Wow, I managed to read all 22 pages of this thread and had to do all I could to stop where I was on numerous occasions and post something to the "haters" on this thread. If you dont like the idea of saving electricity, dont.... but you didnt have to pollute this thread in order to prove that you like throwing money away or who ever said that. That being said, if the rest of you can talk civil to said haters at this point, please do so but I'm all about saving electricity at the moment, that and heat are out to get me seeing I've just had a "smart meter" installed in my home and at the place I grow over the past few months, so yes I am running this method, I havent been doing so for long but I think I will be doing so from now on. Normally in the space I lease to grow, normally running a veg tent on 20/4 600 watts and a flowering tent on 12/12 @ 2000 watts, throw in the A/C unit that runs 24/7 (along with a few other things that run 24/7 that consume like crack whores) I am into the electric company for anywhere between $6 and 700 a month and that doesnt include the $250-300 bill I get at home every month and I'm hardly ever there, so basically I give the electric company a $1000 a month or close to it and I am sick of it, and my money isnt coming from my grow, it comes from me working until my fingers bleed literally, its sort of a revolving door, I grow weed to sell it, I sell it so I can grow more...so I can sell more...so I can grow more....see the pattern, theres a lot of smoking and a LOT of sharing it in there too. Personally, I get a better feeling when I can give someone a bag rather than sell it to them, but it only seems the sick folk truly appreciate the work I put into my bud so the un-sick pay through the nose and the sick dont pay a dime in my world.
My first bill running the 12-1/lantern method has brought me down below $550 and thats only a little over 2 weeks of the month, its mainly because I only have to run A/C if I am running both tents at the same time and doing 18/6 for my veg tent they are running together for 6 hours out of the day and those 6 hours carry some of the heat over into the next 6 hour period and so on, the entire time all the lights are lit up the A/C is just cycling on and off, and the on cycles always seem longer than the off. Now I was able to flip flop them only having them both on for that single hour and I dont have to run the A/C at all on top of saving myself 5 hours at 600 watts, that may not seem like much but over the course of 52 weeks.....it adds up, as well as does me running my 2 1k lights an hour less (for starters) a day. And to the poster who said the big boy lights consume the most energy when they start up.... I dont know about your hid ballasts but mine start out drawing right around 350 watts (have one of those meters that shows how much wattage is being pulled at the plug), starting out dim slowly working up to full power, 1000 watts (actually about 1090) over the course of a couple minutes. Not to mention they are mag ballasts so they are fairly cheap to replace and last a long time as it is. I am aware digital ballasts use less but they dont last as long, and regular bulbs dont last as long with them, and at roughly double the cost, they arent worth it either. I have a family, no matter how much I make its never enough, so I can only spend so much on my toys so saving money on my hobby seems logical, I'd love to run a commercial op but again....I have a family that I provide for, no need for me to be in jail not being able to provide anything.
I dont know, I just really think its kinda fucked up how more people jumped all over LILBsdad like he raped a 6 year old boy for trying to enlighten others with information, dude never said it was the best, or its gonna make you grow 10lb buds in half the time, just informed us on the method someone else discovered and documented. Rather than try it yourselves like he did, you bash him.....think about that attitude in this world and the direction the US is heading (I understand we all arent from the US but the rest of the world is in a very similar climate, climate meaning a nice word for headed the way of the soviet union did 30 years or so ago). Different isnt bad, its just....different. I know this method sounds pretty weird and I honestly read that article just to kill some time, never thinking I would be using it as it was to complicated having to add that hour of light after the first 5.5 hours of darkness, as well as just not seeming natural. Well just FYI for all, growing indoors under 1000 watt lights isnt natural, nor is chemical ferts even though some say "natural" rather than organic, but we've all used those at some point, not to mention that a lot of our nations food is grown with things a lot worse than the chem ferts we use in weed, and we eat that shit.
Sorry for the ramble, I was nice and lifted when I started reading this thread, by the time I got to page 15 my high was blown and I had to smoke again....hence the ramble.....
Anyhow, LILBsdad, +reps to you even though I dont think I can give you any yet seeing I'm a new member but you put up with a lot of shit in this thread and still stuck it out for our benefit by showing your progress, thank you.
When I start my next grow that has been grown from seed/clone with the 12-1/lantern method I will post a grow journal.