lighting costs question

Rafiky77 said:

i would like to start a indoor grow, very small setup for perhaps 2 plants, with all the lights and fans etc, could anyone give me a rough idea of what the electricity costs are per week , i know we all pay differing amounts etc but just a very rough idea, the reason being my Girlfriend does not like the idea and seems to think the electric companies will pick up on the sudden rise and we will be found out lol

just a rough idea would be great (i am in the uk if that helps)

Cheers

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Running a 600w hps should do around 10 quid a week, the leccy companies wont notice anything though, it would be similar to buying a pc.

hiya m8 lol, Welcome to the fourm.

Lol my G/F's the same lol, but onestly there is nothing to worry about even with big massive grows unless you pay the bill's and even then a small / medium setup would go under the radar...

..... plasma t.vs use more than 1000watt blub which is used for Big grows lol

Hell, if you use T5s or CFLs you wont even notice a change in your bill.

Pseudonym said:

Hell, if you use T5s or CFLs you wont even notice a change in your bill.

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Just be prepared to get lower yields and lower quality bud

That's true.

Rafiky77 said:

if i was to use CFL's (which as previously stated are alot cheaper to run) how much of a lower yield would you expect? 50%? this might be a good compremise!

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It depends on what size you use.

If you had some 30 watt cfls, then your looking at quite a bit less than 50%, you would have to use at least a 125w to flower with, then maybe your coming closer to that 50%. Plus your going to need two bulbs a blue one to veg with and a red one to flower with. You could still get some reasonable results for a personal grow but as i said before it wouldnt be as strong and there wouldnt be as much. Your looking at around 4 months from start to finish to smoke some bud.

4 packs of 23watt cfl's (=100 watt incandescant) for 10 bucks... three packs (one in blue spectrum for veging, and two in red for flower cuz those flowering babes need as much light as they can get)

for 30 bucks you have 100 watts of vegging lights for 1 or two plants (one would be best) and 200 watts for flower... i dunno... not great but cheap...

lumberjack_ian said:

4 packs of 23watt cfl's (=100 watt incandescant) for 10 bucks... three packs (one in blue spectrum for veging, and two in red for flower cuz those flowering babes need as much light as they can get)

for 30 bucks you have 100 watts of vegging lights for 1 or two plants (one would be best) and 200 watts for flower... i dunno... not great but cheap...

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ok so you grow 2 plants under this setup, it takes 4 months start to finish, you've spent 30 bucks on lights, 40 bucks on seeds, 20 bucks on soil and nutes. Plus the minor amount of electricity to run it and your time and effort and love to watch them grow, ok those lights are just about sufficient to veg with, but are extremely underpowered flowering, 900 lumens to flower with is pretty lousy. You get to the end of your grow, look at your 2 spindly little plants and pull of maybe half ounce an ounce from the 2 plants of low grade weed.

buy the cfls for veg by all means, they might do ok

if your looking to make it worthwhile for the time effort love and money your gonna chuck at this, you need more power when it comes to flowering.

I dont know your situation and i dont know your growspace so i am not going to recommend a hps over "high-powered" cfls, they both have their pros and cons.

I think to feel like you've done a good job and be happy with your own and not want to go and buy someone elses because its better, you need those lumens.

30 cfl lumens = 900 (roughly without looking it up because its a waste of my time)
400w hps = 52000 lumens
250w cfl = 19,000 lumens

to flower a plant i believe you need to be aiming for at least 10,000 lumens

**unless your go with a lowryder hybrid; lowryder 2, power stout etc etc. ive seen some profitable grows with these strains under 2x 125w cfls. 1 blue & 1 red. people knock lowryder for strength, but the hybrids are alot more potent than youd think, and give a lot more yield. one grower for example got 32g with 2x125w cfls, blue and red off two plants in 8.5 weeks seed-smoke.

but then again, if youre running 250w you may as well get a hps! unless it has to be stealth i suppose

morp said:

**unless your go with a lowryder hybrid; lowryder 2, power stout etc etc. ive seen some profitable grows with these strains under 2x 125w cfls. 1 blue & 1 red. people knock lowryder for strength, but the hybrids are alot more potent than youd think, and give a lot more yield. one grower for example got 32g with 2x125w cfls, blue and red off two plants in 8.5 weeks seed-smoke.

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32g? so just over an ounce ok

2 x 125w cfl? ok sounds reasonable

seed to smoke 8.5 weeks, with lowryder yeah, but why have lowryder when there are so many decent other strains out there

the cfls i have 23w are 1300 lumens each and running eight of them (two packs of the 2700 k spectrum like i said) would give you 10400 lumens...

i would only grow one plant like this

but i'm getting an hps for my next grow so yeah... just some input for one to ponder for just a second

lumberjack_ian said:

the cfls i have 23w are 1300 lumens each and running eight of them (two packs of the 2700 k spectrum like i said) would give you 10400 lumens...

i would only grow one plant like this

but i'm getting an hps for my next grow so yeah... just some input for one to ponder for just a second

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Where did you get that figure of 10,400 from

your only going to give 1300 lumens no matter how many bulbs you use, you could use 2000 and you would only get 1300 lumens.

by doing this all your doing is spreading the light around more so you have 1300 lumens in more places and more of the plant is recieving those 1300 lumens.

ive got 4 lowryder #2s going now and from what ive seen they seem just as resinous as the euforias ive grown, if not more. 3 weeks old with a really skunky smell. i decided to give them a go since i saw all the hype about them on grasscity. ive heard alot of negative press about them but ill give them a go before i decide. only bought them because i had room in my flowering space and thought i deserved a bit more bud.

good for people with limited space or limited lighting solutions, apparently they dont need all that much...

morp said:

ive got 4 lowryder #2s going now and from what ive seen they seem just as resinous as the euforias ive grown, if not more. 3 weeks old with a really skunky smell. i decided to give them a go since i saw all the hype about them on grasscity. ive heard alot of negative press about them but ill give them a go before i decide. only bought them because i had room in my flowering space and thought i deserved a bit more bud.

good for people with limited space or limited lighting solutions, apparently they dont need all that much...

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Setting yourself up to grow lowriders is like learning to drive in an automatic, its easier and for some people its a better solution at the time, but once you set it up specifically to do that you will always drive an automatic

unless the cars youve always wanted to drive just dont come in automatic.. lowryder definately (hopefully) isnt my pinnacle!

i dont understand why anyone wouldnt put a couple in their veg room and a couple in their flower room just to get an ounce or so of extra smoke if they have room

morp said:

unless the cars youve always wanted to drive just dont come in automatic.. lowryder definately (hopefully) isnt my pinnacle!

i dont understand why anyone wouldnt put a couple in their veg room and a couple in their flower room just to get an ounce or so of extra smoke if they have room

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I'd rather fill the space with 4 foot white strain or sativa trees mate

oh, thanks ngt... i stand corrected

woops..