Closet grow strains

[sfhaze]

Thought it would be closer to fifty bucks a month. But because of heat issues HIDs do suck in cabinets.

A 400W HPS actually uses more like 500W because of losses in the transformer, and the power rates go up the more power you use. We use 3 small 150W HPS in our greenhouse as aqmentation and to veg in the winter months - the bill went up $150 for 18 hours, but it's still over $100 for 12 hours.

 

[Brett2theMax]

Wow, a 400w HPS brought up my bill only $10 in Michigan, but I only used it for flowering. I would suggest using CFLs as opposed to the tubes simply because you can put a lot more light in a small space more economically with them, 100w of light run at 26w each, so for the cost of 400w of CFL you are only spending 104w of electricity. Have you looked into the Screen of Green technique?

Urdedpal and SCRoG
Urdedpal and more about SCRoG

 

[sfhaze]

I think sea of green is what we are talking about but with little or no veg time. The goal is lots of small, say 18"-24" tall plants packed in a tiny space.

cfls are 4x old fashioned incondesent lights but about the same effectiveness as hps for the same power (actually worse I think). LEDs are at least 3 times more energy efficient then hid or cfls (the vendors claim 30 times better - but that's most likely an exaggeration). I really want to try out LEDs....