How Green Is Your Ganja?

[dxhydro]

I can only speak for myself but I like to believe that the MM community tends to be more environmentally conscious than your average conservative republican. You know, the guys that think global warming is a conspiracy to prevent commerce & coal is clean!

I don't throw car batteries away or dump meth lab chemicals down the drain but I'm not as environmentally friendly as I should be -I try and do my part to leave as small of a footprint on the earth as I can.

BUT: I am a MM smoker and an advocate and member of the MM movement. I have smoked my share of indoor grown ganja.

So I guess I am partially responsible for the BILLIONS OF POUNDS OF CO2 & other pollutants generated by all of the indoor growing!

Every pound of indoor grown marijuana creates about 3000 pounds of CO2 emissions!

Where did I get this number?

One pound takes about 1400Kwh to produce indoors.

That's 4,774,000 BTU's @ 100% efficiency.

Every million BTU's of coal burnt produces 208LB of CO2 (as well as .208LB of Carbon Monoxide, .457LB Nitrogen Oxides, 3LB Sulfer Dioxide & .000016LB of Murcury)!

A typical coal power plant runs at 33% efficiency which increases our actual coal consumption to 14,322,000 BTU's per pound.

14.322MBTU x 208LB CO2= 2979 Pounds of CO2

How much CO2 is that -say, compared to the average car? EVERY FOUR POUNDS OF INDOOR GANJA GROWN EQUALS ONE CAR ON THE ROAD!

The EPA estimates each car is responsible for about 11,450LB of CO2 emissions per year. (12500mi x .96LB/mi)

 

Now I'm thinking that I shouldn't even be writing this because the enemies of our personal freedom (MM Rights) would love to use this data against us dope-smokin' hippies!

 

What can we do?

Better Yeild -I based this info on less than 1LB per light, which is probably average. I know there are people who do better than that but we need to take into account all of the newbies, disease, bugs, interruptions by the pigs (fuzz), etc.

Alternative Energy -I've got some ideas but the upfront cost is high.

Grow Outside - (Solar Energy the natural way. Not too easy in Michigan)

Buy Mexican - The human suffering cost of dealing with the mexican distribution is worse than the CO2

Use LED's -Only if we want little baby-buds (Technology not quite ready for large grow-op's)

Induction or Plasma lighting? -A little more energy efficient from what I understand but cost prohibitive at this time, maybe good for small grow. Can't compete with HID yet.

Buy sustainable energy: Even if we grow in an area where alot of wind energy is sold it still comes back to fossil fuel replacing what we use unless we make the energy off the grid by wind, solar or BEST YET: Biofuel or Ethanol (but here comes the upfront cost)

In My Opnion the best choice would be to invest in a 15 or 30Kw microturbine set up to run on BioDiesel; capture the heat exhaust to heat a building or home in the winter and cool the building or home (and grow-op) in the summer via an absorption chiller. This would even be a good plan if you had to run on LP or Natural gas becaues the efficiency is up around 87% if you are using CCHP (cooling, heat & power). The turbines are only like 33% efficient if you don't use the heat energy. You could also use the reduced amount of CO2 emissions for the grow.

This, of course would be more suited to a halfway large grow -At least 12Kw of lights up to the Mw level (larger, 60Kw+ is more efficient).

 

Any other ideas to reduce the carbon footprint of indoor growing?

When I started these calculations I had no idea that the CO2 level would be so incredibly high. Think about how many lights are running in the US & Canada! It's got to be in the tens of millions!

Also think about how many 1000w street lights there are illuminating empty parking lots & how much power your local wal-mart burns (although I do believe that wal mart has recently done some multi-million dollar solar installations). I don't care how clean the Newt-Man thinks coal is -It's not clean at all. The regualtions are causing a reduction in emissions BUT the same people who say it's "clean" are the ones who want to abolish the EPA! I can think of other three-letter government agencies I'd like to see abolished (Let's start with the DEA, the CIA...

 

DX

[Zombiefied]

How much CO2 does the plant breath in, and how much O2 does it make? That might factor in just a wee bit to make the number a little lower. The best way to do it (expensive way...lol) is to use a combination of wind, solar, geothermal energy, and bio fuel. If your right next to a river might as well include hydro energy too.

[GanjaWarrior]

wow, pure craziness....im a conservative republican who cares more about the environment than a drug war liberal .now be sure to try to devide us with your ignorant political banter....im sure the dems will save the planet and the patients....oh wait they all left us out in the rain didnt they? any reason you cant make this post without the stupid party crap?

[pergamum362]

lol....Thought it was a good read...I think we should focus more on getting rid of our dependency on things like coal and oil as a whole, they're bad for the earth..its where we all live, its where our children will live, there children etc...but once again money prevents something that benefits everyone...political parties..lol who the hell cares

[tooldini]

I would like to have some wind turbines to power my lights, that would be great but expensive I am sure.

[curegiver]

I do believe humans have affected the climate on Earth. However, do not believe your carbon footprint is in any way comparable to corporations. The idea that we citizens should be cautious about our carbon emissions is efff ucking ludicrous.

[Nix]

I just do the best I can. I'm always searching for small and big ways to grow more efficiently. Besides it being good for the Earth, it's a way to save money while producing more. For instance, next grow I will be trying a recycle timer that only turns on a few times per hour instead my current system which runs several pumps 24/7.