Ausmith I completely agree with what you are saying. For most people here, gorwing peppers is principally a hobby and not a way of lowering your supermarket bill (and in the UK you have to go to middle eastern markets in London to get Scotch Bonnets, and supermarket chillies are generally rubbish tasting and uninteresting). I also have a small indoor grow setup now to get my plants kick-started through winter ready for spring, not because I want year round chillies, (although that would be nice) but because I couldn't wait till spring to plant, and am expecting a much greater crop from planting early (English weather is generally quite poor as I'm sure you will have heard).
My point was to make people aware of the cost involved (many people don't really think about it till they get their electric bill back) and this highlights the importance of efficient use of light you are providing them. I am just using 2*36W CFL bulbs and foil reflectors growing 15 plants which are about 3 months old now, which has been working fine (a bit of a stretch but don't want to add any more lights) and not too expensive to run around £5.50 /month.
1. Definitely agree though that it is a rewarding hobby and worth the effort.
2. The cost per kWh are average figures I found on the internet, yes UK electricity is significantly more expensive than the US (~50% more), but it is dependent on a number of factors, time of the day (cheaper at night), location (California has higher bills than most other states), electricity provider and contract etc.
3. This is my main reason for growing peppers, I want to try them but can't readily get good peppers cheaply (except in middle-eastern markets where scotch bonnets are £1 for a big bag of 15 or so of them
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4. With bulbs it's all about outlay cost and their efficiency. HPS and HID's apparently are the most efficient 130 and 100 lumens/watt respectively, although this is also size dependent. White LED's are usually 60-90 lumens/watt, for coloured LED's it's a little harder to gauge because lumen output is lower but in the frequencies which are needed for photosynthetic processes by the plant, CFL's are around 60-80, however I think T5 fluorescent bulbs are reputed to be the most efficient fluorescent ones, and obviously reflectors are just as important.
I love all the technology available to indoor growing (thanks cannabis growers) but don't have a lot of money to finance this hobby (I'm a PhD student) so cost-effectiveness is my main interest.
