a lot to get completely off of it. You would need to do a much bigger garden so maybe the led light gets me the head start my plants need to thrive when the sun hours just are not there like early spring then out into the garden when the sun is there into summer. Hope that made sense.