Today i went to home depot and got one of those kill-a-watt meters. I've always wondered how much actual electricity my grow setup uses. I was shocked to find I'm running 700W in CFL's!!!! In my veg cabinet i currently have, 3 X 42w, 1 X 55W, 1 X 40W, and 1 X 23W. So i should have about 250W of cfl's give of take a few watts. But for some reason they add up to 700W!!! I tested a few bulbs individually and the 23W actually uses over 50w, and the 55W is about 150W of actual usage.... Tested my 250W HPS and it was about 280-300 during warm up then stabilized at 255W. So now i'm thinking screw CFL's and getting a couple 100-150W MH setups for my veg cabinet. I'm curious if the 4ft flourescent fixtures run at they're actual rated wattage. Sad part is, with the 18W and 9W air pump, dual 6" fans, single 6" 250cfm exhaust fan, and 400W HPS, my whole flowering tent uses less electricity then the CFL's alone! Thoughts?
Bump, no one cares they're wasting money on CFL's? I've had the meter plugged into the 55w CFL overnight and it now reads 147w as opposed to the 165w+ it was reading yesterday.
Well a CFL if you cracked it open is a bulb filled with gas attached to a tiny circuit card. Things happen at factories. I would wager that you got the odd ball CFL out of the bunch. That would probably be considered a defect since its out of spec. Perhaps your kill-watt is wrong. Sounds like a quirky situation.
I thought the same thing too. Tested many other household items and other grow stuff everything but the CFL's run either at or within 10% of the rated wattage. This makes me think theres nothing wrong with the meter. I've since tested over 10 different CFL bulbs of all different wattages and every single one ran over double the rated wattage.
Well i never had that issue. Consider yourself hitting the jackpot of more light per dollar! Most people look all over for high powered CFLs...they can be hard to find and you have a bunch.
CFLs are just wrong for a grow.. HID and remote the ballast from the grow.. best light for the KWs used by far and the best for remoting the ballast .. you can remote T5s but the cost is killer .. you wind up building a 20 lamp tanning bed drawing 30 amps .. :-D
You shouldn't make statements like that... Am i supossed to put an HID lamp over my clones? how bout my day old seedlings? I use cfl's because they're compact and provide just enough light to my young plants without burning my clones and seedlings. If these bulbs are actually producing additional light then i would have no problem, i would just run half the bulbs i'm running now. Maybe i'll have to borrow the par meter from my reef club and test the actual light output, and compare it to my hid's.
I thought cfls would be cheaper on my light bill. Even my electricity provider sent free cfl earth friendly bulbs or something to save more money
Hid is fine for seedlings and cuttings as long as heat is under control. T5 floros are great for little ones though. Cfl works, but I wouldn't recommended it to anyone unless they just don't have the money to get something better.
How did you actually check the watts of these CFL's, walk us thru it or pix, as you may be onto something here ....BIGTIME!! What brands have you tested..?
pics... good idea! So i did some more testing, all different wattages and a few different manufacturers. ALL run way over "rated" wattage. All the bulbs tested were allowed to warm up, this was very easy to see on the meter. The wattage would rise steadily during warm up, would level off at a high point for a few seconds then drop back down before leveling off again. The results below are taken after the warm up period when the wattage has dropped back down to "operating" watts. 1st pair of pics are: Ecosmart 23W cfl Model# edxo-23 120V 60hz 23w .380A Test results: 76watts 2nd pair of pics: Sylvania 40W cfl Model# cf40el/twist 120v 60hz 40w .6A Test results: 140watts 3rd pair of pics: Ecosmart 42W cfl (brand new) Model# 28942bd 120v 60hz 42w .7A Test results: 156watts 4th pair of pics: Maxlite 18W cfl (brand new) Model# max9887-1209 120v 50/60hz 18w .3A Test results: 50watts 5th pair of pics: 65W halogen floodlight Test results: 65watts
I think I found the answer to your issue. May or not me true. You are not using the Kill-a-Watt as you described it but a AmWatt. Apparently those have a hard time measuring wattage from CFLs because of how there designed. This is a actual kill-a-watt Amazon.com: P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor: Home Improvement 1&keywords=kill+a+watt Anyhow basically your Amwatt meter from reading many review of it can not measure amperage below a certain threshold. Its not a good device apparently for it. Your Power Measuring tool apparently can not see amps below 1 amps. Most CFLs also pulse there current and the Amwatt can not measure accurately current that is pulsed more then 2 times a second. Your 150 watt CFL should show up on it since its drawing 1.25 amps if my math is correct since watts = amps x volts. Your lesser ones wont even show up on it, but since CFL's pulse there power very rapidly your device will give you a strange reading. What you bought is designed to measure current that flows at a constant level. The device you have also says it measures 1-15 amps 125 watts to 1875 watts. Putting in less then what is recommended probably is what is giving you inaccurate results. Devices like that rely on the sensitivity of the processors in it. The actual brand name Kill-a-watt might not be able to measure it either do to most of those cheap measuring tools have a hard time dealing with tiny loads.
You know what, you may be right, i didnt even realize that. I saw it at home depot and figured it was just a different brand. It's goin back today, i have no use for it if it can't measure the low wattage. It is weird how it will measure almost everything else but the cfl's accurately. It must have to do with that pulse thing you mentioned.
Also your CFLs doindeed suck more juice then there rated as there is no regulatory requirement on the packaging. Power is measured in a quirky way. Energy companies send out volt amperes of power, but you pay as a consumer for watt hours. Not all devices measure or use power the same. Its technical but its called a Power Factor. You can measure power in a couple of ways. Volts x Amps = power in watts. You can throw in a value that includes Power Factor so a device that say reads 100 watts can measure only 50 watts if the reading includes a power factor of .50. Power factor is the relationship of voltage waves and current waveform. Basically power factor is what is flowing and what your using. Its expressed as a percentage. So on a electrical system which is your house if the load with low power factor draws more then then whats given the actual device can give a reading that is off. How does any of this maddness apply to you. CFLs use ballasts with low power factors. Why because you and I would be appalled at paying 20 bucks for a CFL when the old style of bulbs cost what 50 cents or less for 1-2 bulbs. There using cheap components. The actual wattage was never a lie but there using more watts then normal but not generating more watts then what it states if that makes sense. Your CFL is not making efficient use of the power that its given and you are charged it since utilities charge in watts used per hour. So if you put any CFL on a power meter say a Fluke you will get more wattage use then what it states it is because of the ineffiecent drivers that are on it distorting power use. Thats why energy companies bill in watt hours not volt amps. All of our consumer devices have varying circuits that all use power at different levels so its easier for them to bill in what your sucking off the grid. Theres no regulatory requirement for them to do other wise so its not illegal. To give you a idea though expensive things say your computer or HVAC or Vaccum cleaner has high power factor circuitry in it. So usually what it states it uses is pretty darn close to what it actually uses. You discovered CFLs dirty secret like many have with LEDs. Most things though outside anything complex use a steady current that is easy to read. Toasters, Washers, Dryers, blow dryers they use a steady rate of power and can be accurately measured. Many other factors go into other devices. Take measuring a computers power use. Well is that with every single port, drive, and a max load on the graphics card and CPU or is it just in idle. You will get radically different measurements in both cases.