Why was my electric bill so high?

So I vegetated my plant with a 24 hour light cycle for 4 weeks and then I flowered my plant for 5 weeks but then my bro cut it because he said look at the electric bill. Usually our electric is around 70-100 bucks. Ours this month was 815 bucks! I used two 45 watt bulbs the whole time. But did I do something wrong? Or is that normal? I used CFL's

Find out what your electricity company charges you per kilowatt hour, and you can calculate exactly how much it costs to run your lighting.

A 90W bulb running 24/7 shouldn't cost more than $20 a month, and even that seems expensive. Something else has caused the spike in your bill.

xXMYSTERIOUSXx said:

So I vegetated my plant with a 24 hour light cycle for 4 weeks and then I flowered my plant for 5 weeks but then my bro cut it because he said look at the electric bill. Usually our electric is around 70-100 bucks. Ours this month was 815 bucks! I used two 45 watt bulbs the whole time. But did I do something wrong? Or is that normal? I used CFL's

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phone your power company...that happen to me once, they had made a mistake on the meter reading....or you have a seriuos power leak...either or you need to talk to them.

PS: no way in the world you could have used that much power for your 90 watt setup

Thanks guys, I'm pretty sure it's cause i left the oven on overnight a few times lol :b

Using any space heaters?

ACtually yes I am, I was thinking that might be the problem too.

xXMYSTERIOUSXx said:

Thanks guys, I'm pretty sure it's cause i left the oven on overnight a few times lol :b

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For that bill you'd probably have to leave it on 24/7 with the door open and even that wouldn't necessarily be enough.

If your meter has to be read manually it's a different story, it's not done every month usually. More like once a year. That way you get a balancing bill which can be that big if you've been using more than expected for a year. A friend of mine once got a balancing bill of over 2k. He was burning several kW of HPS though.

You should really get to the bottom of this. Like Indoor Sun King said the power company could have screwed up. You cannot really leak that much anywhere without something dramatic happening. If you haven't already, DON'T PAY THE BILL until you've called the power company. They will probably be quite helpful.

I don't know your electricity cost but around here you'd have to use close to 10kW 24/7 to get that kind of bills.

If it's from heating your house leaks warmth badly. You'd also have to live in a quite cold area.

The CFL accounts for:
veg: 28 x 24h x .09kW = 60.5kWh
flower: 35 x 12h x .09kW = 37.8kWh
total: 98.3kWh

multiply with cost per kWh to get the price. It's peanuts.

And it's spread over two months.

Shame on your bro for cutting your plant like that.

I bought a fixer upper and before I moved in I set up a grow. The power bill is 20 bucks a month once it's hooked up, no matter if you use power or not. They call it a maintenance fee. So after setting up a window AC, 600hps, fans, ect. the bill went to 70$. No way your using that much.

Its ur space heaters...they use ALOT of electricity

Give your brother a slap

thatboyis1uvakind said:

Its ur space heaters...they use ALOT of electricity

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Testify! Pushed my normal 4-500 dollar bill up to 750 last month with space heaters...I told everyone we're going shopping for warmer blankets and pajamas

Sometimes the electric company just estimates your bill and doesn't come for a reading every month. All of a sudden they come out and see the underestimated for 8 months and they charge you all at once. My company does that. You can usually get them to break it down over a period of time.

Obvious mistake by power company causing a strange coincidence. I have done 8,000+ watts grows and have never come close to 800 a month, and that includes using the regular power needed for non-growing appliances.

xXMYSTERIOUSXx said:

ACtually yes I am, I was thinking that might be the problem too.

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My little bathroom space heater I use in the winter is a whopping 1500 watts, just using it periodically throughout the winter months makes a big difference on my electric bill.

A simple furnace fan can run 16amps and thousands of watts. I use to run it in the winter 12+ hours a day to keep all parts of the home somewhat similar warm temperatures and it cost about 125 a month just for the fan. Do the math and tell your bro he's a jackass.

Rancho Cucamonga said:

Obvious mistake by power company causing a strange coincidence. I have done 8,000+ watts grows and have never come close to 800 a month, and that includes using the regular power needed for non-growing appliances.

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Well I'm nowhere near 8k watts and I'm telling you a 600 dollar bill isn't too out of the ordinary. Regular power for non growing appliances? Lol...I guess we're overdoing it with the 24 hour a day laser light show...

I run 2 600 watt cfl set ups..2 space heaters at night only...3 bedroom house w 3 kids n two adults... central heat air washer dryer dishwasher etc etc.,..my bill last month was only $225...

thatboyis1uvakind said:

I run 2 600 watt cfl set ups..2 space heaters at night only...3 bedroom house w 3 kids n two adults... central heat air washer dryer dishwasher etc etc.,..my bill last month was only $225...

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Depends a lot on where you live, too. We get raped in 5th tier here in the LA area...

On every heater there is a label where you can read its power consumption.

Also keep in mind that space heaters only use what they need to keep the house warm as they have thermostats. Once the desired temp is reached, the heater stops heating to turn itself on again when the temp drops again. Heating costs are mostly dependent on insulation, house size, ventilation and indoor/outdoor temp difference. And heating method, but going there would be too far offtopic although I love to babble about heating

Most likely it's a balancing bill, read it through carefully. Your meter probably hasn't been read for a year or a half before now and the bill has been cumulating as you've been paying smaller estimates.

Metasynth said:

Depends a lot on where you live, too. We get raped in 5th tier here in the LA area...

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Tier 5 - .35 kWh last month courtesy of SoCal Edison

Yeah there is something up with that. My all T5 grow hardly effected my power bill.