Formula to determine the cost of lighting

[Tokist]

i been perusing youtube and have found a ton of great information on growing. no offense to the tutorials here, but i'm more of a visual/kinesthetic learner

in any case, i know that many people are concerned that their lights are going to cost them a fortune. here's a simple formula to figure out pretty accurately what your next bill's gonna be.

you need to know three things.

WATTS
HOURS
COST (= what your electric company charges per kw/h)

multiply those together and divide by 1000. tada!

here's an example:

400 watt bulb * 18 hours on * .06 cents per kwh / 1000 = .43 cents

here's the video i found this formula from. i highly recommend you watch the entire series as they go pretty in-depth for each topic covered without getting extremely technical or boring.

happy growing,

YouTube - Ready-Set-Grow Part 1of 7 UPDATED

 

[Boss]

Does it calculate life of bulb?

 

[Tokist]

Does it calculate life of bulb?

like... how long the bulb lasts? i've no idea (i know on incandescent bulbs they usually have a life expectancy on the box of 750 hours - not sure if that's the case for HIDs). it's really just a formula to guesstimate the spike in your electric bill from suddenly introducing HIDs into your home on a 12/12 or 24/0 lighting schedule.

been reading the forums a lot and i see a lot of threads started where people will ask "hey... how much will my bill go up if i use XXXX light for XXXX amount of time?" they usually get a response like, "well, i live in bc, canada and it only costs me an extra XX amount per month". that's very misleading information because bc, canada has some of the cheapest power in north america. someone who pays a lot more for their power and isn't aware of the difference in regional pricing may get a significantly larger increase.

this formula can answer that question provided you know how much per killowatt/hour your electric company charges.

last time i checked, the going rate for electricity in texas was around 14-17 cents per kw/h depending on the company you go with.

knowing that, i can figure out that if i put in a 400 watt HID and i start it on an 18/6 schedule, that's going to run me about 38 cents a day. which comes to at least an extra 11 dollars a month (at 14 cents per kw/h). which should alleviate a lot of fears. many people who start a simple, first-time grow-op freak out and think their electric bill is going to skyrocket to insane amounts and that their power company is gonna call the feds and that they're gonna get busted; or that their mom is gonna get suspicious, lol.

and that's just not the case

no more need for guess work. i think just about everyone can benefit from this

knowledge is power!

jiz

 

[nbk380]

That is good info! My my my, It looks like I can definetly go ahead with 2-3
thousand more watts and still not even be out of budget. I figure you'd have
double or triple your bill before they would even blink, so I was never worried
about them callin the cops, I worried they shut me off for not being able to
pay the crazy bill! But even with a full 5k watt light rig I'm good to go here,
especially if I ever would turn off the other electronics here once in a while.
thanx for tha info jimwort. Respect

 

[zolar]

a 400 watt grow light is pretty much the same as leaving a tube tv on a 1000 watt is like an air conditioner read the little label on the back near the cord on your appliances that you run all the time or check an old bill for a month when you added the AC vs a no AC bill

simple seat of the pants way to get a ballpark idea no major math
or decimel points