ENERGY BILL SPIKE. Please help! Shouldn't be this high!!

[jerryrick]

My buddy's energy is usually $30 plus or minus ten, but since the grow started, just in the last two months, it's up over $300, almost $400. Literally 10x more than it has been. My question is why the HELL is it costing so much?

Here's a breakdown of what we have running:

12x 27w daylights
6x 13w soft whites
6 little powerstrips with those socket plugs powering them into two extension cords to reach to a timer running 18 hrs on, 6 hours off.
two smallish fans running 24
a 60g tetra whisper air pump running 24
recently an 80g air pump running 24
all this on the same timer, just the ones running 24 are on the constant plugs on the timer strip.

We're having the hardest time figuring out how this is possible. Just the lights alone, that's 404w @ .08 cents per KWH. Please tell me if I did the calculations wrong, but for the last hour we've been coming to no more than $30 a month ontop of his usual costs with the addition of lights.

PLEASE HELP US, WE DON'T KNOW WTF IS GOING ON!!!!

 

[jerryrick]

pics of the setup are in my signature.

is there any way that having that many power strips being used or maybe the little socket adapters are sapping a ton of energy?? during the 6 hours off, the timer just cuts all power to the strips so they aren't taking any idle power.

 

[IAm5toned]

something is wrong with your bill.
some power companies are on a tier system for billing.
the more you use, the higher cost per kw you get billed for.
though a 300+ increase is highly unusual for 500w of usage.
ive estimated your max wattage @ 492w, or .492 kw/h (kilowatts per hour)

which is roughly 11.808 kw per day.
find out what your billing rate per kw/h, check your elec bill.
then multiply the billing rate for kw/h x 11.808 x number of days in billing cycle = monthly power cost of grow

 

[jerryrick]

something is wrong with your bill.
some power companies are on a tier system for billing.
the more you use, the higher cost per kw you get billed for.
though a 300+ increase is highly unusual for 500w of usage.
ive estimated your max wattage @ 492w, or 4.92 kw/h (kilowatts per hour)

which is roughly 118.08 kw per day.
find out what your billing rate per kw/h, check your elec bill.
then multiply the billing rate for kw/h x 118.08 x number of days in billing cycle = monthly power cost of grow

$283 dollars per month for the grow. Is this correct? Does anyone else see this kind of cost on their electric bills for similar watt usages? How about the guys using the 400w, 600w or even 1000w HPS? It's just hard for me to believe it costs this much. Can you just confirm this for me?

 

[jerryrick]

$283 dollars per month for the grow. Is this correct? Does anyone else see this kind of cost on their electric bills for similar watt usages? How about the guys using the 400w, 600w or even 1000w HPS? It's just hard for me to believe it costs this much. Can you just confirm this for me?

I think you mean 492w = 0.492 kw/h, you said 4.92 kw/h which brings us back to $283. At 0.492 it would be $28.30 a month which is what we estimated before and during the grow and what we have determined to be running costs for out setup.

 

[IAm5toned]

right now i am running close to 1200w 12/12
you could say that would also equal 600w of 24hour usage...
it costs me nowhere near as much, actually my entire elect bill is less than your grow cost.
but my area has pretty low rates though

 

[IAm5toned]

I think you mean 492w = 0.492 kw/h, you said 4.92 kw/h which brings us back to $283. At 0.492 it would be $28.30 a month which is what we estimated before and during the grow and what we have determined to be running costs for out setup.

yes, sorry about that... typo, i will edit

rofl, and a big +rep for catching an electrician making a math mistake

 

[djlifeline]

Hey guys, sorry to hear about nasty bill. in the UK (im not sure on my price per watt) it only cost me extra £10-£20 a month to run my 400w hps on 24/0 and a 11litre cooling unit which is 60w usage.

 

[jerryrick]

yes, sorry about that... typo, i will edit

We're getting charged eight cents per kw. I'd say ours is pretty cheap too lol. How do we go about righting this? Gring the elecric company out? We're writing them but I don't really know how to go about fixing this.

 

[stumps]

you shouldn't run over 50.00 a month. do you have hvac in your house? My heat pump took a dump and my bill went from 100 something to just under 400. or a billing error my bills can be 70-350. depending on when they read the meter.

 

[IAm5toned]

i would contact them and say you have an extremely unsual rise in your bill, request the meter to be checked or possibly replaced.
it may very well be an estimated bill though, does your utillity co. do that?
mine does, and sometimes i get the shaft. ill run a month without an op going and still get a 200$ bill where i know for a fact ive only used 40$ worth, if that.

 

[jerryrick]

We should get a response from the elecric company in two days or so. Really hoping to not have the bill really be $329 for March electric and more like $27 which is our average. If it's just going to cost this much to run a grow, this might be the end of our grow.

 

[DoeEyed]

Gotta be something else. My electricity is $0.12kw. Running a 600w, a 400w, a 324w CFL rack, half a dozen various fans, and a couple space heaters set on low, has increased my bill by around $100 a month. No way should yours be that high.

 

[growone]

whatever strange goings on you are having, one thing stands out
if you don't straighten things out with the utility, that kind of power jump could be a risk
so yelling loud is the safest thing to do, ' i'm not using anything like this amount of power!'
moving your grow temporarily might not be a bad idea, if you have somewhere safe to put it

 

[captain chronizzle]

whatever strange goings on you are having, one thing stands out
if you don't straighten things out with the utility, that kind of power jump could be a risk
so yelling loud is the safest thing to do, ' i'm not using anything like this amount of power!'
moving your grow temporarily might not be a bad idea, if you have somewhere safe to put it

exactly. they will need to know consumption, etc. always safe to play it safe!

 

[jerryrick]

the elecric company wrote back and had us look at the meter outside to see if it matched up with his bill. the guy didn't read the meter wrong, it says the same number out there as on the bill. do any electritians know why it could have gone this high or what to do next??

 

[snutter]

go outside and look at your meter... See how fast it is running. You can generally tell right there if something is wrong. Looks like you're going to have to call your power company and get this straightened out. I don't think they'll need to come in to your house, but who knows... ???

 

[stumps]

wiat for your next bill. See if it looks any beter.