how to use the smallest amount of electricity possible ?

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by Mr.Lee, Jan 28, 2010.

  1. I'm thinking of starting a grow but i want to use the least amount of electricity as possible. It's going to be in a closet about 3ftx2ft 3-4 plants max. My bill is already Huge and i dont want to make it THAT much higher.
     
  2. Wrong way to look at it. You are trying to maximize your grow, right? You want the biggest yield, the most potent bud, etc.

    So...any time you ask how to do your grow with the least, the cheapest, the minimum, the smallest, etc you are introducing a self-defeating variable.

    The smallest amount of electricity possible would be to run no lights and no fan. Yes, the plant will die, but you will have met one of your two goals beautifully. That, of course, really isn't what you want or what you're asking. Unfortunately, we can't tell you what the perfect trade-off would be for those two competing goals, only you can determine what is the perfect trade-off for you.

    CFLs can use less electricity, but not always, and using them can affect your yield.

    For your size space and number of plants you could do a 250w HID, an excellent light source that will grow 2-3 plants very well, and that would add perhaps $10 a month to your bill during flower cycle. Now you have something to analyze and consider.
     

  3. I agree with this guy. For real, cfls may be less power hungry, but the trade off is you need to use more of them. For normal lighting they are great because you only need to see by them, you are not a photosynthetic creature so you. Use a higher power HID, it will cost about the same, and provide you with more lumen output for your buck.
     
  4. The 400w HPS light I use stays on for a solid 15 days a months and only impacts my electric bill by $20, but you can get a totally decent harvest of potent bud using only CFLs and/or shop lights (not as big a yield as HID lights obviously but still respectable).

    And since the fluorescent lights produce much much less heat, you may be able to get away with not having a vent fan.
     
  5. thats very true toasty but i was also thinking about heat. with HIDs wouldnt that produce alot of heat in a closet? Im just paranoid that a light will over heat starting a fire in my place killing my dog that stays home while i'm at work :( its pretty scary.
    Your right it wouldnt make THAT much of an impact on my bill but I guess if i just have it well vented with good fans everything should turn out fine... right?
     
  6. You just Blew my mind with that calculator SharplMode ! Thanks for the help! you guys are quick :)
     
  7. Anything to help a fellow grower:D

    Good luck with your grow:smoking:
     
  8. HIDs do run hotter than CFLs, so the challenge is to figure out if and how to handle that heat effectively. You will need to exhaust it to somewhere, you definitely cannot leave running lights of any kind in a closed-in closet and not expect some heat build up.

    The best solution is an air-cooled hood, which runs a separate ventilation path through the light fixture and whisks the heat away, leaving the grow space much cooler.
     
  9. He is right. Heat build up happens, even with CFLS. I am running a small closet with 4-100watt(or 13w eqiv) with a 70watt HPS and I have had major issues with heat. Now note, that this will not start a fire(highest heat I had was 92f) but it will NOT help your plants out any. Just get two small computer fans. One for the intake, and one for the outtake(make sure your out take is twice that of your intake). I only had one for the out take, but once I got the smaller one for the intake(and had this pointed at the lights) the box stays at around 78f.
     

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