MH Lighting and Electric Bill

[Layer3guru]

Has anyone noticed and significant Increase in their electric bill once they
strated using MH lighting. I have 2 175wmh and 2 110 actinics, the last 2
months my electric bill has been about 60 dollars more than usual.

[jpg]

i run 250mh and my bill hasnt changed.


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[Aquatic-Care]

You are paying too much. The electric company could have made a mistake.
Check if they estamated your bill or took an actual reading.


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[David McKay]

It sounds like the electric company made a mistake, but maybe not. I assume
that you're billed every 2 months, but regardless it's not common for the
electric company to read your meter every billing period. They often make an
estimate, based on your past useage. It could be that your most recent
bill - for the 2 months - is based on a reading that showed they'd
underestimated your useage (as a result of adding the metal halides) for
some number of billing periods. As a result, they've made up for their past
under-estimation of your useage on this bill.

If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5 kWatts.
Multiply that by the number of hours in your photo period (for instance, 12
hours on per day) and then by the number of days in your billing period and
finally by the electric company's charge per kilowatt-hour and you've got
roughly what your bill should have increased by.

Regards,

David

"Layer3guru" > wrote in message
...
> Has anyone noticed and significant Increase in their electric bill once
they
> strated using MH lighting. I have 2 175wmh and 2 110 actinics, the last 2
> months my electric bill has been about 60 dollars more than usual.
>
>

[Toni]

"David McKay" > wrote in message news:HqWSb.101186>
> If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5 kWatts.
> Multiply that by the number of hours in your photo period (for instance,
12
> hours on per day) and then by the number of days in your billing period
and
> finally by the electric company's charge per kilowatt-hour and you've got
> roughly what your bill should have increased by.
>


Or just try this http://www.overgrow.com/tools/powercost.php .
I know it's a "cultivation" power calculator but it works!


--
Toni
http://www.cearbhaill.com/reef.htm

[Kelly]

Cool script, I can never come up with ideas for scripts to write but that
one is a good idea.
"Toni" > wrote in message
ink.net...
>
> "David McKay" > wrote in message news:HqWSb.101186>
> > If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5
kWatts.
> > Multiply that by the number of hours in your photo period (for instance,
> 12
> > hours on per day) and then by the number of days in your billing period
> and
> > finally by the electric company's charge per kilowatt-hour and you've
got
> > roughly what your bill should have increased by.
> >
>
>
> Or just try this http://www.overgrow.com/tools/powercost.php .
> I know it's a "cultivation" power calculator but it works!
>
>
> --
> Toni
> http://www.cearbhaill.com/reef.htm
>
>

[Pszemol]

"David McKay" > wrote in message ble.rogers.com...
> If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5 kWatts.

Is this as bad? 2x175W=350W, 350/500 gives about ~70% power efficiency?

How good are electronic MH ballasts compared to magnetic ones?

[David McKay]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "David McKay" > wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
> > If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5
kWatts.
>
> Is this as bad? 2x175W=350W, 350/500 gives about ~70% power efficiency?
>
> How good are electronic MH ballasts compared to magnetic ones?

I'm not sure what the efficiency of the ballast is. I used 1/2 a kilowatt as
a ball park figure because it makes the math easier.

[Steve Sells]

the Ballast will state how much Power it uses, THAT is the number you
should use to calculate the cost NOT the lamp size.

Steve

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "David McKay" > wrote in message
ble.rogers.com...
> > If you've just added 2 175 watt bulbs, you can estimate it at 0.5
kWatts.
>
> Is this as bad? 2x175W=350W, 350/500 gives about ~70% power efficiency?
>
> How good are electronic MH ballasts compared to magnetic ones?

[Jason Pelzer]

Sorry, first part of my response is a little off-topic, but I recently
retired one of my rack-mounted computer servers (An IBM Netfinity)
that had 3x 400w power supplies (It was a quad-processor dinosaur, but
I loved it anyway). My power bill went down a full $100/month, even
with a newer, (much) faster computer in the rack to replace it! Yikes.

Anyway, I can recommend a little power meter called a Kill-A-Watt
(http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/killawatt-review.html) that calculates
usage for whatever is plugged into it. It'll show amps, watts, kWh,
etc. It also keeps a running total of how much power is used. I found
it very useful to determine just how much power my system used, and
also to see if I was near the load limit for a single circuit (I run
around 12 amps with the chiller operating)

It'll definately tell you how much your lights are costing you. Kind
of a useful gadget, I leave it plugged in continuously.

Never know, might not be your lights at all, maybe your heater is
coming on during the winter, or as another poster pointed out, if the
power company has done a correction, it might not really be a
direct-cost increase at all.

If it makes you feel any better, between the tank and my servers (I
have a dedicated room for the servers), my power bill actually
switches into a second tier of pricing per kWh. The electric company
loves me. And my $$$. :-(

"Layer3guru" > wrote in message >...
> Has anyone noticed and significant Increase in their electric bill once they
> strated using MH lighting. I have 2 175wmh and 2 110 actinics, the last 2
> months my electric bill has been about 60 dollars more than usual.

[Mort]

Just curious, what are the servers for? Does it have anything to do with
the word "frag"? >=)

~Mort

[Happy'Cam'per]

Sounds like you're a gaming freak Mort?. Can I mail you offlist for some
network gaming advice?
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**



"Mort" > wrote in message
. ..
> Just curious, what are the servers for? Does it have anything to do with
> the word "frag"? >=)
>
> ~Mort
>
>
>

[Mort]

LoL, happy "CAMPER"

Yeah sure, you can email me, fire away ^^^

~Mort

"Happy'Cam'per" > wrote in message
...
> Sounds like you're a gaming freak Mort?. Can I mail you offlist for some
> network gaming advice?
> --
> **So long, and thanks for all the fish!**
>
>
>
> "Mort" > wrote in message
> . ..
> > Just curious, what are the servers for? Does it have anything to do
with
> > the word "frag"? >=)
> >
> > ~Mort
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Mort]

/me thinks my spam filter is obvious...
"Mort" > wrote in message
. ..
> LoL, happy "CAMPER"
>
> Yeah sure, you can email me, fire away ^^^
>
> ~Mort
>
> "Happy'Cam'per" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Sounds like you're a gaming freak Mort?. Can I mail you offlist for some
> > network gaming advice?
> > --
> > **So long, and thanks for all the fish!**
> >
> >
> >
> > "Mort" > wrote in message
> > . ..
> > > Just curious, what are the servers for? Does it have anything to do
> with
> > > the word "frag"? >=)
> > >
> > > ~Mort
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>