battery powered lighting??

Is there a worthwhile light thatuses battery power? I need to lower my elec bill a but wanna grow 10 plants or so for personal use

Batteries are really really expensive - hundreds if not thousands of times more expensive than energy from a plug.

Now if you happened to have a large bank of car batteries lying around and a large solar panel or windmill then you could run any grow light with the proper converter.

so it wont help. any energry saving tips for a newbie?

enigmacomplex said:

so it wont help. any energry saving tips for a newbie?

Click to expand...

Only use as much light as you need. For instance instead of vegging a tiny tiny seedling under a 400w MH put it under a 24w CFL. When it gets larger step it up to 2 CFLs, then 3, then 4... Up until you move onto your HID. This alone can cut your power usage for a complete grow in half.

It sounds like you are being paranoid about using too much power...
Use a bunch... no one cares at the level you are talking about.

tommyo3000 said:

It sounds like you are being paranoid about using too much power...
Use a bunch... no one cares at the level you are talking about.

Click to expand...

I agree with this. If you are just paranoid over someone noticing power consumption then get over it. My space heater pulls 1500w and I run it nearly 24/7, I have 300w computer on all the time and my fiancee is always watching a large tv (another 500w?). This is still nothing in the grand scheme of things and there is NO WAY anyone is going to notice this + my 1000w light. My neighbor pulls twice as much power just heating their pool...

high electic bills? get CFLs. ive got 2 85w, and like 6x 30w bulbs, plants look great, and ive barely noticed on the bills.

i had a HPS and a MH lamp and those hurt the pocket, a lot

Buy a digital ballast. I run a 600W HPS with pumps and fans ( hydro ) and my electric bill went up $20 a month from normal. I use a NEXTGEN ballast.

enigmacomplex said:

so it wont help. any energry saving tips for a newbie?

Click to expand...

tommyo3000 said:

It sounds like you are being paranoid about using too much power...
Use a bunch... no one cares at the level you are talking about.

Click to expand...

are you planning on paying my bill? lol i dont have enough money to pay what im paying lol

Gastanker said:

Only use as much light as you need. For instance instead of vegging a tiny tiny seedling under a 400w MH put it under a 24w CFL. When it gets larger step it up to 2 CFLs, then 3, then 4... Up until you move onto your HID. This alone can cut your power usage for a complete grow in half.

Click to expand...

ive got a plant under one 23W cfl bulb it its very slow

silasraven said:

ive got a plant under one 23W cfl bulb it its very slow

Click to expand...

Move the bulb closer? Are you using the correct spectrum?

I've vegged under MH, CFL, T5, and HPS and CFLs/T5s always work the best. Healthier plants that grow much quicker than all of the other methods.



Super ghetto CFL rigs even work well:



Super ugly and less than ideal CFL setup but still vegges better than a 400w MH and this is only 270w of CFL



Same plants 1 week after pic #3 - i just tied them down so they look a bit funny but obviously a bit of growth.



Say you veg at 20/4 for 8 weeks.

400w MH:
20*.4*8*7 = 448 kWh @ $0.12 = $53.76

CFLs (23w each):
First week @ 1 cfl: 20*.023*7 = 3.22
2nd week @ 2 cfl: 20*.046*7 = 6.44
3rd-4th week @ 4 cfl: 20*.092*14 = 25.76
5-8th @ 8 cfl: 20*0.184*28 = 103.04
Total kWh = 138.46 @ $0.12 = $16.62

So with the MH you spend $54 on veg and with the CFLs you spend $17. That's a savings of 317%