Hello Everyone. As most of you know growing indoors is an expensive hobby/necessity and one of the most expensive components of an indoor grow is electricity. I wanted to start a thread and share all the ways I have saved electricity and reduced the costs of my grow as well as my total household/apartment electrical usage.
I will be approaching this from the aspect of being a tenant in an apartment and not in control of things such as building structure, solar or anything that wouldn't be able to modify or change structurally but feel free to also add in any suggestions for homeowners as well. I believe the smarter we grow, the better we all will be whether you look at it financially, or overall as reducing our carbon footprint.
What inspired this thread: Well, needless to say, my high electrical bills. Here in California we are set up on a tier system and the more Kilowatt hours you use, you move up in tiers and each tier gets more expensive. (I'm on tier 5 paying over $0.34 cents per KWHr and my bills aren't cheap) The more changes to my apartment, grow, and lifestyle I have made, the more I have seen reduction in costs.
How to convert your electrical device wattage to cost...
To figure out how much a particular device is costing you, use this simple formula and you will be able to convert usage into dollars. By purchasing a Kill-a-watt device or similar, it is easy to know the exact draw of your appliances and convert it as well.
Lets use my 400w Ceramic metal halide light as an example. My ballast runs at 440w, 12 hours a day, 30 days a month. How much does this cost me monthly to run....
Take the total wattage 440w and convert it to kilowatts: 1000\440 or 440x.001 = .440 KW
Now take your Kilowatt amount and multiply it by how many hours you use it...
.440 KW x 12 hours =5.28 KWHr or Kilowatt Hours per day my light uses.
Now this light runs 5.28 KWHr for 30 days a month...
5.28 KWHr x 30 = 158.4 KWHr per month my light uses
Now take this number 158.4 KWHr and look at your electric bill, find out what your electric company charges you per KWHr. I pay roughly $0.34 per KWHr on average. So
158.4 x $0.34 = $53.85 this light costs me to run per month...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do I figure out how much electricity my device/light/fan uses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Purchase a kill-a-watt meter, they sell for about $20 online. What it is is a digital meter that plugs into the wall and you can plug any 3 prong electrical device into it and find out many things such as how much watts, amps, volts, KWHr, and more that a particular device is using. I purchased one of these devices today and it really opened my eyes to how much actual power simple things draw. Did you know a regular cheap $15 box fan pulls 55w on low and abou 90w on high???!! I have 2 running on medium 24/7 to offer air exchange in my apartment... (right there is almost 26$ per month I had no clue I was using)
2. If you don't have a Kill-a-watt meter, read the product label, specs sheet or look at the manufacturer's website and find out what wattage your device draws. Then you can use the formula listed above to figure out how much each electrical device is costing you to run.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ways to reduce electricity with your grow
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Run the Gas Lamp Routine in Veg. When I was new to growing, most everything I read said to use either 18/6 or 24/0 lighting and so that is what I did. It wasn't until about a year later here on 420magazine that I found out about the Gas Lamp Routine, tried it, and never have looked back.. What is it you may ask? Instead of Vegging with 18 or 24 hours of light, you can get virtually the same growth (VEG) out of a plant using only 13 hours of electricity.
How do you do it??? You set your veg lighting schedule to this (digital timers are very helpful for this schedule)
Lights on 12 hours, Lights off 5.5 hours, Lights on 1 hour, Lights off 5.5 hours (repeat)
Why does this work??? copied from my 3rd journal
2. If you have a extraction fan in your grow area like I do, purchase a speed controller (they run about $30). I have a 440CFM 6" fan that pulls 111w when on full but do I really need it running on full??? Not in my grow With the speed controller I can dial the speed of the fan down to a slow/medium which is perfect for my grow area which still keeps the temps and humidity right, but also brings the power draw down to around 45w. When this is running constantly 24/7 by setting it on low/medium it saves me around $16 a month. (pays for itself in 2 months)
3. Purchase digital/electronic dimmable ballasts. If you are vegging and flowering in the same tent, there are many parts of the grow that do not need your HID lights on full blast. Early clone/veg, and most of veg, less light is really needed to make your plants grow so by purchasing a dimmable ballast, you can reduce the wattage your light and ballast are drawing when the extra "oomph" is not needed.
Another note on digital ballasts: now this may not be true for all ballasts, but my old magnetic style 400w ballast runs around 439w after the bulb has fully fired up vs my digital ballast running at 400w which only pulls 419w. (not a major difference being only 20 watts, but if you run more than one ballast, the savings becomes much greater)
4. Go LED or Induction. Now I am not going to elaborate on this one because there are many different feelings when it comes to lighting and I don't want to start this into a LED vs HID debate so please don't comment on this one. Do LED's grow better than HID...some say yes, some say no, but this topic is about electrical usage and reduction, and with that being the topic, do they reduce electrical usage when compared to HID..YES.
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Non growing related ways to reduce your household electrical usage. (lifestyle changes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Be conscious about what is on and using electricity. I learned this one at a young age with my mother always telling me... "turn off the lights when you walk out of the room" Its pretty simple of a concept but so easy to forget when you don't make the conscious effort to remember. Just remember, if your not in the room, turn it off.
I used to be in the habit of leaving a tv on while doing chores and things around the house, but not really watching it. I never new that my 42" LCD tv runs about 175w-200w, when you add in the PS3 running at (180w-330w depending on model) and my surround system probably pulling another 200w, I was just wasting away 500+ watts just to have background noise)
2. Check your computer settings and make sure that your computer is set to power saving, or adjust the settings manually. Some of us leave our computers on all day and all night which is an easy way to waste electricity, especially when they are not being used. One easy way to help reduce your electrical usage is to make sure you have your monitor power off when not being used. This can be set in time intervals and I usually leave mine at 2 hours. I use a 32" monitor for my computer which runs at 145w. I don't have to go into detail on how by turning off my monitor, I am saving a huge amount of money.
3. Contact your electrical company and see if there are any rebate programs or discounts. I know that here in Southern California there are ways to earn money back by reducing your electrical usage during peak hours under certain programs you can register for. There are also discounts available for those that are financially hurt or just don't earn enough at work. When I was unemployed in the past I took advantage of one of the local programs and saved about 30% off my bill just by applying.
4. Don't sleep with your TV and lights on. As mentioned above, TV's run with a lot of Wattage and whats the point of spending money when you sleep??? Use a sleep timer setting if it helps you fall asleep or just turn it off and gain the extra shuteye by not staying awake due to visual stimulation.
5. Set household fans on timers. I know until I bought the kill-a-watt meter I never thought a simple box fan was costing me a lot of money. As mentioned previously, I run 2 box fans in my windows to help air circulation in my apartment as well as keep the air fresh. I didn't know until I plug in my kill-a-watt meter that running these 2 fans 24/7 was costing me nearly $26 a month!! Fans don't need to be constantly running, set them on 15 minute to 1/2 hour intervals.
6. Purchase CFL or LED household bulbs and replace all of your old "edison" style/incandescent bulbs in your house or apartment. A 26w CFL bulb will put out just about as much light as a 60w incandescent bulb and you would be saving about 34w per bulb you replace...This includes bathroom lights, kitchen lights, even outdoor lights if you pay for them. I know this one is kind of a no brainer, but still a worthy mention. LED technology now has emerged on a large scale for household lighting and even though these bulbs are much more expensive than even CFL bulbs, they also run on even less wattage than CFL bulbs.
7. (Applies if you have a gas range stove/oven)
Cook on your stove instead of using microwaves and foreman grills, rice cookers and every electronic kitchen gadget known to mankind. Pretty much explains itself, by cooking on a gas stove instead of firing up the foreman grill, you are cutting down on your electric bills.
There are many many more ways that one can save electricity and I would love to make this a great thread with all of your input !!! Lets all grow smarter and reduce our carbon footprint, keep our money in our pocketbooks and not have semi-heart attacks each time an electric bill comes in the mail. I would love to hear all of your ideas!!!
I will be approaching this from the aspect of being a tenant in an apartment and not in control of things such as building structure, solar or anything that wouldn't be able to modify or change structurally but feel free to also add in any suggestions for homeowners as well. I believe the smarter we grow, the better we all will be whether you look at it financially, or overall as reducing our carbon footprint.
What inspired this thread: Well, needless to say, my high electrical bills. Here in California we are set up on a tier system and the more Kilowatt hours you use, you move up in tiers and each tier gets more expensive. (I'm on tier 5 paying over $0.34 cents per KWHr and my bills aren't cheap) The more changes to my apartment, grow, and lifestyle I have made, the more I have seen reduction in costs.
How to convert your electrical device wattage to cost...
To figure out how much a particular device is costing you, use this simple formula and you will be able to convert usage into dollars. By purchasing a Kill-a-watt device or similar, it is easy to know the exact draw of your appliances and convert it as well.
Lets use my 400w Ceramic metal halide light as an example. My ballast runs at 440w, 12 hours a day, 30 days a month. How much does this cost me monthly to run....
Take the total wattage 440w and convert it to kilowatts: 1000\440 or 440x.001 = .440 KW
Now take your Kilowatt amount and multiply it by how many hours you use it...
.440 KW x 12 hours =5.28 KWHr or Kilowatt Hours per day my light uses.
Now this light runs 5.28 KWHr for 30 days a month...
5.28 KWHr x 30 = 158.4 KWHr per month my light uses
Now take this number 158.4 KWHr and look at your electric bill, find out what your electric company charges you per KWHr. I pay roughly $0.34 per KWHr on average. So
158.4 x $0.34 = $53.85 this light costs me to run per month...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do I figure out how much electricity my device/light/fan uses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Purchase a kill-a-watt meter, they sell for about $20 online. What it is is a digital meter that plugs into the wall and you can plug any 3 prong electrical device into it and find out many things such as how much watts, amps, volts, KWHr, and more that a particular device is using. I purchased one of these devices today and it really opened my eyes to how much actual power simple things draw. Did you know a regular cheap $15 box fan pulls 55w on low and abou 90w on high???!! I have 2 running on medium 24/7 to offer air exchange in my apartment... (right there is almost 26$ per month I had no clue I was using)
2. If you don't have a Kill-a-watt meter, read the product label, specs sheet or look at the manufacturer's website and find out what wattage your device draws. Then you can use the formula listed above to figure out how much each electrical device is costing you to run.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ways to reduce electricity with your grow
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Run the Gas Lamp Routine in Veg. When I was new to growing, most everything I read said to use either 18/6 or 24/0 lighting and so that is what I did. It wasn't until about a year later here on 420magazine that I found out about the Gas Lamp Routine, tried it, and never have looked back.. What is it you may ask? Instead of Vegging with 18 or 24 hours of light, you can get virtually the same growth (VEG) out of a plant using only 13 hours of electricity.
How do you do it??? You set your veg lighting schedule to this (digital timers are very helpful for this schedule)
Lights on 12 hours, Lights off 5.5 hours, Lights on 1 hour, Lights off 5.5 hours (repeat)
Why does this work??? copied from my 3rd journal
2. If you have a extraction fan in your grow area like I do, purchase a speed controller (they run about $30). I have a 440CFM 6" fan that pulls 111w when on full but do I really need it running on full??? Not in my grow With the speed controller I can dial the speed of the fan down to a slow/medium which is perfect for my grow area which still keeps the temps and humidity right, but also brings the power draw down to around 45w. When this is running constantly 24/7 by setting it on low/medium it saves me around $16 a month. (pays for itself in 2 months)
3. Purchase digital/electronic dimmable ballasts. If you are vegging and flowering in the same tent, there are many parts of the grow that do not need your HID lights on full blast. Early clone/veg, and most of veg, less light is really needed to make your plants grow so by purchasing a dimmable ballast, you can reduce the wattage your light and ballast are drawing when the extra "oomph" is not needed.
Another note on digital ballasts: now this may not be true for all ballasts, but my old magnetic style 400w ballast runs around 439w after the bulb has fully fired up vs my digital ballast running at 400w which only pulls 419w. (not a major difference being only 20 watts, but if you run more than one ballast, the savings becomes much greater)
4. Go LED or Induction. Now I am not going to elaborate on this one because there are many different feelings when it comes to lighting and I don't want to start this into a LED vs HID debate so please don't comment on this one. Do LED's grow better than HID...some say yes, some say no, but this topic is about electrical usage and reduction, and with that being the topic, do they reduce electrical usage when compared to HID..YES.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non growing related ways to reduce your household electrical usage. (lifestyle changes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Be conscious about what is on and using electricity. I learned this one at a young age with my mother always telling me... "turn off the lights when you walk out of the room" Its pretty simple of a concept but so easy to forget when you don't make the conscious effort to remember. Just remember, if your not in the room, turn it off.
I used to be in the habit of leaving a tv on while doing chores and things around the house, but not really watching it. I never new that my 42" LCD tv runs about 175w-200w, when you add in the PS3 running at (180w-330w depending on model) and my surround system probably pulling another 200w, I was just wasting away 500+ watts just to have background noise)
2. Check your computer settings and make sure that your computer is set to power saving, or adjust the settings manually. Some of us leave our computers on all day and all night which is an easy way to waste electricity, especially when they are not being used. One easy way to help reduce your electrical usage is to make sure you have your monitor power off when not being used. This can be set in time intervals and I usually leave mine at 2 hours. I use a 32" monitor for my computer which runs at 145w. I don't have to go into detail on how by turning off my monitor, I am saving a huge amount of money.
3. Contact your electrical company and see if there are any rebate programs or discounts. I know that here in Southern California there are ways to earn money back by reducing your electrical usage during peak hours under certain programs you can register for. There are also discounts available for those that are financially hurt or just don't earn enough at work. When I was unemployed in the past I took advantage of one of the local programs and saved about 30% off my bill just by applying.
4. Don't sleep with your TV and lights on. As mentioned above, TV's run with a lot of Wattage and whats the point of spending money when you sleep??? Use a sleep timer setting if it helps you fall asleep or just turn it off and gain the extra shuteye by not staying awake due to visual stimulation.
5. Set household fans on timers. I know until I bought the kill-a-watt meter I never thought a simple box fan was costing me a lot of money. As mentioned previously, I run 2 box fans in my windows to help air circulation in my apartment as well as keep the air fresh. I didn't know until I plug in my kill-a-watt meter that running these 2 fans 24/7 was costing me nearly $26 a month!! Fans don't need to be constantly running, set them on 15 minute to 1/2 hour intervals.
6. Purchase CFL or LED household bulbs and replace all of your old "edison" style/incandescent bulbs in your house or apartment. A 26w CFL bulb will put out just about as much light as a 60w incandescent bulb and you would be saving about 34w per bulb you replace...This includes bathroom lights, kitchen lights, even outdoor lights if you pay for them. I know this one is kind of a no brainer, but still a worthy mention. LED technology now has emerged on a large scale for household lighting and even though these bulbs are much more expensive than even CFL bulbs, they also run on even less wattage than CFL bulbs.
7. (Applies if you have a gas range stove/oven)
Cook on your stove instead of using microwaves and foreman grills, rice cookers and every electronic kitchen gadget known to mankind. Pretty much explains itself, by cooking on a gas stove instead of firing up the foreman grill, you are cutting down on your electric bills.
There are many many more ways that one can save electricity and I would love to make this a great thread with all of your input !!! Lets all grow smarter and reduce our carbon footprint, keep our money in our pocketbooks and not have semi-heart attacks each time an electric bill comes in the mail. I would love to hear all of your ideas!!!
