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Need Advice On Setting Up A Energy Effiecient Grow, All Ideas Welcome.


newonions

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I was hoping to set up a decent grow that  would use less then $20 worth of electricity a month.

 

Right now i have 2 seedlings and 2 clones under a 140watt mars LED grow light combined with a 150 watt high pressure sodium ballast/light.

 

will this be good enough to get decent results?

 

i want to do 8 plants but in separate grow tents  with similar light set up for each.

 

will this be good enough?

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get the new digital smart electric meter from your power company and then run lights at night for maximum savings.

 

also get power switches/strips and turn off all electronics when not using it (tv, cable box, video games, computer, etc). switch all lightbulbs in your house to led or cfl.

 

for a decent grow, i'd recommend 2x 400watt hps for 8 plants.

 

you only need the 400w hps at flower, during veg just use cfl or 150w or fluro t5/t8.

 

if you run during the day time, at 12cents per kilowatt hour (kw is 1000w)

 

400w x 2 = 800w , we'll round up to 1000w just for easy math and factor in fan wattage.

12-12 at 12cents per hour = $1.44 per 12 hour day. x 30 days = $43 per month.

 

but if you run at NIGHT for 4cents per hour...

12-12 at 4 cents per hour = 48 cents per 12 hour night. x 30 days = $14.40 per month.

 

these are the quoted prices on the DTE website, "time of day" plan.

http://dteenergy.com/residentialCustomers/billingPayment/electricRate/comparison.html

 

the day time dte hours are 10am to 7pm. so it gives you some leeway time in the night or morning to work on plants. depending on what you want to do

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I was hoping to set up a decent grow that  would use less then $20 worth of electricity a month.

 

Right now i have 2 seedlings and 2 clones under a 140watt mars LED grow light combined with a 150 watt high pressure sodium ballast/light.

 

will this be good enough to get decent results?

 

i want to do 8 plants but in separate grow tents  with similar light set up for each.

 

will this be good enough?

your current set up will grow cannabis. Whether its good enough, or produces decent results is subjective. This would not be good enough to supply myself or my patients, but it might be enough for you.  It costs you  per month 15.60, 24/7 @ .08/kwh to run your set up.  yields and quality would be better with bigger lights when flowering.  consider a low profile scrog garden to maximize light penetration/increase yields/quality if not choosing larger hid lights to flower with.

 

googled an electricity calculator http://www.electricity-usage.com tofigure out your exact monthly bill, they are very useful for this type of planning.

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And buy a Kill-A-Watt.

i didnt know what that was...

had to google

 

for those that do not know..

 

http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

 

P3 P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
List Price: $39.95 Price: $24.49 ($24.49 / unit) & FREE Shipping on orders over $35. Details You Save: $15.46 (39%)

 

  • Calculates Electrical Expenses By The Day, Week, Month Or Year
  • Checks The Quality Of Power By Monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency & Power Factor
  • Dim: 5.13"h X 2.38"w X 1.63"d
  • Electricity usage monitor connects to appliances and assesses efficiency
  • Large LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour
  • Calculates electricity expenses by the day, week, month, or year
  • Displays volts, amps, and wattage within 0.2 percent accuracy
  • Compatible with inverters; designed for use with AC 115-volt appliances
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I have a few of those , only to find that the info needed is listed on the back of every electrical device I own. They are cool little devices though, for the first couple weeks for techy types

 

I agree, Grassmatch, it's not necessary, but any tool-geek will certainly want one!  Had most of the fun when I first bought one but still find it useful especially when I want to see at a glance what a bunch of devices plugged into one outlet will draw. 

 

Also one can't always determine from the label what a device draws. LED units (not single bulbs) have a wattage based on individual led cell capability but actually draw much less. The unit I have says it is 300 watts but it only draws 130 watts. Some devices have only max amperage (math challenged folks - just multiply amps x volts. My T5 fluoros are labeled 1 amp @ 120V. It does indeed use 120 watts on a continual basis, confirmed by a Kill-A-Watt.)  An old inline fan says it's 12 watts but it's actually 16 (no biggie).

 

They are also great for determining the trickle charge, what a device is using in standby mode.

 

What I was really hoping for was a way to login to DTE and see real-time usage. T-pain suggested something akin to this, I think, but perhaps I don't have the right meter?

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but that's not as techy as a smarty phone log in app :geek::P

If you want to do it 'techy' then get yourself a digital laser photo tachometer and correlate the speed of the spinning meter to power usage. Then you could go out to the meter, take a reading and enter that into the computer program you made to give you near exact real time power usage. If you have a good eye for RPM you can use your brain to do the same thing and enjoy a stronger thinking brain with less techy crutches.

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If you want to do it 'techy' then get yourself a digital laser photo tachometer and correlate the speed of the spinning meter to power usage. Then you could go out to the meter, take a reading and enter that into the computer program you made to give you near exact real time power usage. If you have a good eye for RPM you can use your brain to do the same thing and enjoy a stronger thinking brain with less techy crutches.

settle down ole timer, I was speaking on behalf of techies, generally of the younger generations, not for myself. I could care less today what each device is consuming in my grow room. DTE so nice they send me a monthly bill that summarizes it for me.

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settle down ole timer, I was speaking on behalf of techies, generally of the younger generations, not for myself. I could care less today what each device is consuming in my grow room. DTE so nice they send me a monthly bill that summarizes it for me.

Then it was not about you. If the shoe doesn't fit you don't have to wear it. Sometimes a person will be quoted to help outline an idea and it's not really personally about them. Ole timer? Was that about me? LOL

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post # 8 "it's not necessary, but any tool-geek will certainly want one! Had most of the fun"

#9 "if you want techy do this.....

#10 "but that's not as techy" pointing right back to # 8

 

I will continue to post any way I choose resto, but thank you for your etiquette lessons here in this forum. shoe fitting or not, I own those devices, and can expertly speak on their uses, including techy fun. I am sure to follow your progress though, keep up the good work.

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post # 8 "it's not necessary, but any tool-geek will certainly want one! Had most of the fun"

#9 "if you want techy do this.....

#10 "but that's not as techy" pointing right back to # 8

 

I will continue to post any way I choose resto, but thank you for your etiquette lessons here in this forum. shoe fitting or not, I own those devices, and can expertly speak on their uses, including techy fun. I am sure to follow your progress though, keep up the good work.

Yah, well, everything I write isn't about you. Take that to heart. My posts will be less insulting to you taken in that light. You post the way you want to. I had no ambitions to change that. And no etiquette lesson either. More of an explanation that everything is not about you.

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Let's get this thread back on topic guys...

 

I was hoping to set up a decent grow that  would use less then $20 worth of electricity a month.

 

Right now i have 2 seedlings and 2 clones under a 140watt mars LED grow light combined with a 150 watt high pressure sodium ballast/light.

 

will this be good enough to get decent results?

 

i want to do 8 plants but in separate grow tents  with similar light set up for each.

 

will this be good enough?

 

That Mars 140w will be OK for flowering one plant, maybe two small plants depending on size and unless you're growing the clones or seed to 16" tall or less I wouldn't flower any later with both the Mars and the HPS combined.  I would consider a 400w hood in your veg tent running 18 hours a day and then a 600w hood in your flower tent for 12 hours, assuming you're running two tents for the purpose of keeping new plants on deck.  4 plants vegged to roughly 20-24" tall and topped once in 3-5 gallon pots, then flowered under the 600w.  That's what I would do in your situation.

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Yah, well, everything I write isn't about you. Take that to heart. My posts will be less insulting to you taken in that light. You post the way you want to. I had no ambitions to change that. And no etiquette lesson either. More of an explanation that everything is not about you.

yeah, grass. Use your 'brain' and you could easily see that those insults weren't for you. The sooner you take that to heart, the better. I lol'd so hard I farted
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A few numbers:

 

Assume ten cents a kilowatt-hour.

 

Twenty dollars buys 200-kWh a month. Say seven kWh a day.

 

Eighteen hours for veg or 300-400 watts per hour.

 

Twelve hours for flower or about 500 watts per hour.

 

HPS typically gets about 100 lumens-per-watt. Maybe 40-50,000 lumens at most for twenty-bucks a month.

 

3000 lumens per square foot is the absolute minimum for flowering as a rule. (Ten-thousand is better.)

 

So that twenty a month means you could light between 4-16 square feet.

 

In general a 2.5 ounce plant at harvest takes about 120 days total and will need four square feet of area.

 

So four plants is an absolute maximum and one or two plants would be more realistic.

 

All my opinion. Others may exist in a different reality.

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HPS typically gets about 100 lumens-per-watt. Maybe 40-50,000 lumens at most for twenty-bucks a month.

 

3000 lumens per square foot is the absolute minimum for flowering as a rule. (Ten-thousand is better.)

 

So that twenty a month means you could light between 4-16 square feet.

 

 

 

 

Lumen is a rating of what the human eye can see, and useless when it comes to plants!  I think what you're trying to find is PAR and intensity!

 

 

Kind of missed it earlier but I'm curious now why only $20 a month, not that it's any of my place to know.  I think you're really going to have to stretch a minimal amount of equipment usage to get that $20 mark.  I can see $30-40 more realistic for running two tents but when you factor in two tents, two fans & filters, two inline fans, possibly humidifier or dehumidifier and all the other shenanigans that'll probably bump you up to $20 alone without light. I would consider maybe a 3x6 tent with one fan and filter setup with a split down the middle for blocking light.  Would give you the option for flower on one side and veg on the other and no need for a second tent.

 

Maybe cutting down use a little would be running a 400w for flower on a 11 hour cycle and maybe use that 150w setup with a MH in it, or his Mars panel for veg.. Or just flower one plant under than 150w HPS and go for  3-8 ounces if trained and grown properly.  $20 is a tough one!

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A few numbers:

 

Assume ten cents a kilowatt-hour.

 

Twenty dollars buys 200-kWh a month. Say seven kWh a day.

 

Eighteen hours for veg or 300-400 watts per hour.

 

Twelve hours for flower or about 500 watts per hour.

 

HPS typically gets about 100 lumens-per-watt. Maybe 40-50,000 lumens at most for twenty-bucks a month.

 

3000 lumens per square foot is the absolute minimum for flowering as a rule. (Ten-thousand is better.)

 

So that twenty a month means you could light between 4-16 square feet.

 

In general a 2.5 ounce plant at harvest takes about 120 days total and will need four square feet of area.

 

So four plants is an absolute maximum and one or two plants would be more realistic.

 

All my opinion. Others may exist in a different reality.

 

The thread got me doing the calculations and amazingly it looks like I'm doing almost exactly 7 Kwh/day! This is for 2 grow areas, each about 2' x 4' x 6' high. Usage is split almost right down the middle on a daily basis. Flower side (12-12) has a 2x4 T5 unit 118 watts, "300 watt" LED which is actually 130 watts, fan & exhaust fans about 40 watts. Veg & clone side (18-6) has  2x4 T5 unit 118 watts, T12 60 watts, couple of computer fans 20 watts. 

 

With this setup I'm currently at capacity on the flower side with four plants, but I can see this being problematic and three is more reasonable in the area. Next grow may try more plants & a scrog setup.

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i am a consumers energy customer for electricity and i went ahead and checked the site.

 

here is the info for those of you that are consumers customers.

 

looks like my area will be getting the smart meters this year.  i really can't wait.  just by installing a net meter and running at night my electric bill will go down by 75%.  that's hard to believe.  its only .04perkwh at night and its .12perkwh during the day.... that's 75% higher.  i will run at night happily and immediately see the benefits to reducing my single most expensive reoccurring cost.

 

https://www.consumersenergy.com/content.aspx?id=7778

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i am a consumers energy customer for electricity and i went ahead and checked the site.

 

here is the info for those of you that are consumers customers.

 

looks like my area will be getting the smart meters this year.  i really can't wait.  just by installing a net meter and running at night my electric bill will go down by 75%.  that's hard to believe.  its only .04perkwh at night and its .12perkwh during the day.... that's 75% higher.  i will run at night happily and immediately see the benefits to reducing my single most expensive reoccurring cost.

 

https://www.consumersenergy.com/content.aspx?id=7778

4 cents at night, 12 cents during the day. That's a 200% increase. Where did you find these numbers?

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