I assume the lights are mains driven. However, it would be helpful if I could drive them directly from my solar 12v system without the need for an inverter. Is that possible?
Hi Zwilling49,
Welcome to our community!
Could you specify which device are you most interested in or already have?
All our smart gardens use 12V (except Wall Farm), and they are all mains driven. One of the important parts is the light on-off timer that comes with every device. Furthermore, the electric current should be stable.
Could you elaborate on what do you mean by ‘solar 12v system’? If You have a system with a battery and output voltage of 12V then should be OK. Otherwise, I’d say it is not feasible to connect it directly to the solar panel.
Hope it helps!
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Dear Deborah,
Thank you so much for the response. I’m interested in the Smart Garden 9.
I have solar panels on my garage roof, which charge a pair of batteries via a controller. The batteries give a 12v output. I’d like if possible to drive the grow lights directly from this 12v output. My query, therefore, was if this was going to be possible.
From what you say, my understanding is that, even if I can drive the lights directly in this fashion, I might still have to provide 240v AC for the on-off timer. Is this true?
Many thanks for your attention to this matter.
Best wishes,
Peter
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Oh, SG9 is a really great choice to start your journey.
Directly driving the lights would mean taking cords apart and unfortunately, we can not guarantee the correct functioning of the garden after that. But it would be interesting to see if it works and how it works. I’m not an expert on this topic but I think the timer can be added somewhere between the inverter and the garden.
All the best
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Again, thank you so much for your response. It would seem easier just to use an inverter for both lights and timer.
Best wishes,
Peter
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That brings up the question why there is no barrel plug for the lights? Ēdn for example uses those, which makes it easier (and cheaper) if e.g. a pet bites the cable. With click and grow you would need to replace the whole light fixture which is quiet an bad environmental impact!
Also I wanted to buy an second hand click and grow but buying then from a different country means that people often disposed the right plug and I would need extra adapters I stead of just buying a new transformer. Again quiet a lot of electronic waste that could be avoided.
Given that USB-C can deliver 12v natively…. How about making use of that (or a barrel plug)?