FAQ! How To Save Electricity whilst growing! Or just lower your power bill!

How To Save Electricity whilst growing! Or just lower your power bill Dramatically! FAQ

Hey all! Iv recently been looking into how to save electricity around the home. As all of us know using HID’S increases our electricity bills substantially and it can be quite a shock when the inevitable bill arrives.

More pressingly a certain percentage of growers do not set up the grow light/lights efficiently and as a end result when harvest day arrives little bud is produced but the electricity bill is just as big.

High electric bills induces suspicion by police and can add the to the list of reasons to obtain a search warrant and therefore increases the risk of getting caught.

By investing in a few timers and energy saving light bulbs around the home electricity usage can be reduced dramatically. Even enough for a grower to have a 400w to 1000w HPS with out the electricity bill rising depending on the size of the home and appliances within.

Standby Wattage

Standby wattage is the amount of power used by an electrical appliance when left on standby. i.e. When you’ve turned the PC, TV, VCR, DVD player off but not off at the mains plug.

CO2 emissions from electrical equipment being left on standby are equivalent to 1.4 million long-haul flights A Year which is a shocking statistic alone.

Below Is a average guide to the amount of power used by different appliances whilst on standby. (take in to consideration that these numbers can be dramatically more than indicated.)

To figure out how much wasted wattage your home is using add up the amount of appliances and there correct wattage. The end number is energy your wasting and can easily save. The end number for my home was 455w more than a 400 watt hps.

Device Standby Wattage

Hi-fi/Stereo 10w
TV 10w
Video recorder 11w
DVD player 7w
Digital TV set top box 5w
Computer monitor 11w (more if lager screen and/or flat screen.)
Computer + peripherals 15w (more if games pc.)
Laptop computer 2w
Broadband modem 14w
Rooter 14w
Answering machine 3w
Battery charger 2-6w
Mobile phone charger 1-6w
Cooker and Hob 12w
Microwave 8w
Computer Speakers 12w
Toaster 4w
Games Console 18-24w
Printer 15w
scanner 15w
Sky Box 11w
Cordless Phone 8w
Washing Machine 2w
Kettle 3w
Fan Heater 4w

The best way to save all this power and by far the easiest is to go to your local hardware shop and buy 6-10 inexpensive timers, exactly the same as you would use to control the photoperiod of your lights. Place the timers around all the highest wattage using appliances about the home (plug the timers in multi plug extension leads to save even more power.). Program them all to turn off at night and when your at work or when ever you know people wont be using them.

You’ve Just substantially reduced the suspicion of one 400-600w HID. :)

Buying energy saving light bulbs

In most homes, lighting accounts for around 10-15 per cent of an electricity bill.
Energy saving recommended bulbs work in the same way as fluorescent lights. An electric current passes through gas in a tube, making the tube's coating glow brightly.

Traditional bulbs waste a lot of their energy by turning it into heat. Each energy saving bulb can reduce your electricity bill by up to £9 ($17) a year . They also last, on average up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs.

So in my case I have 21 light bulbs in my home. If I was to buy energy saving light bulbs I would save annually £189 ($368) a year on my electrically bill!

You’ve Just substantially reduced the suspicion of 1 400-600-1000w HID again. :)


Energy saving light bulbs are coming down dramatically in price (£2.50 a bulb in B&Q.) and are SERIOUSLY worth getting.



Configuring your pc to save electricity

Computers use a phenomenal amount of power when on. For example my desktop games machine has a 600w power supply in the case. And lets be honest the majority of us are guilty for leaving the PC on when were not using it.

Using Windows it is possible to put the monitor and pc into a 'sleep' mode in which it uses little power. This option is invoked after a predetermined period of inactivity has elapsed and is really intended for notebook computers, where the need to conserve battery power is often very important. However, the settings can also be applied to desktop computers. When powered off via this mechanism, the monitor and PC will power up again when computer activity recommences.

To configure your monitor and pc for these settings Bring up the control panel enter in to power settings and turn on either hibernation or standby. Place the activation time to 2 or 3 min. this maybe short but think of the power you’ll be saving.




Hope this was useful to everyone as it does really work. It helps people stop getting caught for such a little price. :)

thanx tom! great thread and info.

i love these damn hippies :p

kp

Hey Tom! I did just that. I went and bought 6 packs of those cfl's.They come 6 to a pack. I changed every bulb in the house. They are 15 watt and bright as hell,too! Before I changed the bulbs,my bill was running around 195.00-200.00,each month.After the end of the first month they were in. I saw a huge drop in the bill.I saved around 50.00 bucks.That was with the HID's running.It's even gonna be lower, at the end of this month cause I added the electronic ballast,got rid of the hummer.I use to run all over the house turning out lights and such.It was crazy! I have to add! The little things makes all the difference.Never used the timers in the house,except on the christmas lights.Pretty informative post for the energy concious! That'd be me and alot of you folk's out there!

Ga Grown!

Hook up all your tv/stereo/computer equipment to accessible powerstrips and unplug everything when you leave or go to sleep.

Hey, how much wattage is everyone wasting on standby? be intresting to show how much other homes are wasting. :)

Any one else doing anything like this?? be great to have some figures and input! :)

I'm going to be switching all my lightbulbs soon...I'll post after changing and getting the new bill. :jointsmile: Bree

What about a 42 inch plasma tv left on over 14 hours a day as background noise?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chronic Chrissy

What about a 42 inch plasma tv left on over 14 hours a day as background noise?

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It runs 399 watts and the speakers are 16 watts.

Ga Grown!

Holy Fuck! I'm turning the radio on on my days at home and H can live with a few hours less TV. Plus K is starting to be glued to the tube and I don't like that at only 6 months. WOW!