Power Saving Tips for all growers!

[Wonderon]

I think this would be a great thread. I notice that many people don't understand how much power they are actually using when setting up their grow area. If you have any tips to add please do. I am in the process of building what I want in my mind lol. I am making plans, and want a nice list of things to do when I start.

One tip that I wanted to share is energy saving light bulbs. They make 13w bulbs that put out 60w light output, which in turn saves you money. Lets say you have 10 light bulbs running throughout your location, at 60w each you are running 600w total. Now with the energy saver bulbs running at 13w you would be running only 130w total. So that would save you 430w of power use. When using such massive lighting systems you should take into consideration how much power is being used up, for sake of security and for the money aspect of it all. Thought some of you may find this useful, if not oh well. Good Luck.

 

[mitsu1]

Use 240v instead of 110v...Cuts the bill in half...Run veg. lights for 18 on instead of 24 on..Save six hours usage...Use T-5 floro's instead of HID...Use more smaller lights(ie 400w) less bigger ones(1000w)..Use low amp fans,blowers,a/c and dehumitifiers...Use the heat from the grow to help heat the house(winter)..What you save in Heating put towards your electric bill..I'm cheap can you tell!!....mitsu

 

[Guest]

One of the biggest helps to me was the Kill-A-Watt, like 20 bucks online, tells you more than you need to know about your electricity. Found some surprising results, things that used much more or less power than I would have guessed. I cut my home elec. bill in half by replacing all the bulbs with CFL's. Now short of replacing my water heater, there's no big savings that would be worth the outlay to reduce usage.

Make things do more than one task, or schedule things to be cheaper, i.e. run your 12/12 lights at night, less cost/off-peak and cooler, so you don't have to run AC or chillers as much.

Again, you can't save until you know what is using the power, maybe we could post some readings of usage for common items (blowers, pumps, lights, etc.) so those without meters can calculate costs and savings?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

My energy savings comes from things other than my garden. I pee in the dark (yes there is some ambient light lol). I close blinds and put towels under doors to keep cold air out. I turn down the thermostat and dress warmer in the house. Stuff like that. I do nighttime daylight too....

Hmm, 240v uses less electricity?? I thought it just allowed more load on a circuit but still the same power usage?

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Use 240v instead of 110v...Cuts the bill in half...

^^^Agreed. 220/240 is the best and biggest money saver...

Do ya'll have any idea WTF you're talking about? Power is billed by KWH, not by amp hours. The only savings you get off 240v is slighly less voltage drop and a little lower initial wire cost to deliver a set amount of amps. Please don't post about stuff that you don't know about...you're not doing anyone a favor by just repeating what you've heard if it's not backed by facts.

 

[Sinsemillian]

Agreed.

Do ya'll have any idea WTF you're talking about? Power is billed by KWH, not by amp hours. The only savings you get off 240v is slighly less voltage drop and a little lower initial wire cost to deliver a set amount of amps. Please don't post about stuff that you don't know about...you're not doing anyone a favor by just repeating what you've heard if it's not backed by facts.

 

[Guest]

oops

oops

Sorry, corrected my mistake. I asked my brother who is a Master Electrician, he just laughed. So it's fixed, don't think anyone died. I actually made the mistake all on my own, not by "repeating" anything. Just little dumb 'ol me!

Maybe you more knowledgeable folks can pitch in some tips?

Later,

Flip

 

[BowlPacks]

Do ya'll have any idea WTF you're talking about? Power is billed by KWH, not by amp hours. The only savings you get off 240v is slighly less voltage drop and a little lower initial wire cost to deliver a set amount of amps. Please don't post about stuff that you don't know about...you're not doing anyone a favor by just repeating what you've heard if it's not backed by facts.

^^I wish most people were this honest
If 240v was half EVERYONE would use it. The US uses 120 because it's safer, not so we can pay double... you misinformed commies

 

[Wonderon]

Sorry I didn't mean to make a arguementive thread, All I was trying to do was share some simple tips in hopes that you all would do the same. Thanks for the good tips though, and thanks for correcting that mistake lol as funny as it was. Now calm down and lets share some tips damn it LOL j/k.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

The threads a great idea Wonderon...I'm just tired of seeing bad info being posted around here so I snapped a little at those guys (sorry to be a ass like that guys).

The CFL's are the first thing most growers swap out - and rightfully so since they're cheap and make a fairly large difference in the power consumption.

A couple of other things that can be done:

Switch over any heating devices in the home to Propane or NG - Huge savings on the power bill...you still have to pay for the gas, but it's more efficient and it adds quite a bit of leadway for more lights without having an insane power bill

Swap out your windows for double paned ones...kinda pricey up front, but mucho savings in the long run on AC/Heat

Add extra insulation in the attic

Do a pressure test on your house with smoke for air leaks and seal them

 

[BowlPacks]

Do a pressure test on your house with smoke for air leaks and seal them

Imagining watching MTF Sandman pressure test his house with
smoke

 

[Guest]

Imagining watching MTF Sandman pressure test his house with
smoke

That should do it.

 

[Jesusbuiltmygro]

Well if you really want to reduce your electric costs or utilities in general you need to look at where your costs are coming from. If you have electric heat and electric hot water these will be adding significant costs to your bill, so reducing your use of the devices that pull the largest electric load is the obvious first step.

Turn down your hot water heater. They recommend 140 for dishwashers to help kill germs, but unless you're very scared of germs basically the lowest setting you can stand will be fine. This is a important one since the hot water heater is on all the time and turning down to say 120 or so can save more than 10% on you're hot water costs.

For electric heat, the first and more effective steps are to simply turn down the the thermostat. Drafts are far more taxing on a heating system than the difference in RF factor. That is a sincea draft basically skips past your insulation they are the first things to go after.

Don't forget about your dryer and washing machine. For the most savings try doing laundry at someone elses house or use the laundrymat. If you don't want to go that far try washing with cold water and drying on low heat and off peak electric usage hours.

The most important and realistic ways to reduce electric usage is to reduce consumption. Turn off the lights whenever your not using them. Use Fluorescents in the lights that you tend to use the most.

Avoid using electric ranges, the microwave is almost always more effecient. Make sure your appliances are energy star.

I like to run my air cooled exhaust into the cold air return of the houses central heat. I find this to be the easier and most effecient setup in most cases.

Using a window unit for the grow room and backing off the central AC will also help electric usage a lot. AC is the most demanding and ineffecient device in your home. Window units are nice because you can get one just the right size. Using too large or too small a unit will cost more in electricity. So a window AC will let you invest your cooling where you need it the most and for the least money since you dont have to cool the entire house.

If you have electric heat and you truly must reduce your electric costs then kerosone heaters are resonable and very cheap options. You can buy them used for cheap and they do pretty good for heater a small home or the first floor of a two story. Pellet stoves are also cool options but much more up front cost and harder to find used.

A humidifier sometimes can be a worthy investment during the winter because it can make your house feel warmer/more comfortable.

Closing your heating vents or better yet buying those magnetic vent covers for unused rooms will help out also. Most HVAC ducts have dampers on them that allow you to close the entire duct off. I close these in the winter to stop the central heat unit from pumping heat into my room. My light pumps heat back into the system and when the heater runs it boosts my exhaust.

Digital ballasts and good fans like Vortex inline fans will also help. Water pumps can sometimes use a lot of electricity, but usually only when they are too large for the job in the first place. The older style non LCD monitors and televisions also use a considerable amount of power so turn them off when your not using them or replace with LCD.

Turning down the water heater, thermostat and turning off lights and appliances that aren't in use will save you the most IMO, but smart grow room design and quality equipment will add up. Even something as small as 10 watts adds up when left on all the time, so every little bit helps.

Free standing propane fireplaces are also very nice, cheap and effective ways to get away from electric heat. Wood is def the cheapest heating fuel beside coal, but who uses coal anymore.

Oh yea also leaving window blinds open will give you some thermal heating in the winter and closing them will of course help in the summer. Instead of AC in the spring try opening your windows and using fans as much as you can.

Insulation wrap for your water heater is usually a smart move also. Older refrigerators and freezers can use way too much electrcity and should be replaced with energy star ones.

If you have an older house one of the best heat saving measure could be to put plastic on the windows to stop the drafts.

 

[BlindDate]

One tip that I wanted to share is energy saving light bulbs. They make 13w bulbs that put out 60w light output, which in turn saves you money. Lets say you have 10 light bulbs running throughout your location, at 60w each you are running 600w total. Now with the energy saver bulbs running at 13w you would be running only 130w total. So that would save you 430w of power use.

I hope that you're not talking about growing with these bulbs are you?

 

[aeric]

I like to run my air cooled exhaust into the cold air return of the houses central heat.

could you be more specific? do you mean the intake vents that are in each individual room, or something else?

 

[R4st4]

hey...i started first with a 400w hps...was on 24 h on veg.. didnt notice much on the bill not ebven when i got a second 400 w... but when i got a new bigger exhaust fan i did...lol cause it draws air from my appartment... and cause of that i need to have more heat on in my appartment.. but true what ppl say about hot water... and floor heat takes much elec.

 

[Jesusbuiltmygro]

Yea the intakes are called cold air returns they are usually the larger vents and don't have adjustable vents to open and close.

You run your exhaust into there and your blower will push it throughout your houses hvac ducts effectively spreading out the heat all over the house instead of trapping it in one or two rooms. Heat is still mostly localized of course, but venting into the cold air returns of your houses central heating system HVAC is a great way to improve your overall cooling. Venting from say you closet to your bedroom will result in heat buildup so the heat has to vented somewhere right. Well many people choose venting into the attic, basement or outside and in many ways this is a big hassle. Venting out of the living area means that your hot air is wasted in the winter and your cold air is wasted during the summer because your room vents outside.

Now perhaps in very large grows this method might just result in a very hot house, but it will still help effectively spread out the heat and not let it build up over time as much.

A nice bonus is that when the HVAC system kicks on you get an extra exhaust boost. Doing this and tweaking your HVAC system can help cooling a lot. I like to cut off heat to the grow room and perhaps sometimes the surrounding rooms. The radiant heat from the grow and the exhaust spreading over to the nearest cold air return will still tend to heat the room nearest you and could result in that room actually being hotter than yours, so be careful there.

Some HVAC designs are less ideal because they have cold air returns back to back. If I were to vent into one of these returns it would just heat up the room next to me. Close the vents to both rooms and now you're reusing your lights heat and your not venting out climate controlled air. You can also block multiple cold air returns so that you can shoot the air down a longer run of duct which is more ideal if your houses setup calls for this. A piece of cardboard of whatever is fine for blocking it though foam insulation board or such is probably better but a little messier also. Many HVAC system have levers on each branch off of the main trunk that lets your turn a damper that blocks off the vent. This tends to be more effective than simple blocking the vent inside the room. Magnetic vent blockers are great options also and especially if you don't have a basement and don't want to crawl around under the house. Take them off in summer and put them on in the winter. The cold air return venting idea is just a way to distribute and/or recycle the heat of your light using the houses built in ducting. I find it very convenient and effective. Even long runs of flex duct to cold air returns are more effective than just venting into the room because of heat buildup over time.

It's not perfect, but it can serious help in cooling and utility costs.

 

[NorCal]

i too was under the impression that switching to 240 would cut my bill in half,as a matter of fact I know a few people who are also. so what are the advantages to switching, why would you even do it? thanx

 

[holla@yoboy]

say you run a huge growroom, like 10kw, @120v thats around 100 amps, or half of what a standard home service panel can pump out, @240v it would be around 50 amps, so it would save you amps. but yes the electric company bills you in watts used, not amps.

for saving power
buy electronic ballasts. they use a little less electricity and dont need power correction. in a large grow they could save you as much as 20%
smaller grows prolly more around 5%

and do whatver you can around the crib to save power, maybe look into solar power if your in a sunny region, lots of useful info in this thread though, use the tips, the small stuff does help, like switching out light bulbs for cfls

 

[MTF-Sandman]

i too was under the impression that switching to 240 would cut my bill in half,as a matter of fact I know a few people who are also. so what are the advantages to switching, why would you even do it? thanx

The main benefit is that you can run smaller gauge wire to get the same KW output. You can run 8 lights very safely off 6/3 wire whereas if you used 120v, you'd need 2/2 wire to do it safely - and 2 gauge wire is a helluva lot more expensive. The smaller wire diameter is also MUCH easier to pull through a wall.

Plus you can easily find 240v timers that will handle 40a loads for around $40 - beats the hell out of using 8 120v timers and trying to keep them synched up.