So I've had good success growing other kinds of plants indoors under CFL's, but haven't tried cannabis until now. I am an experienced gardener in general. I want to grow these in 30x30x72 spaces, with 2 sets of 2700 lumen, 6500k, 48" fluorescent tubes vertically oriented, on opposite sides. I can't afford HIS or MH electrical bills, but I believe this will work. Please let me know what you think... A few points: The plants will be turned regularly. A light above will be provided when the plants get tall enough to need it. The lights will be changed from 6500k to 2700k at the appropriate time for flowering. The lights will be on a timer, and the time will be changed from 24/24 to 12/12 at the appropriate time. UVB lights may be added for the last couple of weeks. It depends on opinion...
Just so you know it only costs me 20$ a month to run my 600 hps and I save more than that by 100 times by growing my own grass. Also if your already gardening your gonna succeed ganja is no differe t from other plants
Interesting. I was told to expect about $1 of cost per month for every 10 watts of power used on a 24 hour cycle, coming down 25% for an 18/6 cycle, 50% for 12/12, etc... So if I ran an 800 watt hps 24 hrs a day, to figure on about $80 extra on the electric bill... Be nice if I was told wrong...
You were told somewhat correctly. To determine how much something will cost you need to know your kilowatt per hour charge..KWh. Its on your energy bill that you get. If its not a quick google search will tell you what it is. Its Federal Law that they publicly disclose that number. I pay .12 cents per KWh. So a 800w HID light running 24 hours a day would cost me... 800 * 24 = 19,200 watts used a day. Take that multiply it by .12 which is the cost and you get 2.304 dollars a day to run. Now that is running your light 24 hours. Most growers do a 18/6, 20/4 grow cycle in veg then you go to 12/12. Lowering to 18 hours a day of light drops it to 1.73 dollars a day, 20 hours 1.92 dollars per day. Now your example jumps from CFLs which are shitty to a huge number of watts. They sell 250w, 400w, 600w HID lights. Running a 400w HPS 24 hours a day would run you about 1.15 cents a day. So basically 30-40 a month. My whole set up runs about 850 watts if you include my inline fan and other fan in my tent. My cost for my monthly bill never went up. Why? Most hot water heaters are set to high that comprises about 30% of your monthly energy bill actually and there set really high. Turned mine down to 130 degrees, I use all CFLs in my house and only have 1 light on which is whereever I am at. I turned off all my electronics that I do not use on the surge protector. I have a killawatt device that you plug your electronics in and if you have a DVR it uses about 100-150 watts on or off. When you turn off your DVR all your doing is turning off the lights. Its a mini computer that stays on 24 hours a day. Your TV consumes like 10 watts asleep. I leave my AC at 78 or higher when I leave the house. In the past they used to say leave it on since cooling your house when you come home can cost you more to do then keeping it a steady rate. That is false if you live in a newer place. ACs are pretty efficient today. Your refrig uses about 20% of your monthly energy bill. I turned mine up to the highest acceptable level I could. All of that in combo actually lowered my energy bill more then what my set up added. I went to 180-200 a month energy bills to about 90. Thats with my grow tent on. Just a thought Also time your lights on and off period in your tent for the night time. Energy is lower at night. Heres a handy calculator to figure out costs. http://www.citytrf.net/costs_calculator.htm
Interesting info... Our bills are really, really low, so I've hesitated to triple or quadruple them with high energy lights, but I also need to factor everything else in, including the lights I plan to run... I'm not positive, but I think that my costs would amount to around .18-.19 cents per hour. Looking at my bill, I'm not sure they parse out for night-time, daytime. Here's a look: It would have been lower, but I ran the A/C a few days... Delivery charges Basic charge 32 days x $0.02300 $0.74 CARE Energy-Summer Tier 1 (within baseline) 512 kWh x $0.01013 $5.19 Tier 2 (up to 30%) 154 kWh x $0.03148 $4.85 Tier 3 (31% to 100%) 9 kWh x $0.11069 $1.00 A/C cycling discount -$28.80 Generation charges DWR DWR energy credit 675 kWh x -$0.00463 -$3.13 SCE CARE Energy-Summer Tier 1 (within baseline) 512 kWh x $0.07983 $40.87 Energy-Summer Tier 2 (up to 30%) 154 kWh x $0.07983 $12.29 Tier 3 (31% to 100%) 9 kWh x $0.07983 $0.72 Subtotal of your new charges $33.73 State tax 675 kWh x $0.00029 $0.20 Your new charges $33.93
Well 30 dollar bill is a dream without growing so I would say your lucky. My grandmother lives in a state with near the highest per per kilowatt...up in New England. 2 bedroom condo runs her about 300 a month for heat during the winter and thats having it on low and wearing a sweater.
Maybe I'm thinking twelve hours on but I don't think so. I will check my electric bill and see if I can figure the exact number. I was paying 250 a month before growing indoors ten i set up 2 600 watt lamps three fans and a air pump in my water bucket my bill went up to 340 a month with everything running. So I may not know exact but it was much less than I expected