how many panels/watts ect. will i need for 10 medical mj plants?

Well of course solar panels can be used.
The panels are connected to batteries which in turn are turned into AC for home (etc.) use.
There are many good resources out there on the net to make solar collectors.
In the long run it will be cheaper. But the initial set up can be quite pricey at the moment.

Yes and no.

They are expensive to set up and only give off juice in bright light- sunshine or a birght but overcast day. The electrical output is not enough to run large HID lights.

BUT... that being said, solar (photovoltaic) panels ROCK.

Running them into a battery and then running off the battery on an AC inverter is not the efficient way to use a home generator like that; what you would want instead to do is have a professional (either a master electrician who is experienced in wiring a home generation system or someone who does solar exculsively) come in and wire the feed off the panels so that you are feeding back into the grid.

What this means is that your net use of electricity is significantly lowered, and on a bright sunny day when you are not running much in the way of electrical appliances, your meter could actually run BACKWARDS for a credit from the electric company.

Systems like this are not uncommon, but have to be done with safety in mind, as a generator in your home can be dangerous to the linesmen if you were to lose grid power and still be producing your own- there MUST be a main shutoff that diverts your electricity to battery or stops it altogether if there is a grid failure, otherwise the guy up on the pole outside could get zapped.

Also look into wind turbines as a source of electricity.

Edit: Solar collectors and photovoltaic panels are different. A solar collector is a parabolic reflector aimed at a substance with a high capacity for holding heat; water is one liquid that is commonly used but ehh I want to say propylene glycol is the one you'd really want. These don't make electricity (unless you get super fancy and build some crazy steam generator hahaha) but are commonly used for heating, by pumping heated antifreeze solution through a network of tubing set into concrete or tile floors.
Photovoltaic panels are made of silicon crystals, grown over a furnace in tall hexagonal tubes (I've seen this in action, it's the coolest fucking thing ever), then cut into wafers. A seriese of special coatings is then applied to them, containing Nitrogen (n-doped laer) and Phosphoroous (p-doped layer), and somewhere in all this you get free electrons. The movement of electrons is electric current, and the last step is running these wafers through a machine that paints silver electrical contacts onto them.
When the sun hits the panels, it knocks electrons free and they start moving in only one direction (that's why there are 2 layers of coating, they direct the flow of electrons), and the silver connectors pick up the flow. Voila, electricity!

Um I hope that explains a little bit about photovoltaics!

__________________
"Careful what you carry- 'cause the Man is wise- you are still an outlaw in their eyes" -Steely Dan
"Multiple pieces of anecdotal evidence do not equal scientific fact." -Rhizome
"If the Queen Bee ain't happy... the hive isn't happy!"-Dutch Pimp
http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...e-harvest.html<-It's a grow guide! Enjoy!
http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-pro...hy-how-do.html <- all the boring stuff about soil chemistry you never wanted to know
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1837597 <-how to make canna caramels
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1820481 <-illustrated cloning guide permalink
Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.

If you thought of that, you are indeed a great genius Stinky.

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We a have solar hot water heater.
But stinky has the correct info on solar voltaic. It would take a BIG array of photo cells to run even one HID ballast.
The best way to get light from solar power is...
Grow outdoors.

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Get high and do something.
Is My Medicine Legal Yet?
the John Sinclair Radio Show!
Legalize!

Budz4buddy, I applaud you on your environmental and societal conceious!!

That being said, I have a dream house mapped out with solar panels and my secret, weed growin panic room Mmm.. man i wish i made more money...

Another think that must be remembered is the efficiency of this solar panels is not 100% (or even near this).
So, unless you were using them to charge a battery and use this battery to run the lights at night, when the sun were gone, it would be more efficient (and easier) to just put your plants under the sunlight.

__________________
"Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference." Don Juan Matus - Tales of Power

The point is that using them to charge a battery at all is that you lose voltage in the process of charging and discharging- FAR more efficient to just run it through the inverter and right back into the grid.

This isn't actually a concept I came up with; it's a fairly common way to make the absolute most of an expensive investment.

__________________
"Careful what you carry- 'cause the Man is wise- you are still an outlaw in their eyes" -Steely Dan
"Multiple pieces of anecdotal evidence do not equal scientific fact." -Rhizome
"If the Queen Bee ain't happy... the hive isn't happy!"-Dutch Pimp
http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...e-harvest.html<-It's a grow guide! Enjoy!
http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-pro...hy-how-do.html <- all the boring stuff about soil chemistry you never wanted to know
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1837597 <-how to make canna caramels
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1820481 <-illustrated cloning guide permalink
Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.

Thanks everyone for the truly helpful information.

I'll admit,that I'm curious what the aprox. loss % of electrical power, is for the complete cycle of storing solar energy in a battery, then sending the power through a inverter and finally into a light bulb?

__________________
"Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana... We should concentrate on prosecuting the burglars and sexual-predators, whom are a constant and truly loathed menace to society."

wanna help minimalize global warming?

if yes,

trade in your pipes, then vape in tha morning

u can get windmill that powers ur whole house lol for like $40 000

Check out the inexpensive wind turbine generator kits they sell through Northern Tool. I can't post a direct link as it's not really allowed on this site, but you can google the company. I think they are 400w each and pretty reasonably priced.

Edit: Thanks Marquis, I aim to please. And that rhymes too. Well not if you pronounce it right I guess. Shit.

__________________
"Careful what you carry- 'cause the Man is wise- you are still an outlaw in their eyes" -Steely Dan
"Multiple pieces of anecdotal evidence do not equal scientific fact." -Rhizome
"If the Queen Bee ain't happy... the hive isn't happy!"-Dutch Pimp
http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-gro...e-harvest.html<-It's a grow guide! Enjoy!
http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-pro...hy-how-do.html <- all the boring stuff about soil chemistry you never wanted to know
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1837597 <-how to make canna caramels
http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/...ml#post1820481 <-illustrated cloning guide permalink
Contacting Her Dankness: stinkyattic at hushm4il-please use the same discretion you do on the boards, thanks.
I don't claim to know the first thing about growing anything; hell, I can't make a Chia pet sprout.