Oh the Electricity Bill

Costs Calculator

Plug in your kwh rate, the wattage you intend to use, and it will show you your costs. Granted, actual kw consumption is likely a little bit higher in practice than whats rated for a bulb.

 

running 600W of CFL's or 600W HPS is still 600W

I run alot more than 600W and my bill is not super high, it is about the same as my friends that have kids and a family. Just as long as you pay your bills on time there should be no problem.

 

Depending on your local rates it might cost something like $20-30 per month. Definitely cheaper than buying your pot at dealer prices in any event.

 

I wouldnt worry about electricity usage unless you have multiple 1000 watt lights. I have multiple computers and a lot of monitors, my kill-a-watts say i pull about 1500w at peak load. I have yet to have the cops bust down my door because i'm playing computer games

I guess its also worth mentioning that my system pulls about 800w when im not home, as I participate in a couple distributed computing networks and I also run a seed box for torrents.

 

Lighting costs should NOT be a prime issue to you....rather location is of major importance, then location would dictate the lights you use.

if you have a closet or grow room, you may seed to veg with T5's add a couple of cfl's
and later bud on 12x12 with hps or natural sunlight.

"V"

 

First for 600watts thats not a issue. The people that get busted are generally those who steal power..which many do..power companies can notice unexpected or unregistered draws. The other way is some fool turns on like 4000 watts or more in lights. The average house in America uses 3-4kw at any given time...pretty considerable amount. If all of a sudden your using like 8kw of energy they can pick up on that. If your never late though with your bill you should never have a issue. Bills are all handled electronically for the most part no one sees them. When your late or dont pay then a human sees it..and thats one way. Some shmuck at the power company in collections sees a 10k load for a house that should be using 3-4.

Some stuff to consider on why 600watts doesnt matter. My Xbox draws depending on model and load up to like 400 watts, my LCD another 200, TivoHD about 75, surround sound system up to 500. So when I flick on my entertainment system I all of a sudden go from no load to over 1000 watts sometimes for many hours.

Take a computer. They have some gaming computers that have over a 1kw power block, through in your speakers and LCD your talking like 1.2-1.5kw.

No one cares about 600 watts.

 

One way to offset your consuption is to change your lights to CFLs. My bathroom had 4 100w bulbs above the sink. Now I have 4 14w bulbs in it. I changed all my bulbs in my house to CFLs lowered the operating temp on my hot water heater, made a concerted effort to leave all lights I am not using off. My energy bill with a 400w HPS on actually went down.

 

I did the same thing with the CFLs and the heater, I know the two girls who live in a condo a few doors down same exact floor space and lay out except I stay cool at 75* and they're at 78* and they actually pay more than I do and im running a 400w flower room and about a 150w veg room not to mention the 51" tv and 3 computers.

 

Very nice. Most do not realize how much power all of our modern devices use. Saw on TV a few months ago that some DVRs use over 100 watts of electricity and since the dam thing never turns off its factor on a energy bill. Some fools sleep with the TV on. Bunch a ways you can save electricity simply turning it all off is the best way..be surprised how much you can save.

At night I actually never have more then one light on lol..just a CFL. Alot keep half there house illuminated..fools.

 

my 600w HPS light makes my electricity bill to go up 50 dollars per month
along with all my fans and what not

 

just get some ac units or a fried heat pump and make it an obvious install (mocked in place) if you make it look functioning then a meter reader wouldnt know better. personally i woulnt give it a second thaught. my 600 with addl 200 in cfls only pushes my power by 40-50 bucks a month. that includes 4 fans, a swamp cooler, an aero cloner, stereo, mini fridge, second bucket cloner and aquarium heater, and air pump and two high volume water pumps. cfl's and 600w hps. i seldom use my metal halides but their there too for a back-up light source or addl veg time. oh and my four bulb t5's at 4 feet long that runs 24/7.
so dont get weirded out, because one person moving into a your ( say a new room mate )dwelling will cost much more than a set-up. my sons chick moved in and started doing laundry, showering and cooking gluten free and my bill jumped about 60 bucks somewhat more than my total medical closet and every appurtenance included. there are so many things that attribute to a power usage increase that only a larger op like 3-4 1000w halides will push it to unreasonable/noticible changes. you can do as much wit cfls alone than many will do with high end equip. so if its a huge worry just do a 50 dollar cfl set-up. two - three simple socket fixtures and some 42-55w cfls at ten bucks per bulb. now qiut spazzing out and go to walmart ang get 3-4 good bulbs and a couple aquarium bulbs for early veg. those little 10w bulbs will take your plants to a foot on 24/7 and then youll get another foot or more of plant stretch during early flowering using the larger cfls with an orange hue rather than the blue hue of the aqua bulbs. to get rolling on seed germing you can use the little blue bulbs also but you want to keep them right down on the seedling or it will leap at the light and stretch so rapidly it will damp off when watered. this happens because the new plant tissue is not yet strong enough to support the new growth above a soggy new stem. once it happens there is no hope for that plant as the cappillaries collaps and no new fluids will travel up the stem.. dont want to be to wordy so ill leave you with that and wish you the best medication ever! -D-

 

i rarely turn on a light in my house cause im a cheap bastard. i use the light from my cell phone to hit the toilet at night.

 

Dropping mad wisdom on your responses. Good stuff.

 

It's a good idea to conserve energy throughout your house whether you grow or not. But to the OP's question, there are lots of legitimate reasons your bill could go up. A small rise in your bill will not raise any suspicisions, and even if it did it would not lead to a conclusion that you are a grower.

 

Hey sorry for intruding, but this had stumped me for a while also, i have a 250w hps setup, plus 6in inline fan(134w),plus small fan inside, and 32in hdtv (222w) occasionally on. .regular ceiling lights barely on for long and my bill hits about between 90-100 n change. Im not sure where everyones located but on my bill i have delivery charge and usage charge so maybe thats it,idk......, and also im not sure what everyones idea of high on a bill is, but in my situation my idea of a high bill is over 150$ but idk maybe im still getting used to having my own spot n comin from not paying electric. I definetly want to get a 400w jus scared its gonna make my bill spike.

Also one more question if you dont mind guys, before my grow<<< (well obviously) i got a simple no name 250w 4in Aircooled hood w digital ballast (i think) package from amazon, came with one each 250w mh/hps bulb, now my question is, in the event i do want to upgrade to a 400w can i jus get a 400w bulb and new ballast and use with my existing hood or would i need to get a whole new setup/package (good one this time) ...and if so does anyone have any recommendation's <<< [WTF wat a word].

Thanks in advance guys.

 

What most people don't realize is that the average computer has a 250-450w power supply (not including your monitor) and that is the LOW end. I seriously have a 1600w PSU and various power hungry gaming paraphernalia to boot. And my girls pc (which I also built) has an 800w psu. With electronics these days no one bothers to pay attention to electric bills so long as they are paid.

Also no one even thinks about the increase of bill from new said electronic doo-dad gadgets. But heaven forbid I pay $20 more a month for NUGGETS!!!

 

You run a large dehumidifier in your basement.

'Nuff said.

 

6-shooters ALL the way dude...most efficient with FAT bud's