Electricity help pretty please? One MH using as much electricity as two HPS? How?

Ok, so I have two 1000 watt hoods, only one of them is running at the moment. According to my electric bill online it says in the last 5 days I've somehow used between 75-80kWh a day? My AC is on 24/7 and my lone MH is on for 18/6. Then when I look at last month's bill when I was using 2 1000 watt HPS bulbs and the same air conditioner running 24/7.

Can anyone explain how 2 1000 watt HPS bulbs and a 12k BTU A/C brings me to 65-85kWh a day, but one MH bulb and the same AC is bringing me to 75-80kWh a day? This is really confusing the hell out of me. I need to plug in another MH bulb soon because I have more to veg out, but I want to figure out why I'm using so much damn electricity first. Can anyone please help me make sense of this? I would greatly appreciate it!

does not make sense....something is wrong with the numbers, same AC so that's a right off....therefore it's two 1000w HPS compared to one MH (I assume 1000w) .....it's not like MH uses more electricity

maybe get a watt meter to obtain an accurate reading

Indoor Sun King said:

does not make sense....something is wrong with the numbers, same AC so that's a right off....therefore it's two 1000w HPS compared to one MH (I assume 1000w) .....it's not like MH uses more electricity

maybe get a watt meter to obtain an accurate reading

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Exactly! I was doing some more math, I have 2 1000 watt ballasts/hoods with a 12k BTU air conditioner. I have 1 720 CFM fan as well as 4 oscillating fans. Assuming the 12k BTU uses 1500 watts, and we'll assume my various grow fixtures cost 500 watts, that would be a total of 4000 watts which is 40kWh a day.

I have two computers that are on pretty much all day, and a 32 inch LCD TV, and an older fridge but those are the only things I have that take a bunch of electricity. There's no way those 3-4 things are using 25-40kWh. The two computers have 600 watt power supplies in them but even assuming they used that much power at all times, that would still only be 12kWh a day which still doesn't explain the other kWh that are showing up. And again, the one MH bulb will only use 1000 watts so I'm having a hard time figuring out how this is possible.

Is it possible some of my devices are running inefficiently and they are taking more watts than they're supposed to? Are there any places you'd recommend me checking or any other advice? Now that I'm realizing this I've probably been paying more than I should have been, I really don't get how this is even possible..

Your AC is on 24/7 however your AC compressor is not... It has been warmer this month, and your AC compressor has been running more often... so your bill is higher, it is not I repeat it is not your light/lamp/ballast. Have a Nice day... all is well!

Sand4x105 said:

Your AC is on 24/7 however your AC compressor is not... It has been warmer this month, and your AC compressor has been running more often... so your bill is higher, it is not I repeat it is not your light/lamp/ballast. Have a Nice day... all is well!

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You're welcome? Ha, you were just overthinking a problem, when the answer is right in front of you... Ohm's Law... It never lies... GOOD LUCK!

try changing it so when night comes you can shut off your a/c. also insulate your windows n shit if possible. But like others said, hotter weather means more work for your a/c
also more work for your refrigerator, and other stuff like that.

maybe you've had more people in the house or some other factor to include?

but yes buy a kill-a-watt EZ, and test to see if the mh is drawing more than your hps, if you think its worth the 30$. Also possible that maybe the mh bulb is a hotter arc thus making the a/c work harder? Not sure on this one but maybe thats what u were asking

hope i could help a lil!

oh yeah and if you have a dehumidifier going and it's directly draining to outside you may not notice it but it may be running more than normal if its a humid month

I've read that MH produces a lot more heat than HPS, no idea how much more though.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, as I know nothing on how electricity and the bill works.. If he's using ~4000w a for all his grow equipment... That means ~4000w an HOUR right? Which if you're on 18/6 comes out to 72000w MINIMUM right? B/c your lights go off, but you're still running ~2000w from your AC and all those fans right? So basically you're running a minimum of 72 kWh every day right? Or am I over thinking it...

is it because when you run your mh its on 18/6 and when you run your hps its on 12/12...?

treegoesmoo said:

Sorry if this is a stupid question, as I know nothing on how electricity and the bill works.. If he's using ~4000w a for all his grow equipment... That means ~4000w an HOUR right? Which if you're on 18/6 comes out to 72000w MINIMUM right? B/c your lights go off, but you're still running ~2000w from your AC and all those fans right? So basically you're running a minimum of 72 kWh every day right? Or am I over thinking it...

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Yeah, so that would be about 40kWh for my grow box. I'm just stumped because if I'm only using 40kWh for my grow room then where is the other 25-40kWh coming from? I was reading about electrical inefficiency, I'm in a somewhat run down mobile home. Is it possible that the electrical wiring in my house is so old and messed up that it's causing my appliances to work harder?

Y0da said:

I've read that MH produces a lot more heat than HPS, no idea how much more though.

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Hmm, so perhaps my A/C is working harder because of this too? But then again the glass on my hood is cool to the touch, I have a 720CFM fan sucking all the air from the ducting.

Sand4x105 said:

Your AC is on 24/7 however your AC compressor is not... It has been warmer this month, and your AC compressor has been running more often... so your bill is higher, it is not I repeat it is not your light/lamp/ballast. Have a Nice day... all is well!

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Hmm so there's not really much I can do about this is there. If I made the room my grow room is in cooler do you think that would make my AC work less hard? Are there any suggestions you have or am I going to have to just wait out the hot weather?

Nizza said:

try changing it so when night comes you can shut off your a/c. also insulate your windows n shit if possible. But like others said, hotter weather means more work for your a/c
also more work for your refrigerator, and other stuff like that.

maybe you've had more people in the house or some other factor to include?

but yes buy a kill-a-watt EZ, and test to see if the mh is drawing more than your hps, if you think its worth the 30$. Also possible that maybe the mh bulb is a hotter arc thus making the a/c work harder? Not sure on this one but maybe thats what u were asking

hope i could help a lil!

oh yeah and if you have a dehumidifier going and it's directly draining to outside you may not notice it but it may be running more than normal if its a humid month

Click to expand...

Well even if the MH is hotter than the HPS, they're both still taking 1000 watts each correct? I tried turning my A/C off at night while the light was still on from 12am-4am. When I checked at 4am my temps rose from a nice 70 degrees to 86 degrees in a mere handful of hours. Maybe I should try getting a timer and shutting the thing down in 15-30 minute intervals? I'm open to any and all suggestions!

Thanks again for your help everyone!

Don't they estimate some power bills...I know in FL they don't meter read every month, they estimate and then re-adjust the following month...I believe there is a spot on the bill that states whether it was estimated or actually read...just my thoughts

Walter9999 said:

Don't they estimate some power bills...I know in FL they don't meter read every month, they estimate and then re-adjust the following month...I believe there is a spot on the bill that states wether it was estimated or actually read...just my thoughts

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I was thinking something like this might be possible too because it's like that out in CA as well. I go through SoCal Edison and you can go online and see your electric bill estimated before it actually comes out. I suppose it's possible they're estimating instead of reading the actual kWh on my meter but I'm not sure. After calculating that my grow room uses an average of 35-40kWh it's looking like one of two things is the case here. The wiring in my house may be messed up, causing anything plugged into to pull more watts in order to be at max power so they're running inefficiently. The other guess is that my AC is inefficient due to the heat and it's using more electricity than needed. In all honesty I'm still very confused. Even if my AC is running inefficiently, that's not gonna be in the form of 25-40kWh extra you know? I'm stumped, the math isn't adding up at all.

Wait wait, explain this to me someone please. If he's using 4000w an hour on 18/6, that means in those 18 hours he's using 72,000w. Correct? And 72,000w converted to kWh is 72,000/1000 which comes out to 72kWh. Am I missing something?

Or are you saying they're charging you for 40kWh? Cause if you're using 4000w an hour, that comes out to 4kWh right? And you're using 72kw a day just on the box. Cause if they're charging you 40kWh doesn't that mean your bill would be outta wack?

Cause you said you're grow room uses 35-40kWh, which comes out to 35,000-40,000 watts an hour??

treegoesmoo said:

Wait wait, explain this to me someone please. If he's using 4000w an hour on 18/6, that means in those 18 hours he's using 72,000w. Correct? And 72,000w converted to kWh is 72,000/1000 which comes out to 72kWh. Am I missing something?

Or are you saying they're charging you for 40kWh? Cause if you're using 4000w an hour, that comes out to 4kWh right? And you're using 72kw a day just on the box. Cause if they're charging you 40kWh doesn't that mean your bill would be outta wack?

Cause you said you're grow room uses 35-40kWh, which comes out to 35,000-40,000 watts an hour??

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How did you get 72k watts if I may ask?

I'm not using that much wattage though I'm using 3k-4k watts per hour and I believe you divide the wattage by 100 to get the kWh right? So 3k would be 30kWh, unless my understanding of the equation is incorrect?

Y0da681 said:

I've read that MH produces a lot more heat than HPS, no idea how much more though.

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My HPS has definitely been producing more heat. During the heatwave my ballast (Lumatek) with the HPS was to hot to touch longer than 10 secs on one occasion and consistently very very warm.

kratos015 said:

How did you get 72k watts if I may ask?

I'm not using that much wattage though I'm using 3k-4k watts per hour and I believe you divide the wattage by 100 to get the kWh right? So 3k would be 30kWh, unless my understanding of the equation is incorrect?

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1000w = 1kw. So from that, if you're using 4000w an hour for 18 hours, (Lets just say your ac/fans are still running after your lights turn off) that comes out to a total of 72,000 watts used during that 18 hours everything in your box is on. So 72,000w = 72kw. So basically if you're running 3,000w-4,000w, you're using 3kw-4kw an hour. 4kWh x 18 hours of use = 72kw total. Plus whatever else is running in your house.