400W HPS and electricity cost???

[cwesto]

i have recently purchased a 400 watt HPS and MH from HTG with a growbright MH bulb and a agromax HPS bulb. I plan on putting it in a closet that is about 3'x5'. I am looking to see if anyone would know about how much that would run my energy bill, also if something like that in an average sized appartment would be flagged by the local authorities??? Also if anyone has any experience in the same situation i could use some temp and ventilation advice....

[khronik]

400 watts is nothing. When people get caught because of energy usage it's usually for like 20 1000-watt lights in the basement or something.

Your setup probably draws closer to 500 watts with the ballast, so assume 1 kilowatt hour will run your setup for 2 hours. A kilowatt hour of electricity usually costs 10 cents or less. If you're running 12/12, that's 60 cents a day.

A bathroom vent fan would work well, if the noise doesn't matter and if you have somewhere to vent to.

[cwesto]

Awsome, that is exactly what i wanted to hear. thankyou very much..

[twoguysupnorth]

i havnt tried a 400 yet, but the 150 costs about 5$ a month.

[cwesto]

i dont know how watts are priced but if i make an educated guess i would imagine a 400W would run about 12.5 $ or so, thats not so bad. thanks for the info..

[khronik]

In the US, it usually costs from 7 to 11 cents to run 1000 watts for one hour. That is referred to as the price per kilowatt-hour, which is abbreviated kwh. Your electric bill should give you this number more precisely.

[brussels]

Do you have the ability or space to move your plants outside during the day. I have 7 wk old sativa's that I keep outside during the day, and only five hours under lights in the evening.

For flowering, I'll still only use about 6 hours of lights, and 6 hours ourside. I was going to post pics of them, but can't figure out how...B

[cwesto]

um yeaaa... so the problem with putting them outside is that i live in a very urban area in an appartment complex. i have my plants in my closet, which is the most low key place at my homestead.

[Cervantez]

Hey bro, maybe you should think of changing to a 250w HPS, take a look at mine here
http://boards.cannabis.com/closet-cabinet-growing/122430-cervante-s-closet.html#post1512807
Actually, it is the same 'size' of the 400w, what i mean is that the 'plug' where you conect the 400w is the same for the 250w, cover your place with a lot of reflective material, the advantage is a lower light demand, plus you control easier your temp. Is a matter of space, if you have a confined space like me - I do live at apartment just like you - it is ok, but if you have a larger area, than you should go to the 400w lamp

[twoguysupnorth]

^^ the ballast is a different size though and they are the expensive part of lighting. he would have to get a different one.

[Weedywildwoman]

Hey there!

I was worried about lighting costs as well. I have a 400 watt M.H. and a 400 watt HPS and I saw no change in my electricity bill. I did start turning off aquarium lights to even out the costs. If you can maybe turn your fridge down a notch, or something like that I would think that would be enough to avoid any extra charges.

[khronik]

I replaced all the light bulbs in the house with CFLs and started using my laptop instead of my desktop for most things. I think the electric bill actually went down...

The reason I did that was actually to offset the cost of the electricity to my housemates, since we split it equally and I wanted it to be fair. And most of them don't know I'm growing. :smokin:

[jamstigator]

Here's a couple of older pics of my smaller flowering cabinet. Maybe give you some ideas. Works very well!

[jacked420]

my 400 watt hps makes my bill go up by about 9 bucks a month!