Hey guys, I am using 3 big cfl's right now and it keeps my light bill very low. I'm looking into getting a 300 watt led light. I was wondering if the led will put off a lot more electricity, but do you guys have any idea around how much. Say my light bill is 100 bucks when using my cfl's. How much do you guys think it would go up if I switched to led.
big CFL's...how many watts? A watt is a watt...if you have 200w in actual CFL draw and that 300 only pulls 150w...you'll save money.
I use 3, 68 watt cfl's. That's a real good thing because I need to save some electricity. Thanks buddy I appreciate your reply.
How does that not make it a 150 watt light? Asked because I don't use LEDs, but when I was doing my research to get started, everyone warned me to look at actual wattage when buying lights due to the fact that yield is often described in terms of grams per watt of light.
Example: 300 watt light (100 diodes rated at 3 watts each ) is the maximum rating for all the diodes added together . LEDs are never run at maximum power , as they would wear out rather quickly , so they are driven at half power or less and can last 10 years or more
Rates vary according to where you live, but hubs (a master electrician) says that he would guess maybe $10 at the very most. He says that the CFLs are pulling about an amp each...which is 100 or less watts, so you can add the lights up as far as wattage your pulling now and compare. You can get your info off the ballast...amperage, then covert to watts (volts x amps). It's about the same actually, so your difference should be very minimal. Go for it!! LOL TWW
I use a 220w California Light Works full spectrum lamp, it cost me .03 per day to run 18/6 thats American, no idea out of the US
I went all LED and the power consumption is low, allows for full spectrum light, and my first harvest is some bomb ass shit. Sent from my QTAIR7 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I went all LED. I have about 1100 watts worth of equipment total between lights, pumps, and fans. It raised my electric bill about $50. 2x90watt California lightworks vegmaster 110's for veg in a 4x4. 515watt platinum p900 and 255watt p450 for 4x4 bud room. 300 3 watt led's in the p900. 150 3 watt led's in the p450. Approx $3k for everything 6 bucket DWC, aeroponic cloner and all, 4 lights, tent, fans, ductwork, nutrients.
HPS folks don't like to hear it but quality LED's grow better pot. I've compared the two personally. I have two friends still growing HPS. The LED bud is denser and higher THC. The HPS buds are bigger, fluffier, and weaker. Which one do you want? More crappier bud or less dense, crystally nugs. It's your choice. LED's typically use 30% less nutrients in hydro also.
It pains me to read this. I have four Mars hydro 300 watt panels. I have never tried MH/HPS so I bought a 1,000 watt system. With the Mars hydro light I pulled 2oz per plant with auto flowers. From what I've seen and heard I am probably better off with the HPS/MH combination rather than LEDs. What are your thoughts on this? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
You need to look at the actual draw of the specific light you want to buy. Saying all 300's draw 150w is wrong cause every light is different. My Neosol300 draws 300 for example.
LED's for the most part grow more bud per watt but it would cost you a pretty penny to run 1000watts of led. 1000 watts of HPS is cheap as hell now days. Your experience with LED's is subjective. Those are probably "the" cheapest LED's worth buying. I actually bought one as a gift for a friend. You will get more yield per watt and higher THC from a Cirrus, Amare, California Lightworks, Platinum LED, but it will cost you more buying the lights. Personally if you're limited on initial budget a 1000watt hps/mh setup if you team it up with UVB supplement would be impossible to beat for the price. $222 for a MH/HPS kit with bulb hangers vented hood, everything on amazon, (hydroplanet). It would cost at least $1000 to beat that soundly with LED's unless you build your own. Then the LED price to rape a 1000watt drops to 550-700 range. Of course the LED saves money every month and will eventually pay for itself but you must have the initial investment to get good lights.
I may be wrong but my opinion is the LEDs don't save money. A watt is a watt no matter how you look at it. So, do you think I am better off using 1,000 Watts (actual) worth of Mars hydro light, or the mh/hps? If you ask me I think I will be better off with the mh/hps light than with Mars hydro old model lights. There is so much false information around its hard to believe anything. I do however believe that the more pricey LEDs are better than mh/hps overall. Like I said, in the previous post I have only used LED so far but started a grow with HID system a couple days ago. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Do not forget that an led uses more watts than you think. There is a substantial percentage that is eaten by the board. So your 300w light pushing at half power will output 150w of light but your actual draw would be closer to 200w. I run 3 x 400w hps rooms with 75-100w of fans in each 12/12 room. I also have a 300w floro veg at 24/7.. There is also an ac unit running to keep the heat under control about 8 months of the year. My bill maxes out at about 250$ a month. I'm down to one room until after harvest season plus my 300w veg and ac unit and it dropped to 150$. It's been a while since I didn't have a grow at all so as an estimation my base bill is roughly 100$. I know every 400w room I add ads roughly $50 to my monthly bill although a 400 watt room is actually consuming closer to 700 Watts when you add in the fans and other small equipment needed. Sent from my SM-G900V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Wow man, that sounds like a just completely awesome setup. Those California led's are expensive aren't the? How much did you pay for yours? You are going to be growing some great plants. How many plants were you planning on growing and do you grow an auto's?
I would think using an hps would grow the plants faster and that's my main concern when growing. The big thing is the heat. HPS lights put out a lot of heat. Way more than an led. You would have to have a pretty big space and good ventilation. I can't say much about led's because I never grew with one. The led's might grow the plant faster but the buds you get after you harvest will be different between led and hps. I believe if you use hps the buds come out more dense and might be more potent. I'm not an expert though.
A watt is a watt, you pay "x" amount per watt used. It really is as simple as that. I pay £0.13 per kWh. So if I were to run your 3x 68w CFLs (204w) for an hour, it would cost me just under £0.03. Which is £0.64 per 24 hour day. Whatever the LED wattage is, just multiply that by your kWh cost (1000w in 1kW) and you will see how much it costs to run that wattage per hour Why would you need to save some electricity when using just 200 watts? That's nothing. A washing machine, dryer, toaster, kettle, all run at around 2000-3000 watts each