MH and HPS lights, expensive electric bill

[hoodrider]

Just get an HPS they are more efficient and better for flowering. It's a better all around bulb. MH is less efficient and pretty much a waste of money. Either do HPS all the way through, or go fluros for veg then switch to HPS for flower.

[BukDatAss]

Hey I heard digital Ballasts can save money of the Bill

[stinkyattic]

Hey I heard digital Ballasts can save money of the Bill

That is one of the things they're designed for, but there have been a couple people on the board who reported that they aren't always dependable like the oldschool ballasts. I've never owned one so I don't know.

The flipfloppers are meant to save money if you have more than one lamp.

[Tupamaro]

now just wondering but do most HPS systems need ballasts?

[stinkyattic]

They all do. All HID-type lights and all flourescent lights need them. Screw-in type CFLs just have them built in small so you can't see them!

The more watts, the beefier the ballast.

[cannamail]

now just wondering but do most HPS systems need ballasts?

Yes they do The digital ballasts that have been mentioned above sound like they save money and give you more power from the bulb too but at the mo peeps are still reporting they give interference to radios and that for quite a distance so might lead to a bust. Theres plenty of suppliers doing standard hps though and yeah they'll give a better yield than fluoros so you'll get back what you put in there.:smokin:

[m.g.]

it's easy to figure the costs of electricity use by looking on your bill for cost/kwh (kilowatt hour). say you have a 1,000W lamp and it's on 18 hours/day. i check the bill and find it costs 10 cents/kh and mulitpily that by 18 (hours it is on) then times 30 (days/month).

iow, 0.10 X 18 = 1.8 (cost per day) and take that X 30 = $54.00/mo...the cost to run one 1kw light each month.

[crazywill]

Here's the math to find out the cost per kwh
Watts x Hours =Kwh per say 400 watt light times 18 hours = 72 kwh
On the electricty bill it will tell you the cost of kwh around .11 cent per kwh
so .11 cents times 72 kwhs = 792 times 30 days = 23.76 for a month.
I got this from wanta learn web site. hope it helps