electricity bill???? thinking about switching from cfl to MH

hey, im just wondering if anyone out there can tell me if there is a difference on your electric bill when you switch from a cfl setup to mh. Right now im running a 2x48" grolux flo's for veggin, and 4 26watt cfl's and 2 24" grolux for flowering. The reason im wondering is cause i rent my house and its come heated and with elec. Im just nervous my landlord might catch on to the fact i'm growing.

i really dont think that is enough juice i am pretty sure i read eariler that a computer takes up more not positive though. i have a bunch of cfl's in my closet and my dad hasent said a thing about the light bill.

yeah i had a bunch of cfl's too, but i was in soil, i ]m thinking of switching to hydro with a 400watt flowering bulb, id really rather be safe than sorry. and since with one 400watt i could grow about 4 plants, rather than the one plant setup i have now.
anyone have any insight about this????

wattage of your bulb divided by 1000 multiply that by the price per KWH.
Then multiply that by amount of time you plan on using it.

This will get you a ball park idea. But you have to account for all the items consuming power. This included your ballast too which will draw a bit more than what it puts out at the bulb.

if you havent already, replace your house bulbs with your cfls and practice energy conserving habits and your bill will probably go down, even with the mh/hydro setup

acidwarp said:

hey, im just wondering if anyone out there can tell me if there is a difference on your electric bill when you switch from a cfl setup to mh. Right now im running a 2x48" grolux flo's for veggin, and 4 26watt cfl's and 2 24" grolux for flowering. The reason im wondering is cause i rent my house and its come heated and with elec. Im just nervous my landlord might catch on to the fact i'm growing.

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Stay in school kids !!!!!!!
how many watts are you using now ?
add everything up ..... ill guess and say around 250

if you are running your shit 18hrs a day
a new 400 watt setup would run and extra 2.7KWH per day
roughly .40 cents per day @.15 KWH cost, or an extra 12$ per month

im on a city electric and it gets hot here, so i run my a/c 24/7 during the summer months. My normal bill was $180 a month. I added 2 x 1000w with all the bells and whistles(9 fans,ez cloner,airpumps,4x T-5s), my bill went up to $320 a month in a 3bdrm/2bath.

all depends on the wattage not the type of light...a 400 watt hps is equivalent to 400 watts of cfl....no differance when it comes to electric bill....im an electrician so be sure I know what im talking about...lol....

captain792000 said:

all depends on the wattage not the type of light...a 400 watt hps is equivalent to 400 watts of cfl....no differance when it comes to electric bill....im an electrician so be sure I know what im talking about...lol....

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lol, yea you definately need to be a electrican to figure out this problem....
watts=watts

acidwarp said:

yeah i had a bunch of cfl's too, but i was in soil, i ]m thinking of switching to hydro with a 400watt flowering bulb, id really rather be safe than sorry. and since with one 400watt i could grow about 4 plants, rather than the one plant setup i have now.
anyone have any insight about this????

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Do you live in a rented home or an apartment complex? cus if it is an apartment a hydro system is the last thing you want just think your system leaks, some one elses apartment is damaged maitenance comes in while ur not home and boom your crop is exposed. but if ur in a single family home then ur safe.

flamdrags420 said:

wattage of your bulb divided by 1000 multiply that by the price per KWH.
Then multiply that by amount of time you plan on using it.

This will get you a ball park idea. But you have to account for all the items consuming power. This included your ballast too which will draw a bit more than what it puts out at the bulb.

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hmm that cant be right, either that or my info is wrong. Its saying its 5.6 cents per kwh , that would run me a $1250 power bill per month just off a 400W , not including all my other power consumption... Maybe Im doing the math wrong, ill try again lol

my bad I was being a moron and multiplied by 5.6 instead of 0.056 haha, no wonder it was so high

its a rented house, 2 floors, and im planning on setting it up in my attic, im gonna close off a space and vent directly outside, may have to set an a/c for the summer, but it doesnt get to to hot here in the summer. and yes i the house came with cfl's and energy star appliances lol, my landlord is a real tight ass when it comes to electricity bills and shit. but so far so good, he hasnt noticed anything on the electric bill. Im running 4 23w cfl's and a 2x24" grolux, their rated at 33watts each. Maybe ill stick with the flo's for veg and cfl's for flowering in a hydro setup just to see if he starts to ask questions

420weedman said:

lol, yea you definately need to be a electrican to figure out this problem....
watts=watts

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obviously not everybody knows everything......otherwise , this thread woudnt be here... no need to be a smart ass bro....just giving the man peice of mind and some reassurance... nothing wrong with that....

captain792000 said:

obviously not everybody knows everything......otherwise , this thread woudnt be here... no need to be a smart ass bro....just giving the man peice of mind and some reassurance... nothing wrong with that....

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no,nothing wrong with that. just being like you said, no offense intended

Dunno where u live but I'll give you a example. Im in canada ontario. Its 5.6 cents per kwh , so $0.056. With a monthly allotment of 1000kwh.
This is the equation ....

With a 400W HID kit, its around 456 total wattage for the setup.(bulb/ballast consumption)

456 / 1000= .456 X $.056 = .025536 X 18hrs/day = .4597 X 30 days= $13.8
So around $13.8 per month to run it for 18 hours a day, every day. Which isn't bad.

Now for the 1000kwh a month allotment , this simply means, if you go over 1000kwh , the price per kwh goes up. Around here it goes from $0.056 to $0.065 , which is barely anything and would probably only be around a couple bux extra, literally.. like 2 dollars... My bill would go from $13.8 to $16 if I was running only the 400Watter and for some weird reason went over 1000 kwh.. know what I mean?
Also... for 1000kwh... I could run 4 , 400W HID kits simultaniously for 18 hours a day, every day, for a month , and it would still only be around 980kwh , keeping me just below that. So basically what I'm trying to say is , you really don't have anything to worry about with just 1 kit.. the people who get caught are the ones with like 10 , 1000W kits. If you're still worrying, just buy some cfls and replace them with all ur incandescent bubls in ur house, shut the lights off everytime u leave a room , shut down your computer if you're not using it, etc. U'll be ok.