Advice on lighting for new BioBucket setup

[Casual]

Hey all... now that my first BioBucket run is in the books, I'm moving my setup and planning on some changes. I'm ditching the light mover, and planning on adding another 1kw lamp.
The Buckets are 5gallon, and I'm planning on either running 6 or 8 buckets. I'm thinking of running one 1Kw light between the 1st/2nd row, and then the other between the 2nd/3rd row if I run 6 plants, or
1st/2nd and 3rd/4th if I run 8. Something like this...

The 'O's are the lights, X's plants. for some reason, when I post, it offsets the lights to the left... they should be centered between the plants.

X X
O
X X
O
X X


or


X X
O
X X

X X
O
X X


What do you all think? I know ideally a 3rd light in the middle of the eight bucket setup would be best, but don't know if power wise I could swing it. My electric bill last month was $750, with ONE light.
Without changing anything else, anyone want to fathom a guess as to how much another one, or two 1kw lights would boost my bill? Another month and it'll start cooling off around here, the AC won't run as much, so that will drop the bill in itself.

Looking for options here.

Thanks!!!

Caz

 

[KMothsi]

WHOA....750/month!? That is madness!

Wow. I'm not sure what you're running at the moment besides the light to be running up such a crazy bill, but even if you could manage a few more 1K lights, also consider the cost of the electricity to run everything that would entail: more fans, maybe an AC, etc.

I run 3k, two ACs (one in my room, one for my house), and my electric bill is only about 325 bucks. I dunno what you're $/KWH is, but it sounds like at least $.30/KWH. i pay around $.09.

It wouldn't take that long to figure out, but I would need to know how much you're paying (as a rate) for electricity--- during prime and non-prime hours.

 

[KMothsi]

Just to add...

For me, at my rate, just the addition of a 1K lamp is $47.70/month.

 

[Casual]

Yea, my summer bills are stupid high, always. #1, I have several children, all teens, who don't understand that the little things that stick out of the wall that you move 'UP' to turn on the light, also move 'DOWN' to turn off the lights. The house I'm currently in is about 40 years old, insulation sucks, doors and windows suck, AC unit is an older one, it's a big house, about 2500sqft, AND, I live in a desert, where summer temps are normally over 110f for a couple of months at a time. Winter bills are usually under $100. Summers here are just brutal. Last year, my highest bill was $600, and that was with NO grow going at all. According to my bill, I used a bit over 6400Kwh this past month.
When the grow was running, I had One 1Kw light, one oscillating fan, two water pumps, a 1/4hp chiller, Light mover and a 4" Canfan.
I know the majority of the bill is the 'HOUSE', and about $150/month is the grow I'm guessing.

This round, I'll be doing a full compliment of Arjen's Haze #3, as that's the only mother I have right now. I lost my White Widow mom
I'm on the lookout for a new strain to grow from seed. I don't know anyone local to get clones off of, so this is a long, tedious process.
The lights are cooled by running air through a Carbon filter, through the hoods, then outside, so very little heat is being let into the room itself. Last grow, I had no additional AC, temp stayed right around 80f in the room.

If there's any other info I can provide, I'd be more than happy to fill in the blanks.

Thanks!

Caz

 

[BigGreen]

I use 2k over 8 plants. It works out great. My goal this run is to yield 4#s from the 2k. My last grow yielded my 3.5#s. So I say yes its worth the $42.00 to add the light.
Check the links in my sig see for yourself
Good luck BG

 

[Casual]

Thanks BG... I checked out your threads... you had some trials and tribulations going on there with the root rot... Glad you got it worked out.
Some advice that was imparted to me before I started my system up was to dump in some Hydrogen Peroxide and let that circulate throughout the system. It'll kill anything that doesn't belong, and within a few days, the H2O2 breaks down in to straight H2O... you don't need to flush or anything. I followed this and had great looking roots.
I added a 1/4hp chiller to my system within the first few days of starting things up. Just couldn't keep the water below about 75f. I have the chiller setup to keep the water at a constant 67-68f.

Caz