Simple nOOb instructions for growin' da dankness

Accurately estimating your electrical usage from an indoor grow:

Take your total watts. It helps to group items on the same timer together.
Take the number of hours per day you are running each group of items.
Calculate the percentage of the time each group is turned on.
Multiply by that % figure to get an average hourly watt usage, then by 24 to find total daily watt usage for each group.
Add the value for all groups together.
Multiply by the number of days in your billing cycle (one month).
That is your WATT HOURS per month.
Divide by 1000.
That is your kwh per month.
Multiply by your charge per kwh.
That is your bill.

Example:
A grower has a 1000 watt flower room on 12/12, a 400 watt veg room on 18/6, a 150 watt clone chamber on 24/0, a 500 watt air conditioner running all the time, and a blower on each room that draws 20 watts and is on only when the lights are on. (this is just an example mind you)

Group 1 is the shit that is always on:
-a/c @500w
-20w blower for clone room
-150w clone chamber lights
Your daily draw is all of that, straight. 670w x 24 = 16,080 watt hours per day used

Group 2 is the 18/6 area:
-20w blower
-400w light
18 is 75% of 24 so .75 x 420 gives the total daily draw for that room: 315 watts x 24 = 7,560

Group 3 is the flower room on 12/12:
-1000w light
-20w blower
They are on 50% of the time and 1020 x 0.5= 510w, x 24= 12,240

Add all that together:
12,240
7,560
16,080
______+
35,880

That's 35.88 kilowatt hours per day, and there are 30 days in your cycle, so 1076.4 kwh per month.

Say your charge per kilowatt hour is $0.23

Your growroom will cost you $247.57 per month to operate.
Add 10% for small shit like pumps and oscillating fans.

Stinky rocks and we all know it.



I would like to add a bit of advice:

Don't pay too much attention to your plants! If your numbers are right (pH, EC, temperature, light, circulation), you won't have much work to do. Don't stare at your plants trying to find something to fix!

Ms. Stinkyattic, I didn't intend to lurk so long but I've been busy absorbing all the info on the site.

We, my wife and I, are currently vegging 8 healthy babies and one freak of nature. The freak has leaves the size of my hand.

Today we added some molasses to one of the plants to make sure there would be no ill effects before treating the remaining plants. I know you said not to be as aggressive during veg but, how often should I add the molasses?

In case it matters, we are using 6500k CFL's for vegging. We'll switch to 2700K CFL's for flower. Soil is MG because it's all I could find. I just ordered some Pure Blend Pro Grow, Flower and some Sweet. We'll be transferring all to a Homebox as soon as it arrives.

How often should I add nutes?

Thanks to you and all the other contributers for the detailed info and the inspiration.

McT

I like to give nutes for three waterings in a row, and then just water really heavy. You will judge how often that is by how fast your plants use up their water. IF they are growing fast and feeding heavy, they will get ferted more often. If they are growing slowly and you find that you only have to water ~3x/week, then that is also how often to fert them.
Go easy on molasses too- a tablespoon in a gallon will do the trick.

Thank you. That's a great help. I think all the info is finally starting to sink in.

This Thread could help any grower from new to experienced. Its trial and error

Thanks So much for quick feedback stinky

Thanks so much for the info. stinky. It helps so much being a first time grower. I spent about 2 hours re-writing what you had posted in ALL your posts in shorter terms for me to remember so I can refer to that paper while doing the processes. I am currently germinating the seeds I have recieved. I will try growing my first two plants as soon as I see my first root. I just would like to know when the cannibis 'stinch' starts to smell, and how bad will it smell in the house?

Thanks in advance.

Odor! woo hoo.

Stink of your plants depends TOTALLY on strain and conditions. Some strains will stink up a whole area from the time they are still quite small, while others (sold as 'low-odor' if you use the searhc function in seed vendor site queries) can go right through flower with very little detectable odor, or even an odor fairly UNLIKE cannabis.

Also, your temperature and nute regime play a part in this.

A good rule to follow is you DEFINITELY need odor control in flower if you are trying to grow even somewhat stealth, and the scale of the odor control and the scale of your LIGHTS should match. If it's a super stinky strain, go overkill on smell control. You get used to it being around it all the time; the postman does not.

I had a frightening moment a while back pulling up to my house on a day when the air was still and smelling the stank BEFORE I GOT OUT OF MY CAR. You can bet your buns I ran out and bought a better blower and filter THAT EVENING!!! lol

Ok I just bought a bathroom filter that sticks on the wall but I bought the most expensive one at lowes (79.99)

Although it is nto illegal to grow cannibis in California, I do have a landlord who checks up on the house every 2 months or so? Should this work fine?

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it =] Also, I posted on how much I should water from very beginning to very end if you could enlighten me a bit on that. I would appreciate your knowledge.

Thanks man

Sitck on bathroom deodorizers aren't the sort of filter you'll need- a carbon filter such as an odor sok or a rigid model are correct for a grow of more than a plant or 2.

If your landlord knows, he can evict you because it's still FEDERALLY illegal in all states and the Feds can actually make a motion to seize property owned by someone who has knowledge of illegal activities on the premises.

Watering depends on your lights, soil type, size, and vigor of the plant.

And that's 'woman' ;)

Happy harvestin.