Newbie and indoor - electricity doubts

Hello,
I was always interested in indoor growing but before I lived with my parents, so it was out of my mind. I tried always to kept reading stuffs, but after so many time I am confused about something.

The main thing that worries me are the electricity consumes. I don't want to be caught from my elecricity consumes as I live in a small flat, but I wanted to grow just autoflowering (I know the bad sides), so I wanted just to do it with cfl or neon. How many watts I would need for 5-10 auto, considering lights, air and other things?

Thanks

You're gonna need a lot of CFLs to grow 5-10 autos if you want any yield worthwhile. Check out @ebcrew he grows some nice autos with a BUNCH of CFLs, I think something like 600w worth of CFL. I could be wrong about that wattage but maybe he'll chime in.
As for electricity usage, for a small grow of 1-2 plants using CFLs it really won't be too bad. I probably pay $15 more a month and I've got a mixture of CFLs, HID, fan, etc. don't get confused just keep asking questions and you'll be on your way soon. Good luck!

kimoolos said:

You're gonna need a lot of CFLs to grow 5-10 autos if you want any yield worthwhile. Check out @ebcrew he grows some nice autos with a BUNCH of CFLs, I think something like 600w worth of CFL. I could be wrong about that wattage but maybe he'll chime in.
As for electricity usage, for a small grow of 1-2 plants using CFLs it really won't be too bad. I probably pay $15 more a month and I've got a mixture of CFLs, HID, fan, etc. don't get confused just keep asking questions and you'll be on your way soon. Good luck!

Click to expand...

Yeah i use 650w of T8s and CFLs. I never have more then 4 autos going at a time. Yeah as far as electricity i dont see that much of a change in my bill, they dont use that much electricity. Like @kimoolos said maybe $10-15.

So if you need any help or have any questions i'll try to help u out.

Thank you guys! you are really kind with your answers! I read a lot about autos, because I feel better starting with this kind of plants, but I read also that for a 2'x2' could be enough around 300w CFLs (for 2-4 plants). I see that your wattage is higher and I have the feeling I should trust you but the thing I read about the 300w are just incorrect or what?

Ebcrew, how are the yelds for one plants with your settings? and to keep your 4 autos, how big is your growing space?

thaaanks

GreenDuke said:

Thank you guys! you are really kind with your answers! I read a lot about autos, because I feel better starting with this kind of plants, but I read also that for a 2'x2' could be enough around 300w CFLs (for 2-4 plants). I see that your wattage is higher and I have the feeling I should trust you but the thing I read about the 300w are just incorrect or what?

Ebcrew, how are the yelds for one plants with your settings? and to keep your 4 autos, how big is your growing space?

thaaanks

Click to expand...

It is said to use 100w per plant, but i think with CFLs it should be higher. I yeild usually around 40g a plant but i just harvested a 90g northern light auto. So it varies. My grow space is in a closet its quite big, but i only use one section of the closet. Have a double stacked system with vegging plants up top using 6500k bulbs and flowering on the bottom with 2700k bulbs. my grow space is like 4ft wide 3ft long, 10ft high

So let's say I would like to use 1 plant, with a total 200w with multiple CFLs, I don't have any practice so it's diffucult to picture it, but how can I hold the bulbs in a way that I can easily adjust the distance between lights and plants? I saw the bulb should work with a reflector, so it's hard to understand. I saw reflctor clamps (where to I attach the clamps when the plant keeps growing)?

What kind of CFLs are you using. I use a couple T8s that have a reflector built in. On my other various CFLs i use this, its not the greatest but it does the job. It can be found at home depot, walmart or lowes. It also has a clamp so u can clamp it anywhere to maximize the area you can cover on your plant.

And then i have Y adapters so i can fit 3 or 4 CFLs in each one.