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How much does it cost to run my plant lights?
Using light to grow plants? It's important to know just how much it's costing you, and whether or not it's worthwhile.
When the days are short and the nights are long in Michigan, having a few houseplants around can be both relaxing and enjoyable. It's a nice alternative to peering out a window at the majestic desolation of the season, which is why I like to grow plants like African violets, orchids, or foliage plants that purify the air.
Supplemental lighting is typically needed to create and maintain high-quality plants. Some consumers may be concerned about the additional cost of plant lights on their monthly utility bill. Whether or not it's worth it will be explained to you by Michigan State University Extension.
We'll begin by looking at the cost of electricity. You'll find it on your statement, and it's based on cents per kilowatt-hour (kilowatt hour). My basic energy charge is $0.079797/kWhr, but there are other charges. There is a PSCR renewable energy and system access distribution charge plus a securization tax that raises the rate to $0.122109/kWhr from the basic rate of $0.122109/kWhr.
The next thing I need to know is the wattage of the bulbs in the light fixtures, and I'm looking for that information. The two 4-foot fluorescent fixtures I'm using each have two 40 watt grow lights. There are 160 watts in total (four bulbs x 40 watts). We are charged in Kilowatts, so multiply 160 by 1,000 and add the rate, which works out to $0.122109/kWhr = $0.0195374. The cost to run the lights for an hour is the outcome. The number of hours you intend to run the lights multiplied by $0.0195374 is the total cost (14 hours). There is a daily cost of $0.2735236 or $8.20 each month for the lights to be on.
Using the same technique of computation, if I had a 600 watt HID (high intensity discharge) lamp, it would cost me $30.90 per month. To grow my own tomatoes and other veggies, of course, I would need a metal halide HID lamp. There is a price to pay. What do you think?
How Much Energy Do HPS Grow Lights Use?
More than just the grow lights themselves will need to be examined in order to determine how much energy is consumed when HPS grow lights are on in your grow room. In addition, we need to consider the fans and cooling systems you've installed.
To get an idea of how much energy HPS grow light sets consume, let's have a look at some examples of grow room equipment.
We'll use the Yield Lab 600w HPS Air Cool Hood Reflector Digital Grow Light Kit as an example of the wattage and voltage of the grow lights. When the grow kit is operational, it consumes 600 watts of power at 120 volts. If you're using HPS grow lights, you'll need to keep things cold because they're quite bright and emit a lot of heat (even with the cool hood reflector). Including supporters in the equation is necessary. These will mostly be utilized for temperature control. In order to keep the air moving in your grow room, you'll require ventilation systems.
If you're using HPS grow lights, you'll need to keep things cold because they're quite bright and emit a lot of heat (even with the cool hood reflector). Including supporters in the equation is necessary. Temperature regulation will be the primary function of these devices. In order to keep the air moving in your grow room, you'll require ventilation systems.
We'll take a look at two distinct types of grow room fans in this example. Yield Lab's 6 Inch 440 CFM Air Duct Fan Vent System, which is powered by 110v and consumes 135 watts of power when running, is the first thing we need to take into account in our calculations. At 120 volts, the 6" Desk & Clip Fan consumes 15 watts of power, which is enough to keep the air moving in a room.
You'll use kilowatts per hour to figure out how much power you're utilizing in your grow room (KWH). Over the course of a single hour, your equipment will be consuming 1000 watts, which is why KWH is the unit of measure. That is the basis on which your electric company will assess your bill!
Using the equipment indicated above, you'd use roughly 750 watts of power every hour, or.75 kilowatt-hours, while your equipment is running. Take into account the fact that this just applies to the time your equipment is running, and it isn't the same for the entire day. The cost of running your grow room equipment can then be calculated after you know how much energy you'll be using.
Related article:
How to Calculate Your Energy Bill
Although the calculation itself is straightforward, the process of converting energy usage to money is a little more involved. Since you must take into account the individual prices of your local electricity provider, we are unable to provide you with an accurate figure. These rates are subject to change based on a number of variables.
You'll need to take into account the following criteria in order to come up with a reasonable electricity pricing.
For starters, electricity providers often charge tier-based tariffs. Upon reaching the barrier of one rate, you'll be bumped up to the text tier, which will raise your monthly charge.
In high-usage seasons, like summer, when everyone is running their air conditioning, electricity bills tend to rise. As a result, the season in which you're growing will have an impact on the cost.
It's now time to figure out how much the energy from your grow lights will cost you after you have an accurate electric bill rate. To figure this out, multiply the entire amount of energy your grow room will consume (in KWH) by the rate at which your energy supplier will charge.
Here’s an example:
At 1000w per hour, you'll need a Yield Lab Professional Series 1000W HPS Open Wing Double Ended.
Add two 4" Yield Lab 4 Inch 190 CFM Air Duct Fans, each of which consumes 87 watts of power.
That's a total of 1164 watts, which is equal to 1.164 kilowatt-hours (kWh) when running.
Assuming your electricity provider charges $0.12/KWH per kilowatt-hour, you'll next divide 1.164 kilowatt-hours by that rate.
The cost of operating your equipment per hour can be determined by multiplying the two quantities.
Note:
Just one hour of service costs that much. Then multiply that number by the number of hours a day you'll be using your equipment to get the total cost. Even if you won't be using all of your equipment all the time, it's a good idea to keep track of it and incorporate it in your calculations to account for price changes. It's not uncommon for a system like an ebb and flow to just be utilized once or twice per day for roughly 20 minutes each. Because of this, the overall amount of energy you use should be taken into account. Assuming that the vegging stage lasts for 16 hours and the flowering stage lasts for 12 hours, we'll multiply the 1.164 KWH by both numbers to get 18.624 and 13.968.
Even if you won't be using all of your equipment all the time, it's a good idea to keep track of it and incorporate it in your calculations to account for any price changes.
It's not uncommon for a system like an ebb and flow to just be utilized once or twice per day for roughly 20 minutes each. Adding up all of that time should be factored into your overall energy consumption. To achieve 18.624 and 13.968, we'll multiply the 1.164 KWH by both of those values, assuming the vegging and flowering stages take place over 16 and 12 hours, respectively.
With this information, we can calculate a rough estimate of your expenses. For the vegging stage, we'll need to multiply the daily energy cost by $0.12 ($18.624 x.12), which comes out to about $2.23 per day.
Even if we use the same formula for flowering, the result is still a daily cost of about $1.67:
Finally, increase that number by 30 or 31 to get an approximation of your monthly costs (or 28 for February). It would cost roughly $66.90/month during veg and $50.10/month during blooming, based on the example we are using.
How much will it cost to run LED grow lights?
The Grow Light Wattage
How much energy does it take to run an appliance? Now that you know, it's time to figure out how many kWh your plant needs. To do this, you'll need two pieces of information:
1) What is your grow light's "Wattage"?
2) Time you intend to keep the grow light running. This time, we'll be focusing on the Wattage.
The wattage of your grow lamp is the amount of power it consumes in order to function effectively. The more kWh the grow lamp consumes, the higher this figure must be. According to this source, you can grow more plants because the surface area is larger, but the electrical bill will be higher as well.
Watts is the unit of measurement for this value (written as W). For the computation, you'll need to multiply this by 1000. In the example of a 500W output, this amounts to 0.5kW in our context.
You may see an example of a photo obtained from Amazon in the photo below. The wattage (highlighted in yellow) of the two grow lights displayed is 600W and 1000W, respectively (the equivalent of 0.6 and 1 kW). It's easy to determine the wattage linked with a grow light's name if you just google it or look it up in any online shop.
That this wattage does not necessitate further modification is crucial to note. According to the data, this figure should be regarded as such (LED or fluorescent). In fact, 1 kW of fluorescent grow light and 1 kW of LED grow light are the same.
The Number of Hours Your Grow Light is ON
However, this depends on your plant's light requirements, and a fair rule of thumb is to estimate 12 hours of light every day. Some herbs will tolerate 24 hours of incubation, but considering the additional expense and the possibility that the overall effect would be modest, I recommend sticking to the 12 hour cycle, which is excellent in the vast majority of cases.
How Much Does It Cost Running a 1000W, a 600W?
You can use this information to figure out how much electricity you use each day, month, or year based on the kWh cost of your electricity and the Wattage of your light bulbs. I don't understand how you could accomplish it.
This guide will use the 1000W and 600W grow lamps from Amazon as an example . This computation can be applied to any grow light and billing reference adopted.
For the 600W Grow Light
Cost per kWh=19.31p (including taxes)
Wattage (in kW) = 0.6kW (600W)
Number of hours=12
Running Cost= Cost per kWh * Wattage (in kW) * Number of hours =
Daily Running Cost= 19.31 * 0.6 * 12=139p=£1.39
Hence the monthly and yearly costs will be:
Monthly Running Costs = Daily Extra Bill Cost *30 = 1.39 * 30=£41.7
Yearly Running Costs= Monthly Extra Bill Cost *12 = 41.7 * 12=£500
For the 1000W Grow Light
Cost per kWh=19.31p (including taxes)
Wattage (in kW) = 1kW (100W)
Number of hours=12
Daily Running Cost= Cost per kWh * Wattage (in kW) * Number of hours
=19.31 * 1 * 12=232p=£2.32
As a result, the monthly and annual costs will be:
Monthly Running Cost= Daily Extra Bill Cost *30 = 2.32 * 30=£69.6
Yearly Running Cost = Monthly Extra Bill Cost *12 = 69.6 * 12=£835
Tips: How Can You Reduce Running Cost
Now that you know how much it costs to run a grow light, it's time to see if there are any ways you can lower your costs. Here are a few pointers I'd like to share:
Do you really need a whole 12 hours of light in your home? To get the most out of your 3-4 hours of full light, you can simply turn off your grow light in severely northern (or southern) countries. Your grow lamp running costs can be reduced by 25% if you only use your lights for 3 hours a day. With a simple timer, this may be done automatically.
Change your electricity provider or your contract. At least in the United Kingdom, supplier firms are making appealing offers to acquire new consumers on a regular basis. As a result, switching providers or merely evaluating your contract is now a straightforward process that can be completed online or over the phone without requiring the presence of a third party or the installation of any wires. In addition to saving you money, this will also effect the cost of operating any other equipment you own (usually more expensive).
You may offer your herbs 12 hours of light at night by switching to a day/night tariff with a lesser price (the electricity price can be even half of the daytime). In the end, the plant's growing cycle is defined by you, thus it shouldn't matter what time of day it's growing. Honestly, I haven't tried it, but it's something to consider. In this scenario, a grow light should be a long distance away from your bedroom!
