I'm wondering if my California electricity bill is extraordinarily high. I'm running seven 600w HPS lights 12 hours a day, two 8-bulb T-5's 18 hours a day, seven 6" inline fans (three for 12 hours and four for 24 hours), six circulating fans. The electric bill runs about $1400 a month. I switched to a time of use plan and it saved me like $20. I have three smallish flower rooms and one veg room. I am not on any CARE type program, but pay full price. Is this comparable to what other people are paying? If not, I must be doing something wrong.
Cali Electricity Bill
- Thread starter termite20
- Start date
puff adder
Member
I'm running 4K lights, fans (basically another light's worth of electricity), a dehumidifier (another light's worth) and the house has central AC that is on all the time, not on CARE, and the bill runs about $1200, it might average down to around $1000. They read the meters 6 weeks, then 2 weeks, then 6 weeks etc. so the bill bounces around.
California electric prices are ridiculous. Your bill sounds about right to me compared to mine.
California electric prices are ridiculous. Your bill sounds about right to me compared to mine.
PotPatriot
Member
You are wrong, $12k for a 6kw solar setup is a pipe dream, I have priced and shopped and done everything possible, to setup a 5kw system would be around $35k minimum.
Cali has huge prices. Calculate it out yourself and you should get a rough estimate.
600 watts = 0.600 kilowatts.
1500 watts = 1.5 kilowatts. 7 X 600 = 4200 or 4.200 kilowatts.
Check out your bill and look at what tier you are hitting. After so many watts hours, they kick you up from like $0.13 per kw hour to like $0.22 per kw hour!! the fourth tier is like $0.45 a kw hour!! Its insane!
So take your flower lights, 4.2 kw. you are charged lets say $0.45 per kw hour towards the end of the month because of how much energy you used.
$0.45/kw hour * 4.2kw = $1.89/hour. that is the price per hour you pay for those lights to run. (just the lights, and in fact, 600 watters pull more like 650watts in reality, so you will have to make my numbers higher to match real world.)
$1.89/hour * 12 hours = $22.68. that is the price to run 7X600 per day at 0.45/kw hour.
22.68*30 days = $680. Add in fans, add in everything else and you get to $1400 real quick..
Use these numbers for everything in your grow considering how long each different item is on.
at 650watts per 600wat, that value becomes roughly $738.
The key in cali is to stay off of that third and fourth tier. For some its impossible, if you live in the house, maybe you can use less electricity for yourself.
Vanity mirror bulb sets usually run about 240 watts. Amazing huh? Lots of places to cut down on electricity in the house.
600 watts = 0.600 kilowatts.
1500 watts = 1.5 kilowatts. 7 X 600 = 4200 or 4.200 kilowatts.
Check out your bill and look at what tier you are hitting. After so many watts hours, they kick you up from like $0.13 per kw hour to like $0.22 per kw hour!! the fourth tier is like $0.45 a kw hour!! Its insane!
So take your flower lights, 4.2 kw. you are charged lets say $0.45 per kw hour towards the end of the month because of how much energy you used.
$0.45/kw hour * 4.2kw = $1.89/hour. that is the price per hour you pay for those lights to run. (just the lights, and in fact, 600 watters pull more like 650watts in reality, so you will have to make my numbers higher to match real world.)
$1.89/hour * 12 hours = $22.68. that is the price to run 7X600 per day at 0.45/kw hour.
22.68*30 days = $680. Add in fans, add in everything else and you get to $1400 real quick..
Use these numbers for everything in your grow considering how long each different item is on.
at 650watts per 600wat, that value becomes roughly $738.
The key in cali is to stay off of that third and fourth tier. For some its impossible, if you live in the house, maybe you can use less electricity for yourself.
Vanity mirror bulb sets usually run about 240 watts. Amazing huh? Lots of places to cut down on electricity in the house.
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With all the government rebates? Considering California's green rebate program?
so if i switch to 4 1000w lights i can expect to be paying $1200 or so a month for electric??
Fuck.
I already had to outfit all the lights in my house to 7 - 20 watt CFLs. That actually helped a lot... Also when renting a look for a place that uses gas heat / dryer.
For just the 4 1000watters, the elctricty would be $650-680, for just the lights. the 7 600 watters would be $680-740. (the difference in price is because a ballast draws more power then advertised to power the bulb at the advertised wattage. so I just added 50 wats per ballast for the max price)
Those numbers are for 0.45 a kw hour. Your bill says how many kilowats you were billed for, at what tier, and how much each tier costs per kilowatt hour.
Well it's good to know my bill is not unusual. Last month I used 3153 kwh total. Of that, 2124 kwh was at the top rates, what they call "over 300% of baseline." Since I am on a "time of use" plan, I get reduced slightly reduced rates during off-peak hours, 9 p.m. to 10 a.m., so I run the lights from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. I used 2123 kwh during those hours. Most of the remaining 1030 kwh used during partial peak and peak hours is the intake and exhaust fans, the circulating fans, and the T5 vegging lights. I barely use any other electricity in the home, I don't even use the dryer. I guess there's no way around it. PG&E sucks bigtime. I looked into solar panels -- I don't have enough roof on my house to hold all the solar panels I would need to begin to make a dent in my electricity usage.
Easy Skanking
Member
Damn I never realized power in Cali was that expensive!
Yeah I remember that kind of bill. I did everything I could to lower it, and all it did was maybe pay for a ventilation fan or two lol. Money is money, but it wasn't that much help.
I think the rates for electricity here in Ca are the highest in the nation, if not, they are close.
It does suck. I would love to grow outdoors. Just doesn't work with my life right now unfortunately.
It is a huge cost for indoor cultivation in Ca. Not sure if you can get some special deal if you are a business, but I doubt its much better.
The $0.11/kw hour isn't that bad, its when you realize you pay that for like the first week lol, if that. After that it goes up fast and you're paying like $0.44/ kw hour if not more. I kind of forget now.
In a year, PG&E is expanding their tiers so it takes longer to get to the fourth one, but I'm sure the OP will still hit the fourth tier eventually even under this new structuring, but it will save him/her money. Just have to wait a year, and how much it will save? Not sure, and I doubt its anything to jump for joy about, but we'll see.
thats the major reason why indoor buds cost so much.
the more power you use the more it costs you the tier program hurts if it was a simple single kw per hour rate then maybe things would be different...
but with already high costs of living (causes its not cheap to live here!) coupled with high power costs, it is what it is.
btw ive also looked into solar options.... there are some rebates available but there are lots of costs not immediately mentioned in installation... like upgrading your roof to support the weight of the panels!!!
man that's an epic bill cost... can't wait for LED to come down in price, people are going to cut sick filling their houses with them and bills will be reduced by more than 50% i predict! sigh... too bad they're at like AUD$1000 per 600w. what a joke
i cant wait for LEDS to produce buds on par with 1k HPS - then they'll be worth their costs,
right now they are expensive alternatives for vegging imo... really great for vegging though no doubt
organiclover
Member
also depends where you are located and how efficient your setup is
how much sun does the house or rooms get - are you on the upper floor or in the basement
do you have a window AC or a mini split or a portable ac
i was in the bay area last year - 4000 watts and everything was $1000 a month
i was in an expensive suburb of oakland
now i build a room inside a garage - live down south in a cheaper area
have a mini split and everything very well insulated - run the flower room at night
my bill is $250 a month - the bigger you go the more efficiency becomes important
JMO
how much sun does the house or rooms get - are you on the upper floor or in the basement
do you have a window AC or a mini split or a portable ac
i was in the bay area last year - 4000 watts and everything was $1000 a month
i was in an expensive suburb of oakland
now i build a room inside a garage - live down south in a cheaper area
have a mini split and everything very well insulated - run the flower room at night
my bill is $250 a month - the bigger you go the more efficiency becomes important
JMO
yeah sorry didn't state that.. but yeah totally agree with you, hps is still best to my knowledge for flowering but if you wanna save money off your bills in the long run i'd probs invest in some LEDs for vegging. there're a few threads going around of comparisons between LED and MH/HPS with yields and they seem pretty close if there's any difference at all.
S
sparkjumper
Man Florida is cheap.I run 4 1Ks an 800 watt combo a couple airconditioners dehumidifier and have never exceeded 400 a month.Its usually around 3fitty a month
does running ur lights at 'non-peak' times (i.e. night) help at all?
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