Did it really cost me this much??

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Fizzikos

Member
The wife and I are headed out of here for the weekend and so my first "grow" is comming to an end... to those that have read some of my other posts you know how horrible the conditions were and that i had no clue what i was doing and had horrible everything lol.. so no loss on these plants i only kept it going this long to mess around with a few things and learn...

anyhow- our electric bill came just now and it's about 100$ more than usual... I haven't even been running a whole 4 CFLs all this time, most of the time i was just using 2x32watts... at the very end here i had the two 32s, and 2 26's both hovering above the plants on Y splitters... and just a small fan running in the closet to circulate air.

i know leaving even a few lights on 24/0 is going to cost something but a hundred bucks for 4 CFLs??? (it wasn't even 4 the whole time, that's only been for a week or so!)

is this the typical cost for running an extremely modest CFL grow? (so modest that it wasn't even good enough lol)
 
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actont

Active Member
lol...your hydro company is fucked. I run 2 1000w HPS at .05KW/s and my bill goes up 5.00 a month...those lights should have cost you about 1.25 for the month if that!...do you have fans/air pump.. etc?
 
zack66

zack66

Well-Known Member
Fizzikos said:
The wife and I are headed out of here for the weekend and so my first "grow" is comming to an end... to those that have read some of my other posts you know how horrible the conditions were and that i had no clue what i was doing and had horrible everything lol.. so no loss on these plants i only kept it going this long to mess around with a few things and learn...

anyhow- our electric bill came just now and it's about 100$ more than usual... I haven't even been running a whole 4 CFLs all this time, most of the time i was just using 2x32watts... at the very end here i had the two 32s, and 2 26's both hovering above the plants on Y splitters... and just a small fan running in the closet to circulate air.

i know leaving even a few lights on 24/0 is going to cost something but a hundred bucks for 4 CFLs??? (it wasn't even 4 the whole time, that's only been for a week or so!)

is this the typical cost for running an extremely modest CFL grow? (so modest that it wasn't even good enough lol)
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That seems like alot of money. I run 2 rooms with 600's, t-5's lots of fans and my bill runs an extra 100 a month. Sounds like something isn't right on your end.
 
Jus Naturale

Jus Naturale

Active Member
Agreed. I just did some rough math a few days ago to see how things could be expected to pan out, so I was looking at electricity bills. For four T5s and a couple CFLs, it was literally a couple dollars a month. Again, rough math, but no where even near $100.
 
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growone

Well-Known Member
something is not right, i run 3 cfls of around 26/27 watts, micro grower
and the cost on my electric bill is nearly invisible, certainly no more than $5 a month, probably less
 
Bong Wizard

Bong Wizard

Active Member
Yeah man I agree with the above posts. I run 3 400w hps/mh, 4 fans, two t5s, 2 space heaters, 2 exhaust fans, and 4 4' flouros and I think we're using about $100. Maybe even less than that. Are any of your breakers at your box hot to the touch? I only ask because I had a friend where this happened. It had something to do with the main juice coming into his house and a bad breaker. The electrician told my buddy that's why he was using more electricity than usual on his bill. Hope you get it figured out man!!
 
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~Dankster~420

Well-Known Member
I use 3 300 watt CFL'S + a 800 watt LED system + a 600 watt HPS system + 10 more 120 watt CFL'S + 2 28watt (blue spectrum) CFL'S and our electric isn't any higher then 80$ extra a month bro... you need to try and get an electrician take a look around if I where you bro... it sure wouldn't hurt, cause that doesn't sound right at all!!
 
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Fizzikos

Member
thank god... i'd rather be trying to figure out what the hell is going on than finding a way to justify what would no doubt have ben a waaaaay higher cost once i have a DECENT setup going... we keep the house pretty cold so space heaters get used every day... i'd say the bathroom one runs for around 45 min each morning while i shower and get ready, and maybe another 20 min at night soemtimes i'll run the same model in my office to warm it up a bit..

i'd say they are PART of this huge bill but the jump up by 100 is a little crazy... at least i know my hobby isn't killing us... i am hopefully going to acquire some HID lighting equipment for free this weekend and now i don't have to be scared to use it anymore :eyesmoke:
 
Becorath

Becorath

Well-Known Member
That isn't right. If you have an older rotary meter, turn off breakers one at a time and see if the wheel slows down drastically. If so, follow that circuit and see if there are any problems with it. Or just call an electrician.
 
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Fizzikos

Member
so the only breaker that's warm right now is labeled "hot water heater" and the wife and i just ran the place outa hot water so that all makes sense.

would it suck more energy with me running the CFLs through cheap adapters? The only simple candleabra bulb holders i could find were for E12 sockets so I picked up cheap E12-E26 adapters for most of this past month and over this past week i put a Y-joint onto those to run two bulbs on that one spot. (i'd like to note that i'm just seeing how this stuff goes.. if i were to try and do a similar setup for longterm use i'd put a lot more effort into finding the right equipment to keep things safe)

at the absolute peak i had a small fan going, a humidifier, and 113 watts of CFL running through two cords....
 
Bong Wizard

Bong Wizard

Active Member
I'm not sure how many of those little heaters you have, but I have heard that those little bastards can spin your meter off of the wall. I have no first hand knowledge of this, as I only run two tiny heaters for my grow, so take it for what its worth.
 
rocknratm

rocknratm

Well-Known Member
same as above. space heaters are why you got fucked. they use a ton of electricity. If you have a furnace that used nat gas turn that bitch up for your heat, itll save ya alot in the long run. Or, get a couple big boy lights (600w) and a couple fans. bill will be the same and youll have tons of meds!
 
DrKingGreen

DrKingGreen

Well-Known Member
I went to my elec company's website and calculated mine the other day. I was dumb and running peak hours so it was $85 a month. Been moving my light back 15 minutes every night since. Hoping to get that price cut in half
 
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Fizzikos

Member
yea i know the heaters are killer but it's pretty much only an hour a day total of those being used AND more importantly.. this isn't something that is new, we've used those heaters in the saem general capacity since buying the house
 
B.B.V.C.

B.B.V.C.

Well-Known Member
where i live the power company estimates the monthly amount that i will spend so my bills are fairly even then they will come take a reading and ill get a way bigger bill or sometimes a way smaller bill. Usually in the summer its smaller and in the winter its bigger. Maybe the same thing happened to you? And actont the only way it would cost $5 more a month is if your power company charges less than 2 cents/kwh AND you are only running the 1000w for 12 hours a day. Where I live a KWH is 12 cents so running a 1000w light for 12 hours a day would cost about $45 a month

Fizzikos each 32w bulb you use is using .032kw per hour and for each 26w its .026kw per hour so you are using a total of .116kw/h running all 4, running 24 hours a day you use 2.78kw or about 28 cents a day (at $.10 per kilowatt hour, it will say how much it costs in your area on your power bill) which equals about $8.30 a month for your 4 bulbs
 
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