So I just got my power bill after getting my lights set up again for the first time since the apartment.
In the apartment, my light bills, with my lights being on from when I woke up till when I went to bed (about 12-16 hours) was about $50 a month.
My light bill at the house (4 bedroom, basement, gas heat, electric water heater) the first month here was $50.
I got the light bill for December today, it was $195. The major change in the house? I set up my lights.
My lights are 4 standard 4' fluorescent lights, on a 4x mount -- standard shop light setup. I did purchase a timer this time, and have been running them for exactly 16 hrs a day -- although I'm dropping it down to 12 hours a day right now. They're in a basement room with no natural light, surrounded on 4 sides by tin-foil -- standard rack setup, really, sans the rack. Plants are loving it, but my wallet sure ain't.
I plan on getting a Kill-a-watt tomorrow to try and find out if the lights really are using that much power, and if not, what in the house is, but I thought I'd ask -- what's an average power bill with grow lights run? I don't want to give up my plants, but with this kind of light bill, I might have to.
EDIT: This thread is really old, so won't bump it, but the solution was -- the power company messed up. They misread the meter once, so we had an extra 1000KHW appear on the next bill. So... yeah.
In my apartment, with a computer running nonstop and the lights running 16 hours a day, my light bills are around $30-40 a month.
In the apartment, my light bills, with my lights being on from when I woke up till when I went to bed (about 12-16 hours) was about $50 a month.
My light bill at the house (4 bedroom, basement, gas heat, electric water heater) the first month here was $50.
I got the light bill for December today, it was $195. The major change in the house? I set up my lights.
My lights are 4 standard 4' fluorescent lights, on a 4x mount -- standard shop light setup. I did purchase a timer this time, and have been running them for exactly 16 hrs a day -- although I'm dropping it down to 12 hours a day right now. They're in a basement room with no natural light, surrounded on 4 sides by tin-foil -- standard rack setup, really, sans the rack. Plants are loving it, but my wallet sure ain't.
I plan on getting a Kill-a-watt tomorrow to try and find out if the lights really are using that much power, and if not, what in the house is, but I thought I'd ask -- what's an average power bill with grow lights run? I don't want to give up my plants, but with this kind of light bill, I might have to.
EDIT: This thread is really old, so won't bump it, but the solution was -- the power company messed up. They misread the meter once, so we had an extra 1000KHW appear on the next bill. So... yeah.
In my apartment, with a computer running nonstop and the lights running 16 hours a day, my light bills are around $30-40 a month.
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