They say the panels cost a lot. The start up cost is a lot.
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The panels are cheap compared to the batteries which do need replacing after several years it’s one thing to use for basic house lighting and pumps etc. another animal all together when you start adding in grow lights fans and all the other things on top
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Yep 
. LOL I even looked at the cost of putting up a small windmill … nope 
not with my budget 
Oh, almost forgot my latest brain storm for at least one of my guerilla girls … I have an old wire dog crate to protect at least one plant from local critters in the early stages. Crazy idea but worth a try, I think 
I have seen some pretty nice off grid cabins and such but they don’t use power on the scale we do I guess if you used it to offset house lighting and a few extras would be viable?
Off grid on a level to power a household is ridiculously expensive! Unless of course, you have no power at all. Then I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to make due with a reasonable amount of energy.
If you physically have power at your home, it makes way more sense to do on grid solar. If you’re growing in a couple of tents, you can probably offset cost of grows and maybe a little more for a couple thousand bucks. To run the same amount of energy off grid you’re looking at probably twice the amount of panels depending on average light hours for your region. Twice the inverter, and as @Donaldj pointed out the largest expense would be batteries.
To get a wind turbine worth having it costs a few bucks too. The biggest problem with those is being able to maintain and repair them. Average person isn’t doing that, not as easily as wiping down solar panels anyway. The ones available at big box stores aren’t really going to cut it for much. I think they’re about 400 Watts max, at full wind load. Even at a low price, the cost of all the other stuff would take forever to recoup.
Anything I’m doing off grid will be small tinkering. Even at that, only because I can get a lot of the nickel and dime stuff cheap, free, or I already have it.
But if you live somewhere with reasonable amount of full sun hours, an on grid solar system can pay for itself in relatively no time. Especially if you can get in when there are decent tax credits, and able to do at least some of the installation yourself.
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Yeah that’s my conclusion as well. 
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@dbrn32 my battery gets half way done at about 16 hours. The light is one high which is good. I run it from 9pm to about 1 pm to the next day. I charge it when I go to work and it takes two hours to fully charge. I have a blueberry autoflower in there now and I will update in the next few days:+1:
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Cool, sounds like it should work out then.
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Very nice well done
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Awwww it’s a baby girl 
I keep forgetting to ask you about what nutrients you are going to be using. I have lots of CRS moments 
I found the article on greenhouse light deprivation and have it bookmarked to print out to read.
I’m 90% done setting up for germination & early veg for tomato and photo seeds. I just have to figure out WHEN I can transplant outside in my area. I recv’d my auto seeds this past week and plan on starting some April 1 in the house to move out by end of May 
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@SmoknGranny there’s a nersury in the area that I could go too. They have a awesome greenhouse. There’s a ton of nutrients that they have on their shelves. Right now I’ve just been using water.
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I’ve been waiting for a local nursery to open back up here. I know they carry Thrive, but that’s ALL I can remember . Once I figure out how to use the ph meter I will do a slurry test from the woods area as we have lots of natural lime here. I still need to walk around the east side while the temps are relatively warm but the darn wind almost blows me away!!!
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a better picture You should use grow bags. The last nutrients I remember using was some great organic bone meal product.
You should use grow bags. The last nutrients I remember using was some great organic bone meal product.
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Since ditch weed seems to like the soils in this area I was thinking of transplanting the photos directly into soil in the woods. I’m going to be using cloth pots for the autos in the outdoor greenhouse along with tomatoes and potatoes in cloth bags.
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That sounds great you dig a couple of holes and you’ll be fine.
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Thanks. That’s what I’m planning. I also figured it would be more “natural” looking just in case … although I will still need to protect them somehow from deer 
I may try the human hair trick
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I see a lot of people put up cages and sticks.
There are some non auto strains that they make a (FV) fast verson of, they have very short flower times lile 6wks or 8wks. I am getting ready to try a creammandrine(FV) Maybe a FV or autos would finish up long before the first hunters head out. ??? Last fall we had someone put a tree stand up about 200yrds from one of our guerilla gardens, NOT COOL!
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