$600+ Electric Bill

spazstic

spazstic

Well-Known Member
Some help here appreciated,

I live in a 3 bedroom house in Cali and am running 2000W. My baseline is 400-450 Kwh per month but I've been getting up to 2500 kWh and my electric bill has been $600+ each month. (up to $0.31 per kWh). I am very frugal throughout the house, all CFLs, and only a few T5s for the mothers.

I wasn't worried about it until I noticed the power company was recently in my meter box. Don't know why. They don't need to be in there to check the meter. It actually looks like it's been a couple times now over the past few months (by the number of security locks on it).

What do you guys think? Am I just being paranoid? Thanks for any help on this.:leaf:
 
tip top toker

tip top toker

Well-Known Member
that's a ludicrous amount of money :O

might be they're just checking the meter for faults, being that one month your hitting let#s say $200 a month then all of a sudden it's passing $600, might just be checking for faults.

but as you say, lots of new locks, couple of times, tough call, i'm paranoid by nature so....
 
Topher89

Topher89

Active Member
Wow... To run 2000 watts on a 24 hour time frame it would be about $140 a month... That is a killer amount of money to be throwing at once! Maybe I just have real cheap electricity but you better be growin' dank shit!
 
tip top toker

tip top toker

Well-Known Member
i figured that but didn't say that :)

i use just under 1Kw normally, and i just got my latest bills in, covering a 3 month period, and that came to £70 for the electricity so $117. that's $40 a month
 
OregonMeds

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
You guys buy our surplus power at less than 7c per kwh and end up paying 31c damn...

Aside from that obscene markup...
Are you running the lights without active ventilation and just fighting both the indoor and outdoor heat with a whole house a/c unit?
 
TONYJEJO

TONYJEJO

Well-Known Member
spazstic said:
Some help here appreciated,

I live in a 3 bedroom house in Cali and am running 2000W. My baseline is 400-450 Kwh per month but I've been getting up to 2500 kWh and my electric bill has been $600+ each month. (up to $0.31 per kWh). I am very frugal throughout the house, all CFLs, and only a few T5s for the mothers.

I wasn't worried about it until I noticed the power company was recently in my meter box. Don't know why. They don't need to be in there to check the meter. It actually looks like it's been a couple times now over the past few months (by the number of security locks on it).

What do you guys think? Am I just being paranoid? Thanks for any help on this.:leaf:
Click to expand...
THAT CAN NOT BEE 4 REAL! I RUN 2000Watt+all electric stuf,tv,lcd,lap top,... and i pay 140/month! :-P
 
genfranco

genfranco

Well-Known Member
its all on how much your paying... most companies charge more the more you spend.... im thinking they have come out and inspect it for faults.. probably even replaced the meter... it does seem pretty high though. your bill should break down the different brackets of charge. You might be able to run two 600's and get by with paying only $.21 per kwh... just a thought. However if your doing 2k lights youll have to at least use 3 ounces of your harvest to cover that electric bill ....

good luck
 
Green Cross

Green Cross

Well-Known Member
genfranco said:
its all on how much your paying... most companies charge more the more you spend.... im thinking they have come out and inspect it for faults.. probably even replaced the meter... it does seem pretty high though. your bill should break down the different brackets of charge. You might be able to run two 600's and get by with paying only $.21 per kwh... just a thought. However if your doing 2k lights youll have to at least use 3 ounces of your harvest to cover that electric bill ....

good luck
Click to expand...
It's summer so you're no only burning 2000w on the lights, but you're cooling 2000w of heat. Work out a way to heat your house with that wasted energy in the winter months.

Cap and Trade is an energy tax coming down the pipeline - passed by the democrats (don't you love it) - and that's going to put most commercial growers out of business.
 
genfranco

genfranco

Well-Known Member
Green Cross said:
It's summer so you're no only burning 2000w on the lights, but you're cooling 2000w of heat. Work out a way to heat your house with that wasted energy in the winter months.

Cap and Trade is an energy tax coming down the pipeline - passed by the democrats (don't you love it) - and that's going to put most commercial growers out of business.
Click to expand...

I would think it would only either A. raise the price of the product. Or B. Lessen the profit of the the growers. But out of business? WHat about the little medical guys like me. Those are the ones that will hurt. When you cant run 1k lights for veg and flower .... i guess ill just have to sell to the store.. then get taxed...

Fuckers thats the whole plan right there... they make more with the electrical bill tax... and make more with the sell tax.... gotta love politicians.

I guess we just need to hope big for the outdoor season.
 
sleeper05

sleeper05

Well-Known Member
Ah yes.... i'm glad I live in Canada where there are no random power outages and we only have to pay 0.06 cents /KWH.... works out to like just over 20 bucks when i'm runnin 12/12... I love it!

Have you ever thought of asking one of the guys checkin your meter wtf is up?

Like the one person said already.... I'm paranoid all the time nevermind the times when people are checking my meter.
 
doobnVA

doobnVA

Well-Known Member
Holy carp!!! That's some expensive electricity. I run space heaters in the winter because of a broken furnace =( and 4000W of space heating probably ran us $300 during the coldest month. We used around 2400 Kilowatt hours that month (now we're under 1000). Are you sure you're not "leaking"? Are your lights on 24/0? Going back to 18/6 might help you out some in terms of cost (it should cut a quarter off your bill).
 
spazstic

spazstic

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the help,

I run my lights 12/12 with 4" ducting that vents to the attic so that removes a lot of the heat. I've also got a 10,000 BTU window AC unit that vents to the attic to keep the temps down. However, since it gets to 105+ degrees out here, the AC is running nearly 24/7 to keep up. Even still my temps get to 90-95 at times. I've got a 1/10 HP water chiller that is also running 24/7 to keep up and that draws around 200W. Nute temps stay at 70-78 degrees. However, that chiller is new and doesn't apply to the bill yet. I had a 400W MH for veg but had to get rid of that for the chiller, so the bill should even out.

I'm jealous of all this cheap electricity I hear about. $0.06 per kWh!!! Must be nice. My baseline is around $0.12 and it goes up to $0.31.

I don't ever see my meter man around because I am at work but I wouldn't ask him anyway. I think it may be suspicious to do so...

I never turn on the house AC (I sweat it out when it gets to 90-95 degrees inside) and we don't have any large appliances that would be sucking power. I know a guy here that had a $600 bill one month when he ran the AC all month, but I think he has a bigger house too.

I'm thinking I should switch to 600 watters. That will save me about 300 kWh each month. Don't know what else to do... I'm thinking I've gone too big for this house and need to back off. My girl and I have medical cards so we can grow 12 flowering plants legit. Problem is, it's either 12 vegging OR 6 flowering, so legally you can't have a rotation of crops.

Any body else have any other ideas? Or does anyone else have a bill around this size? Any help would be appreciated here - I am getting a little paranoid...

Thanks for all the suggestions...
 
destros beard

destros beard

Member
genfranco said:
I would think it would only either A. raise the price of the product. Or B. Lessen the profit of the the growers. But out of business? WHat about the little medical guys like me. Those are the ones that will hurt. When you cant run 1k lights for veg and flower .... i guess ill just have to sell to the store.. then get taxed...

Fuckers thats the whole plan right there... they make more with the electrical bill tax... and make more with the sell tax.... gotta love politicians.

I guess we just need to hope big for the outdoor season.
Click to expand...
Ever thought of solar panels for electricity? 3 - 4x4 solar panels could power your entire grow op for FREE....
 
spazstic

spazstic

Well-Known Member
destros beard said:
Ever thought of solar panels for electricity? 3 - 4x4 solar panels could power your entire grow op for FREE....
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've priced it out... but it would take more panels than that, and with the inverter it would run to nearly $12,000 for the system!

Maybe I should just move to where the electricity is cheaper....
 
genfranco

genfranco

Well-Known Member
spazstic said:
Thanks for all the help,

I run my lights 12/12 with 4" ducting that vents to the attic so that removes a lot of the heat. I've also got a 10,000 BTU window AC unit that vents to the attic to keep the temps down. However, since it gets to 105+ degrees out here, the AC is running nearly 24/7 to keep up. Even still my temps get to 90-95 at times. I've got a 1/10 HP water chiller that is also running 24/7 to keep up and that draws around 200W. Nute temps stay at 70-78 degrees. However, that chiller is new and doesn't apply to the bill yet. I had a 400W MH for veg but had to get rid of that for the chiller, so the bill should even out.

I'm jealous of all this cheap electricity I hear about. $0.06 per kWh!!! Must be nice. My baseline is around $0.12 and it goes up to $0.31.

I don't ever see my meter man around because I am at work but I wouldn't ask him anyway. I think it may be suspicious to do so...

I never turn on the house AC (I sweat it out when it gets to 90-95 degrees inside) and we don't have any large appliances that would be sucking power. I know a guy here that had a $600 bill one month when he ran the AC all month, but I think he has a bigger house too.

I'm thinking I should switch to 600 watters. That will save me about 300 kWh each month. Don't know what else to do... I'm thinking I've gone too big for this house and need to back off. My girl and I have medical cards so we can grow 12 flowering plants legit. Problem is, it's either 12 vegging OR 6 flowering, so legally you can't have a rotation of crops.

Any body else have any other ideas? Or does anyone else have a bill around this size? Any help would be appreciated here - I am getting a little paranoid...

Thanks for all the suggestions...
Click to expand...

well, it sounds to me like you need to move the grow room. You sound like you grow in your garage (like me ) ... that AC unit in the room probably isnt doing much since its getting its supply air from a very hot room to begin with. Try and work on venting the room better. House hold fans blowing hot stagnant air is all you can do in the summer time. Summer is for growing outdoors... veg during the summer for the next batch that you can start flowering when it cools off... you can veg nice big bushes for 2 months with a single light...

12 vs 6 thing is accurate. as far as the law is concerned. I have never heard of anyone getting busted for having some vegging though.... in any case you have 2 scripts... so you could do veg and flower anyway... 6 and 6 .... is what i would do.

hoenestly... 1 600 watter in a 4x4 is enough to get me buy for a month of partying.... so im really really counting on the outdoor...

see youll get our major weight out of 6 big ass ladies outdoors... and your indoor happyness will be just extra dankness for joys every few months... just forget about flowering indoors unless your using a room in your house that you are able to use the house ac (in the summer) ... then drop the lights to about half..

one of those double tents.. 4x8 with 2 600 watter in a room with 1 400 watter for your veg in a another tent... all this is just my $.02 and im high ass hell right now..LOL>.. ok lost my thoought...

:bigjoint:
 
spazstic

spazstic

Well-Known Member
genfranco said:
well, it sounds to me like you need to move the grow room. You sound like you grow in your garage (like me ) ... that AC unit in the room probably isnt doing much since its getting its supply air from a very hot room to begin with. Try and work on venting the room better. House hold fans blowing hot stagnant air is all you can do in the summer time. Summer is for growing outdoors... veg during the summer for the next batch that you can start flowering when it cools off... you can veg nice big bushes for 2 months with a single light...

12 vs 6 thing is accurate. as far as the law is concerned. I have never heard of anyone getting busted for having some vegging though.... in any case you have 2 scripts... so you could do veg and flower anyway... 6 and 6 .... is what i would do.

hoenestly... 1 600 watter in a 4x4 is enough to get me buy for a month of partying.... so im really really counting on the outdoor...

see youll get our major weight out of 6 big ass ladies outdoors... and your indoor happyness will be just extra dankness for joys every few months... just forget about flowering indoors unless your using a room in your house that you are able to use the house ac (in the summer) ... then drop the lights to about half..

one of those double tents.. 4x8 with 2 600 watter in a room with 1 400 watter for your veg in a another tent... all this is just my $.02 and im high ass hell right now..LOL>.. ok lost my thoought...

:bigjoint:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice... I think I'm gonna finish this crop and then try to stay within my limits (12 plants). I'll probably switch to 600 watters and let them grow big and bushy, trim the bottoms and then I can have 50 sq ft of decent nugs. Without SOG and a vegging room I won't be able to turn crops as fast but it will be better than nothing... :wall:
 
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