Tips for grow setup/costs

A question from a fellow grower:

I have a gorilla grow tent with 2 kind k5- xl 1000 grow lights

what I am worried about is power usage and what the two lights will cost me …
have tried to read to understand current daily 24/7 but does not get better understand it.

for the two lamps by 1000 * 2 watt is a high power consumption …

so maybe i think I must cut down television, refrigerator, shower less to use the two lamps? or just to simply hire me another apartment that I use only for that purpose…

do you have any tips?

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I am not an electrician, but I play one on TV. :smile:

Looking up basic info on the Kind LED Tech Specs show that those lamps pull a true 650W each. If you are on 110 voltage, then each will use 5.9 Amps. You may wish to check to see what the amp level is on your breakers. My breakers are mostly 15 Amps; however, some newer houses use 20 Amp breakers.

Two of those lamps will be putting ~12 Amps on a single circuit, plugged into the same one.

Again, this is just a rough estimate. Nice light choice, btw. :smile:

""If youa re in EU and using 220, these figures are not accurate.

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hey guys, question:

I have a gorilla grow tent with 2 kind k5- xl 1000 grow lights

what I am worried about is power usage and what the two lights will cost me …
have tried to read to understand current daily 24/7 but does not get better understand it.

for the two lamps by 1000 * 2 watt is a high power consumption …

so maybe i think I must cut down television, refrigerator, shower less to use the two lamps? or just to simply hire me another apartment that I use only for that purpose…

do you have any tips?

1 Like

Are you in a country that uses 110 or 220 volts? That, along with what your Amp rating is on your circuit breakers will allow you to know the stress you are putting on your wiring.

As part of your concern, you mention running two Kind LED K5 1000 XL LEDs. Based upon their website’s info, they each pull 650 watts of true current. That is a total of 1,300 watts, should it all be on 1 breaker. To give you an example about power draw, that would be like running a very powerful microwave oven non-stop from 12 - 18 hours per day. (The standard microwave that most recipes take into account is 1,100 watts.) To give you an example, I’ve blown a breaker running a 1,300 watt microwave and then turning on a dishwasher tied into the same circuit.

You may wish to ask an electrician, or find out what each or your breakers can handle. You could also run each light off of separate outlets, that go to different breakers.

What makes this a difficult question is also, the unknown about the wiring in your house. Some houses have better wiring than others. Older houses may not have wiring that meets current safety codes. There are a lot of intangibles to consider.

I used to be responsible for setting up and mainting broadcast studios and control rooms, and ensuring nothing crapped out in the middle of a broadcast; however, we always worked with ideal state of the art conditions and schematics laid out by qualified electricians. Your best bet, imho, would be to have a full understanding of the way your house is wired, and maybe check with an electrician. You could hook everything up to an circuit that can handle 30 amps, yet even then, you need to ensure your wiring is able to handle the load.

There’s just a certain level of safety that you need to take into account when hooking things up to outlets. Regardless of whether you are in a 110 or 220 country, it is doubtful you run all of your electricity off of one breaker. You really need to know your layout.

I hope it works well for you. Hopefully others will chime in.

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I live in the EU, and in this country we use 220 - 240 (230) volts to be more accurate,
10 -16 amp fuses that go to different rooms in the house.
(50/60 hertz)

  • So realize now that I have to run the 2 light to separate outlets,
    I’ll check out what I´m paying in power, then come back to the calculation

Thanks mate
be safe…

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Glad to help. :smile:

If you are running 220, it is a bit more forgiving than 110; however, I would still suggest running them on different circuits and ensuring that they are mostly dedicated to the lights. Safety should always come first, imho.

As far as the cost, pricing, as done in the US is by Kw hour; however, even though I’ve worked in Europe, I have no clue what their cost is for utilities. I wish you well in your grow, and, as mentioned, am loving the hell out of your LED selection. :smile:

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That’s what I figured out last night also to drive them into two different circuits. Here also is considered based kwh. but it costs a lot more here than in the US …
but I found that as I use to have very hot at home and each of the panel heaters using 2000w and it tends to be on 24/7, so it is easy to just cut down on panel heaters so it goes up with the LED light use; )

hehe thanks, I am a new beginner but I hope with the k5 1000 I will get great results …

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Look at the Amps on your refrigerator or Computer. Maybe an AC unit.

For every 1000 watts lamps you are using; You could run 2 large Computers at the same rate of electrical consumption.

that was what I thought, at first I thought it was a lot of electricity usage for the 2 lights … but it’s not much at all!
You’ve helped me a lot in understanding (watts)
but thank you so much!

Hey LaStat What show you on?

@tlkbear, No show, thankfully. :slight_smile: I prefer to hide behind the camera at all costs. :smile:

My network was UK-based and affiliated with Sky, which led to a good bit of travel outside of the US. Our US studio, now closed, was next to ABC News, in Washington, DC. I was just joking about playing anything in front of a camera. That’s not for me. :smile:

Since then, I’ve produced a couple things, and now, mostly, I write.

The experience did give me a decenwoking knowledg of 110 vs 220, and 60 hz vs 50hz. (You can get around voltage; however, it’s not as simple with cycles. I had a clock I travelled with, which I loved, but it ran at 220V and 50Hz. I tried to use it in the US, but while I was able to use a 110 / 220 converter, the fact that it ran at 50 cycles,the clock would be off 16 minutes, every hour. Kinda sucked , they don’t sell that brand in the US.)

I had to mention safety in my posts, as the main thing I learned, when setting up studio sets and / or control rooms, was basically steps to keep me from touching hot wires and bouncing myself off of a wall. :smile:

I was a facility mechanic I took classes at night school it was called HVAC electricity. I started working with 440 so I needed to not die lol if you know what I mean. :sunglasses::+1:
Tom

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@tlkbear, ery uch so. We had folks tghat did all of that fun stuff for us. We basically set up all of the electronics, lighting, cameras, monitors, editing stations, etc, after that was all done. We just had to somewhat know basic stuff, like not to load all of the electronics on to one or two of the circuits.

I’d probably zap myself just looking at the internals of a 440 setup. :smile:

Not sure if there is a European Version of this but it really makes cost
calculation very easy. Read out can be set for actual real time usage
or can calculate Hr, Day, Month cost

Kill_a_watt_Electricity_usage_meter

I had three fourty watt cfl’s lights on.18hour’s on and six off it rased my elt bill only 14 dollars a month not so bad.I’m in Kentucky

It is all relative; Regardless of where you are.

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