$$ change of lighting question

at the moment i am using 2 26watt cfls , and 2 20 watt cfls + 1 16watt cfl. just wondering my plants are gowing slow and they are 8 weeks in and only 6 inches tall they look like little bonsai's lol , so im thinking of getting a HID light , now im not paying the electicity bill my stepdad is and he and i dont get along , will this stack up the power bill huge enuff that he'd say something to me ? id be on 16/8

cfl's don't use too much power..way less than a fan heater or even any kind of elec heater....u should be fine with that

switch all your lights in your house to cfls and be energy efficient and you probably wouldnt notice if you got a little hps

You need more cfl wattage than that. You also need a mix of 6500k and 2700k light. Read the thread on mixed light in the cfl forum for details.

you sure!? coz im pretty sure u only use 2700k for flowering ... i have some 4200k laying around think that will do ?

smallclosetgrowr said:

you sure!? coz im pretty sure u only use 2700k for flowering ... i have some 4200k laying around think that will do ?

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There's a good thread on the importance of mixed lighting. I try to get 70/30 6500/2700 in veg and the reverse in flower. Yes, the 4200 is a mixed spectrum.

If you can, try to check your electricity providers website for how much they charge per Kilowatt hr (charge for every 1 hour of 1 kilowatt use.) Say your lights added up to 100 watts, it would take ten hours using those lights to get one kilowatt hour. So add up your wattage ( 108 ), then multiply that number by the number of hours per day you have the lights on (16 x 108 = 1728 ) so if you are using 16 hours lighting schedule then you are using just under 2 kilowatt hours per day. So multiply 1.728 by the cost per Kw/hr, then multiply that by 30, and you have how much your setup will be costing you per payment period. What you have right now will probably be in the neighborhood of 2-3 dollars. Good luck.