**Electricity in Greenhouse**

Electricity in Greenhouse
Since every new industry provides a vast array of new opportunities and also a number of utilities. Without the right facilities, no industry can grow. When we talk about the cannabis industry, electricity plays a huge role in the production of cannabis. This is especially true for indoor cultivators that sometimes require the A/C, fans and light to operate approximately at 24 hours. However, there are a number of factors that can be considered in order to reduce electricity costs. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore the importance of the electrical role in the cannabis industry.

1. Indoor cultivation:
Electricity plays a major role in the indoor cultivation of cannabis. The structure of indoor facilities of cannabis includes special lighting, air conditioning systems and ventilation so that a good quality cannabis plant is cultivated. The cultivators also grow various variations of the plant for the purpose of medical conditions. Therefore the most important consideration for cultivators in many states is the style of the highest growing cannabis in the available energy as an immense amount of energy is required.

2. Electricity consumption:
The electricity consumed by grow houses is shocking as compared to residential and business use. The consumption of electricity in 2015 was 41,808 kilowatts per hour, this is the consumption of a 500 square foot indoor cannabis facility. This can make you understand that electricity is extremely important for the growth of cannabis.

3. Light intensity:
For the cannabis to grow perfectly and completely, the balanced intensity of light is vital. The grow houses keeps the intensity of light similar to the hospitals, which means that the lights have to be 500 times greater then it is needed for reading. The cannabis facilities also set temperature and fan speed air changes after every 30 hours, which has to be 30 times more than the average home. Other than that, the four play lighting module requires electricity as much as the 29 refrigerators require.

4. Energy costs:
The finished product of cannabis is developed at the energy costs of $2,550 per kilogram or more. You will be amazed to know that the energy require to produce a single marijuana cigarette will be enough to produce 18 pints of beer. These statistics are enough to understand the importance of the electrical role in the production of cannabis.

5. Essential Alternate Back-up system:
Why would we want to use a back-up system for our grow room, you may ask?
Specially in the cannabis industry the important thing is to have a healthy crop and the most important thing is to make sure we are safe from any power outages, after all it’s our huge investment so for that reason and for any successful grower is imperative to utilize some sort of back-up system such as, Solar PV system with battery back-up, Windmill, Proppian Generator, with having an some sort of back up system in grow room we put less stress on electrical panel or constant breakers tripping due to over load and not to mention the massive savings on your electricity bill.

6. Laws:
There are many laws intact in order to provide guidelines on electrical codes. These laws include that the licensed cultivators are not allowed to make material changes in a building that includes installation of electrical fixtures or any other electrical modifications that is done to increase power usage for the purpose of enhancing cultivation abilities.
A bill has also been passed in 2015 that requires the growers to have a permit from the electrical inspector before they start cultivating cannabis in residential buildings.
In addition to that, any company that is producing marijuana by using any kind of solvent which is approved by the division should also comply with all electrical codes.
These codes are established to maintain electricity consumption.

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I agree, there is not enough emphasis put on energy consumption when starting a grow operation. Electricity can be anywhere from 25%-50% of the cost of a harvest. Makes me wonder how anyone sees the viability of growing indoors for commercial cultivation.

Do you have case studies or cite resources for the metrics you mention above? New Frontier Data also put out a great report earlier this year looking at the role of energy in the cannabis industry (attached below). DM me, I’d love to continue picking your brain on the topic!

NFD-TheCannabisEnergyReport2018.pdf (2.0 MB)

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Back in my tiny medical days, straight indoor, my gross grow area was 320sqft, 120sqft of flower canopy, 56sqft of veg canopy and the rest was shelving/storage and work/walk space. My power consumption never exceeded 5,300kwh/mo. The cost of my power per kilo was about $155.30.

I am curious where the 41,808kw per hour is coming from. Did you mean per flower cycle? 41,808kwh would be right about my estimate for 500sqft of canopy over 2 months of flower (including the adjacent veg room).

My power is quite cheap where I live $0.085/kwh.

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I have to question where those numbers on electricity came from because that is not even close to what we use in a facility over 10x the size mentioned and we don’t spend anywhere close to $2550 per kilogram at harvest! We would have been out of business long ago with those numbers! Our monthly electricity bill is around $7000 for a 200 light(1000W ea) facility including all of the other usage besides lighting and we harvest over 80Kg/month. At your calculations that would be over $240,000 a month in electricity. Time to go back to your calculator and seriously check your math. SMH…:crazy_face::clown_face:

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And why did you post this same thing 3 different times?

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@nick and @Growernick , please move this to a new topic of its own good report. But the beginning of this tread is spam.

From the voices in my head Ethan


microturbine basics.pdf (353.5 KB)
On-Site Power Solutions - MBS Engineering.pdf (771.4 KB)

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Great discussion! My company Trym builds farm management software for cannabis cultivators. Within our app you can see how much you spend on labor and energy, down to the $/gram. Prior to founding Trym I spent 10 years in the solar industry, so I’ve got a strong background in energy economics and analytics. Reach out if you’d like to learn more about tracking your production data with Trym.

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