A question from a fellow grower:
I’ve got a grow tent it came with a Luca 600w grow light and ballast my first bill was $700 do you think the 125w CFL lights are good for efficiency can you recommend any low drawing lights
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My budget grow lights i made. My bill has not changed. The grow tube set up its on 24 hours right now…but i have little space to work with. My yield will be smaller then having a large light like that…hope that helps.
James
let me see if i got this correct , you went to using a 600 watt lite and you lite bill increased 700 dollar’s ???
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Holy snap , but yeah they have big CFL grow lights that’s 125 watts or 250 watts , maybe even bigger , but you can get T-5 set up are Led which don’t put off much heat and don’t pull that much kilowatts to run your bill up . I been running 2 Led panels with 2 CFL and my bill actually went down , not up …Holy smokes you might want to grow some autos in a window or outside if a ballast costing you that much . Hell you won’t even make $700 with your first harvest …Decisions ?
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I am sorry, you are not going to be able to match the performance of HID light with CFLs. Traditional HID’s like high pressure sodium and metal halide are about the most efficient light sources, watt for watt, with the exception of the newer technology of ceramic metal halide or some LEDs.
Ceramic metal halide or some LEDs might be your only option to increase the amount of light you can get with lower wattage use. You will have to do a lot of research to find something that is in your budget and meets your needs.
With CFL, T5 high output fluorescent lights and some LEDs, you may have to learn new growing styles to accomplish the yield per square meter you are probably also looking for.
happy growing,
MacG
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Hey MacG quick question , when you say Ceramic metal halide are you meaning a HPS??? the term you used has gotten me ?? , my knowledge of lighting , please enlighten me , thanks . Hammer
Do you do a lot of arc welding or perhaps your making ceramic pottery in a kiln around the house?
I believe $700 seems a bit excessive for a residential electric bill with one 600w hid light, perhaps you may have a short circuit somewhere -best wishes
No, high pressure sodium (HPS) used to be about the most efficient, it is still about the most affordable, watt for watt, to get started with.
Ceramic Metal Halide, also known as Light Emitting Ceramic, or most accurately called Ceramic Discharge Metal-Halide (CMH, LEC, CDM, respectively) are known to out preform traditional quarts metal halide (MH) by about 20% in electrical efficiency and even out preform HPS in photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) which results in better growth per watt used.
~MacG
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I have found that my bill didn’t change much bout 20% I have found that if you make your dark period in the day and light period at night elec rates are cheaper and also watched regular tv with home theater system turned off…using led’s
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gonna have to do some reading on that … one more question? , would this be similar to plasma lighting… ?? thanx Hammer
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ÌI noticed you seemed to have a bit of a question with that amount as well! That’s about a Year’s worth of electricity for me, and I have kind of a big house. I used to heat it mostly with electric space-heaters 5 months of the year, my biggest bill ever was about $170.
This year I found that burning heating oil is cheaper than electricity, so they’ve been about $125 (+/-)
Someone stated the best option I would recommend and that’s having your lights on after peak hour of the daily household , most homes are more active between 7am - 8 pm on average so most billing companies raise kilowatt surcharges during this time frame . I turn my lights on at 10 pm for 18 on and 6 off and this also helps with heat , temperature , and humidity as well being it’s cooler at night than daytime hours which I would suggest . But I believe that kind of surcharge has to be in another country like Austraia or where electricity is not a main source of resource . But if running a ballast cost that much , I’ll plug it in a generator or a power inverter or something that won’t run the bill so high , my goodness that’s ugggg ummm damn pretty high ? Than the average harvest from a novice grower don’t yield that much the first time growing to cover that cost , I’ll be wiring some car batteries or duracells or something , but a decent Led panel , T-5 's or CFL 's would be a better choice for electricity consumption that won’t redline the bill that high , are grow outside …the sun is free and it’s the best light , but MacG is right compared to the sun I think HPS / MH is the next best thing compared to the sun watts per square foot for growing .
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I moved from a major city suburb, to a smaller city out and the electric is almost $120 difference cheaper. Moved 38 miles. LOL
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