i might be getting a 400w hps system at a pretty low price. How much electricity will i be using, i want big buds, so thats why i want a 400w hps. I dont plan on selling any and just keeping it for personal use, so i wont make any money off of it. Is this too much for 3 plants? if it wont help much, would a 100w hps work for 2 plants(notice i said 2) and will they get big buds if they are both female? if 100w hps works, i'll go for it. but if any larger wattage is needed i would get a 400w hps, since htgsupply prices there complete light setups pretty close for 150w and up. i will be using soil, and it will be in my beautiful closet, except my clothes will make up the majority of the space. thanks.
you better make sure you have a good ventilation system setup first. HPS put out a great deal of heat, which you will need to extract very quickly out of that "beautiful closet" before it burns up your plants. If you LST you could get away with the 150w and produce some pretty good results.
a 400 watt bulb will use 1 kilowatt every 2.5 hours, so on a 24 hour light cycle, you're looking at a little over 9.5 kilowatts per day...plus any fans and such that you have on your garden.