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Power consumption costs

Ok well ive been wondering what the cost is of the light I have and have been running. I found a calculator online that converts the watts to kw/hr and based on price per kwh your power is then figures out the total based on the daily hours of operation.
Im curious is it simple math like theyre making it seem?
Is the calculation they gave me right? Does the power consumption change from between diff ballasts of the same wattage. Example: does a 1000w & 400w mh use the same energy ea hour to produce the same wattage that a hps setup with the same rated watts use the same amt of kilowatts?
Also same thing for the t5 compared with the hps and mh?
Thanks for any answers in advance.
Just trying to decide what is the cheapest and how far of a gap the operating cost is between the 3..
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I just cant seem to get myself to beleive its .72 $ per day to run a hps or mh with ballast. Seems like it would be way more than that. Idk though, hopefully someone has some better info on this topic than goigle provided me haha..
 
400watts is 400watts whether its a light or a fridge or a heater or a tv... watts are watts are watts. A 1000watt light will use 2.5 times the power a 400watt will thus costing 2.5 times a much in electricity costs.

72 cents a day is the cost IF your kw/hr costs are 6 cents. If that is what you actually pay than you are doing real good. .72 a day is still 21 plus dollars a month.
 
millworkman said:
400watts is 400watts whether its a light or a fridge or a heater or a tv... watts are watts are watts. A 1000watt light will use 2.5 times the power a 400watt will thus costing 2.5 times a much in electricity costs.
72 cents a day is the cost IF your kw/hr costs are 6 cents. If that is what you actually pay than you are doing real good. .72 a day is still 21 plus dollars a month.
Good to know! Yea our power here in Illinois is cheap ive been seeing others paying 20-30 cets+ per kw.
Wasnt sure if the 7amp ballast vs a lesser amperage at same watts is different but i guess that wasnt the smartest thought ive had sense an amp is simply a measurement of the current draw and has nothing to do with the the wattage or consumption lol corect me if im wrong please!
I dont run my plants indoors... Just on days that are cloudy with no sunlight and during rain. Plus my 1000w hps is giving me 20-30k more lumes than the shade outside (the 1000w hps i have is giving more than the 130,000 its rated aprox 142k lumes) even if there isnt 1 cloud in the sky. Also my potted plants get only 6 1/2hrs of sleep ea night. They get brought in an hour or so before sunset and thrown under the light which shuts off at 1130pm and on at 6am and theyre under that until 7-9am depending when I get up for the day.
So around $20/month to keep doing this is well worth it to speed up their growth i hope...
laynlow said:
For less then $20.00 you can pickup one of these:
 
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU
 
This will tell you exactly how much power the lights are using.
Theres one floating around here at my house somewhere just havent found it yet. Found a new 1000w hps bulb while searching the garage today so did away with the 400w mh I was using. It looks like the sun is in my garage when its on,
Is it probably a smart idea to wear sunglasses when I go out to check on things? Lol
 
ghost scorpion grower said:
Good to know! Yea our power here in Illinois is cheap ive been seeing others paying 20-30 cets+ per kw.
Wasnt sure if the 7amp ballast vs a lesser amperage at same watts is different but i guess that wasnt the smartest thought ive had sense an amp is simply a measurement of the current draw and has nothing to do with the the wattage or consumption lol corect me if im wrong please!
Power (watts) is simply voltage (volts) * current (amps). P=IV. So I=P/V so 400W/120V=3.3A. 1000W/120V=8.3A
 
So if your ballast runs on 120V & pulls 7A it's actually using 840W of power. The power rating of lights is usually the power delivered to the bulb not the total power used by the ballast. Efficiency is a measure of power in vs power out. Efficiency=P(out)/P(in). P(in)=P(out)+P(waste). Magnetic ballasts are far less efficient than digital ballasts due to the way they operate. If you feel your ballast it will be nice & warm, all that heat is from the power being burned up by the ballast itself and it's where the wasted power goes. No power supply is 100% efficient so you'll always be using more power than you're actually delivering to your load.
 
So to answer your question about whether a 400W HPS light uses the same amount of power as a 400W MH or 400W T5, the answer is "kinda". It depends on the efficiency of the ballast but it shouldn't vary more than about 20% so in practice it will be pretty damn close. 
 
Fluorescent T5 ballasts are ~80% efficient for a cheap one and >90% for a high efficiency HO model.
MH ballasts are 85-90% efficient for magnetic and >95% for electronic.
 
If you are trying to rough estimate your costs, add 10% to the lamp power and that will get you pretty close.
 
Electricity is pretty simple. It's not like trying to compare PAR luminous efficiency of lighting where it is difficult to even get the information you need to do the calculation. Watts is Watts.
 
Haha I went too big. Melted the adapter between the plug in on my timer and my power strip plug in and the timer itself lol..
I decided to see how the plants like the combo of hps & mh together.
Im using a 9.5 amp 1000w hps ballast and a 4 amp mh ballast. I guess the 15amps & 1750 watts the timer was rated for werent quite right.
Oh well 25ft 12ga cord ran inside to a dif plug in to run the 400w to avaoid any other issues sense my whole garage is on the same breaker I figured it was a good idea to seperate the current between 2 breakers. Felt I should share my ignorance so someone might not do the same.
Learned not to use a cheap timer for more than a 1000w balast lol
And as far as my ballast heating up they are magnetic and do no such thing. After 6hrs of running theyre still room temp no heat at all. Kinda wierd..
And sry for the misinformation on the amps of the ballast I stated earlier.
Im suree me running 2 ballast on a 4sq ft area of potted peppers is overkill but so far they seem to be handling it just fine no wilt or burns or anything.
The temp at the top of the plants are between 90-95 with a big box fan blowin on them from 6ft away so good airflow. I figire midsummer direct sunlight is way beyond what im throwing at them.
Plus with my powrr only being 5.19cent/kwh I figired why the hell not!
 
Anf the reason for me doing so is in an attempt to gove them a full light spectrum while theyre inside. Sense im only using as a supplemental light source to go allong with them going outside in the sun the cost should even be that noticeable on my bill maybe 30-40 bucks at most I hope at least
millworkman said:
Geeez thats a lot of light.
Still not as mutch as the sun but yea its like walking at the sun to go in the garage. Sunglasses are needed haha :)
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My camera doesnt like the light, from 10ft or closer I get those lines
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Makes you think there are more than peppers in there huh? :high:  :lol:
just peppers my friend nothing illegal goin on over here lol
Got a good laugh outa that 1 tho. Just trying to get some fast growth so im trying to juice them up a little.
Hopefully them setting in about 80° with the 2 lights on them for a few hours a day will dry the soil quickly so I can slowly build up some nutes in the soil by watering daily with some fish emulsions.
 
Yea thats what I said but I guess in some places its the norm.. glad im not in one of those areas
Were on the way cheap side of things here
5.19cent/kwh. Anyone else paying less than that?
 
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