Electric costs

[jondamon]

This thread helped me not to choose led for now especially having to heat and the cost of electricity & gas here in UK is just a total piss take tbh im kind of gutted for you @harrychilds cause I know you was looking forward to this led grow bud.

Yeah man, I wouldn't buy an LED light if I were you. Especially with the fact you need an electric heater right now due to the fact it's pretty cold outside. It really does burn the electric away. And I am gutted as well dude. I spent £700 on that Lumatek Zeus pro LED. I am going to veg them under HPS and heal them. And come flowering time I might switch back to my LED light a few weeks into flower at 100%

The answer is not to flat out say don’t buy LED.

I have changed NOTHING from what I used when I was HPS.

i haven’t bought anything extra.

i think the biggest thing is having your environment dialed in already with HPS and having control over that! (Which 100% of people should be trying to do)

if you can’t control your HPS environment you’ll struggle to control the lack of heat with LED
Environments.

As stated above I use the exact same equipment with LED as I did with HPS.

The only difference is I’m running my 80w tubular heater more than just during lights off, it’s now running constant during the colder weather but it’s only 80w and I’ve been used to using 400w with the HPS so 380w of power when I was using 400w +80w when needed.

Is still a saving.

Your issue @harrychilds was listening to someone who wants to earn a living from the crap they manage to sell you.

Is guy down the grow shop going to sell you a £20 tubular heater or is he going to sell you a £75 radiator?

see my point?

Have your own plan, work out any design flaws, ask others online for help, work out any changes, apply and install said changes to see them work.

You can see my tubular heater at the back of my room (green tube)

By blocking my external intakes and allowing the room to intake via the house I can control the heat being exhausted etc

If you’re already unable to use more energy (financially wise) you’d be reluctant to put the heating on to help raise your temps over all.

using 500w 1kw 2kw heaters just isn’t feasible when your lights are less than this.

 

[Moflow]

@harrychilds , is your second hand led light for sale now?

 

[ChongMaBong]

@harrychilds , is your second hand led light for sale now?

Savage lol

 

[ChongMaBong]

The answer is not to flat out say don’t buy LED.

I have changed NOTHING from what I used when I was HPS.

i haven’t bought anything extra.

i think the biggest thing is having your environment dialed in already with HPS and having control over that! (Which 100% of people should be trying to do)

if you can’t control your HPS environment you’ll struggle to control the lack of heat with LED
Environments.

As stated above I use the exact same equipment with LED as I did with HPS.

The only difference is I’m running my 80w tubular heater more than just during lights off, it’s now running constant during the colder weather but it’s only 80w and I’ve been used to using 400w with the HPS so 380w of power when I was using 400w +80w when needed.

Is still a saving.

Your issue @harrychilds was listening to someone who wants to earn a living from the crap they manage to sell you.

Is guy down the grow shop going to sell you a £20 tubular heater or is he going to sell you a £75 radiator?

see my point?

Have your own plan, work out any design flaws, ask others online for help, work out any changes, apply and install said changes to see them work.

You can see my tubular heater at the back of my room (green tube)
View attachment 5113872
By blocking my external intakes and allowing the room to intake via the house I can control the heat being exhausted etc

If you’re already unable to use more energy (financially wise) you’d be reluctant to put the heating on to help raise your temps over all.

using 500w 1kw 2kw heaters just isn’t feasible when your lights are less than this.

The problem I have is my tent is in a room the spot where I want to put it would need enclosed its ideal radiator under window in an L shape room with radiator pipework running under it but it means enclosure and that means more money and nagging from the Mrs I will definitely do it but at the moment its just not going to happen with cash getting tighter by the week and the Mrs getting meaner ggrrr lol

 

[harrychilds]

@harrychilds , is your second hand led light for sale now?

Yep, pretty much

 

[jondamon]

Yep, pretty much

Keep it for summer running.

Get your speed control working better with your HPS during this time so that you can control your HPS environmental temperatures between 20C and 28C.

I think you’ve been worrying too much about temps for LED.

My own room runs between 22-25C during colder weather - even using LED is this ideal no, does it work for me yes.

Do I follow VPD fuck NO - why? because it’s another number you end up chasing and spending money on.

If I was running a commercial op where every gram mattered then VPD and perfect temps would be something I would strive to achieve 100% of the time.

 

[Moflow]

Do I follow VPD fuck NO

Whenever I hear VPD mentioned I put my fingers in my ears and say la la la la la very loudly...... lol

 

[jondamon]

Whenever I hear VPD mentioned I put my fingers in my ears and say la la la la la very loudly...... lol

Same.

if my temps are good and my RH is 40-70% veg and under 50% flower I’m happy.

 

[jondamon]

The problem I have is my tent is in a room the spot where I want to put it would need enclosed its ideal radiator under window in an L shape room with radiator pipework running under it but it means enclosure and that means more money and nagging from the Mrs I will definitely do it but at the moment its just not going to happen with cash getting tighter by the week and the Mrs getting meaner ggrrr lol

If your room you want to house the tent in is a room within a house then you shouldn’t need much additional heat to keep it working.

Exhaust fan should be controlled whether that’s a standard variac controller dial or whether it’s Temp/RH sensor controller doesn’t matter.

the ability to speed up or slow down is all that’s needed.

unless you live somewhere with > -1C consistently I don’t see why any U.K. grower would need to add copious amounts of extra heat to their grow.

I just can’t fathom it.

ANYONE who is reading this now or in the future if you need help to design your extraction/intake system just PM me and I will help.

 

[numberfour]

Whenever I hear VPD mentioned I put my fingers in my ears and say la la la la la very loudly...... lol

Haha every time VPD is spoken of or written my brain just hits an STD list

 

[Moflow]

Haha every time VPD is spoken of or written my brain just hits an STD list

https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/list lol

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

A bit of nonsense up in here. The real lack-of-heat worry in most cases is when your light is out. If your tent is in a living space and the heat is even at the lower end of human comfort, a decent grow LED still provides enough heat.

The room my tent resides in can be as cold as 60f degrees (in general in winter our highest indoor temp is about 67 though usually between 63-65f most of the time, cooler at night). With lights on, my tent is 82f-85f. Using a higher heat dissipating grow light will indeed get your lights-on temps up higher, but is that really where your thermal bottle-necking happens? For me it's light's out, where temps plummet pretty quickly from the mid 80's down into the 60's without applying heat.

When my lights go dark at 11am each day, the temps drop rapidly. I'd kind of rolled with it until recently when I started using a space heater in the lung-room to bring temps up into the upper 70's during lights out. I'm only using that heating method until my new flat-panel oil-heater shows up that will go in the tent. That will be only 400w, but should be good enough for the limited cubic feet of my tent. Right now at 18/6, 6 hours of heat but controlled by an Inkbird (meaning its not just running all the time) isn't that onerous. In a few weeks we'll move towards summerish weather and by then it'll be 12/12

One thing I can say...once I started paying attention to the lights-out lows and started to heat during that time, my plants have really increased their speed in growing/expanding.

 

[Moflow]

In my experience growing in cold temperatures keeping the soil temperature warm is the most important factor.

 

[ChongMaBong]

If your room you want to house the tent in is a room within a house then you shouldn’t need much additional heat to keep it working.

Exhaust fan should be controlled whether that’s a standard variac controller dial or whether it’s Temp/RH sensor controller doesn’t matter.

the ability to speed up or slow down is all that’s needed.

unless you live somewhere with > -1C consistently I don’t see why any U.K. grower would need to add copious amounts of extra heat to their grow.

I just can’t fathom it.

ANYONE who is reading this now or in the future if you need help to design your extraction/intake system just PM me and I will help.

Its more down to the house bud big cavity walls with no insulation old prefab shit the room its in never really gets the sun it can drop to 50 easy with no heating in winter im not growing at moment this is my room temps just now so I think with just a small bit of tinkering I should get it with led im not very tech minded so all these control systems pass me by lol plus they cost leccy to run haha and thank you!

 

[jondamon]

Its more down to the house bud big cavity walls with no insulation old prefab shit the room its in never really gets the sun it can drop to 50 easy with no heating in winter im not growing at moment this is my room temps just now so I think with just a small bit of tinkering I should get it with led im not very tech minded so all these control systems pass me by lol plus they cost leccy to run haha and thank you!

I’m only a message away.

Temp fan speed controllers don’t cost any additional wattage they actually save wattage by slowing the fan down etc.


same can be achieved using a £4.99 lighting dimmer switch from home bargains wired in to the power cord of the fan.

it won’t be quiet like a variac controller would be and it has the risk of reducing the life expectancy of your fan due to cutting the power on and off very quickly to achieve the speed etc but they work.

 

[ChongMaBong]

From what I have read on le

A bit of nonsense up in here. The real lack-of-heat worry in most cases is when your light is out. If your tent is in a living space and the heat is even at the lower end of human comfort, a decent grow LED still provides enough heat.

The room my tent resides in can be as cold as 60f degrees (in general in winter our highest indoor temp is about 67 though usually between 63-65f most of the time, cooler at night). With lights on, my tent is 82f-85f. Using a higher heat dissipating grow light will indeed get your lights-on temps up higher, but is that really where your thermal bottle-necking happens? For me it's light's out, where temps plummet pretty quickly from the mid 80's down into the 60's without applying heat.

When my lights go dark at 11am each day, the temps drop rapidly. I'd kind of rolled with it until recently when I started using a space heater in the lung-room to bring temps up into the upper 70's during lights out. I'm only using that heating method until my new flat-panel oil-heater shows up that will go in the tent. That will be only 400w, but should be good enough for the limited cubic feet of my tent. Right now at 18/6, 6 hours of heat but controlled by an Inkbird (meaning its not just running all the time) isn't that onerous. In a few weeks we'll move towards summerish weather and by then it'll be 12/12

One thing I can say...once I started paying attention to the lights-out lows and started to heat during that time, my plants have really increased their speed in growing/expanding.

What led are you running i see that lumatek style are not as hot running like hlg board style

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Just did some calculations on my situation based on our most recent bill, our power is $.13 per kilowatt hour.

-In veg I'm running 2 out of 3 lights for a total of 450w for 18 hours giving me a total of $1.05 a day in lighting cost.
-Heater I'm running now is ~800w (1100w but on low setting, may be less than 800w), at 6 hours: $.62 per day
-Fans (2x AC Infinity) at what they suggest is 38w average each (I run at 1 and ramp up), gives me $.24 a day (this would be high).
-Incidentals (controllers, tiny humidifier) can't be more than $.10 a day

Gives me just under $2 a day in utilities costs. That will drop with a smaller heater, so maxing out at 60$ a month.

 

[ChongMaBong]

I’m only a message away.

Temp fan speed controllers don’t cost any additional wattage they actually save wattage by slowing the fan down etc.


same can be achieved using a £4.99 lighting dimmer switch from home bargains wired in to the power cord of the fan.

it won’t be quiet like a variac controller would be and it has the risk of reducing the life expectancy of your fan due to cutting the power on and off very quickly to achieve the speed etc but they work.

@jondamon I have a ram speed controller I have never used it haha but I will do at some point if its any good.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

From what I have read on le

What led are you running i see that lumatek style are not as hot running like hlg board style

I run HLG 225's. I have 3 of them in my tent, and currently run two of them undimmed for veg and will run all three in flower. I run 2x AC Infinity fans, but low (default is a 1 out of 10 setting), and they ratchet up as it gets hotter with a max setting at 7, but I'm not usually going above 4 or 5.

 

[ChongMaBong]

Just did some calculations on my situation based on our most recent bill, our power is $.13 per kilowatt hour.

-In veg I'm running 2 out of 3 lights for a total of 450w for 18 hours giving me a total of $1.05 a day in lighting cost.
-Heater I'm running now is ~800w (1100w but on low setting, may be less than 800w), at 6 hours: $.62 per day
-Fans (2x AC Infinity) at what they suggest is 38w average each (I run at 1 and ramp up), gives me $.24 a day (this would be high).
-Incidentals (controllers, tiny humidifier) can't be more than $.10 a day

Gives me just under $2 a day in utilities costs. That will drop with a smaller heater, so maxing out at 60$ a month.

Are you in US? Us UK people are getting pumped front back and centre on fuel and energy at the moment its quite bad even food prices have rocketed we will be eating the dog soon lol