high energy bill

well guys given that its winter and i have crappy windows i credit most of my energy bill to heat. but i dont think running my 2ft t-5 fixture 24/7 helped. i am also going to be running a 400w hps 12/12 comming up shortly. my question is to save my energy would it be practical to cut my veggitative lighting down to 18/6 and still be ok? i mean i live in a 2 bedroom apartment. will running all of those watts at the same time be enough to trigger an investigation or am i just being paranoid???

Running the T5 fixture 24/7 isn't what's making your bill so high. Assuming it's about 100W at $0.10 per kilowatt hour, you should only expect an increase of about $8 per month as a result of the T5 fixture. For your HPS light, I would expect an increase of $15 per month. I run a 600W HPS and I saw an increase of $22 on my bill the first month, which isn't a big deal. If you want cut the T5 to 18/6, you'll save about $3 per month. If that's worth it to you then go for it. And running the lights on 18/6 won't hurt your plants either. They only start to flower when you drop the light cycle down to 12/12.

And none of the appliances you're using will cause any sort of concern for the electric company. They only get suspicious when people start using multiple 1000W HPS lights that cause their bills to increase by hundreds of dollars in a short period of time. The energy people won't even think twice when they see your bill increase by $20.

Good luck.

yeah the money isnt the big problem. im willing to pay an extra 30-50 bucks a month. but my main concern was that the utilitie company would find out.. but i can see that im just being paranoid. thanks for your input

try this maybe it will help you out a little... Super-Grow Electricity Costs Calculator

thank you that is very helpfull actually

your welcome.....

replace EVERy single light bulb in your house with a cfl

that way, your costs will be transferred as you arent using incandescant bulbs, niiice thinking.

Just got me a 400w HPS for my 3 babies soI guess once im done vegging the 6 flouros will go around the house.

yes...even the fridge light, bathroom and range/over stove lights

i already have white light bulbs in every single socket it my house besides my grow room. i think what is killing me is the heaters. i have those old school radiators that cost a shit load to run.and i have shitty broken windows that let the air right out. i talked to a friend of mine who works at the utilitie company though so shes going to get me on low income assistance witch is a low fixed rate no matter how many watts i run even though i make enough money which i didnt really need but hey when in rome! with her working there i dont think i have to worry about an inspection anytime soon considering she is the one that does those collections, and inspections lol..... score....