these electric bills are killing me. need new hps and advise

ok i used to run a 400 watt hps and it died 3 months ago so i switched to my 250 watt mh light.

do mh lights use more electrical energy -- I swear to god its costing me abotu 100 plus on a 12/12 cycle bucks a month to run this piece of crap.?

the mps was prob blose to 40 if that it .


Well I am tired fo my electric bill....

I am in the market for a new HPS light im thinking 250 or 400 watter, im redesigning my grow space in about a month after this harvest.. tearign all the shit down and startign fresh.

ok now that I blabbed here is my question.
????


What is the most electrically eficiant HPS on the market, in the 250 or 400 Watt range. balast, light etc.

thank you

a 400 watt uses 400 watts, actually it's closer to 430 watts with the ballast. same thing with the 250

HPS is much more efficient than MH, it uses the exact same amount of power, but produces loads more lumens. Your cost of electricity must be in the neighborhood of .60/KWH , too bad. where I live it is only .06/kwh. costs me about $10 to run my 400 18/6 for a month. Look at your electric bill and find out how much your electricity costs you.

ive read digital ballasts are more energy efficieant -- do you now if this is true? and is it worth the energy savings vs the initial cost -- basically im lookign for the best brand .. I dont need a swappable hps/mh bulb -- i am using a sog method.

thanks again.

If you can afford it, I'd recommend a Lumatek HPS digital ballast, of whatever size you think best. The plants like the high-speed light pulsing produced by digital ballasts more than they do the slow pulsing light from a magnetic ballast. Also, less heat, quieter and way lighter. Use CFLs or fluoro tubes for for veg.

Sounds like you pay a lot for electricity wherever you are though, so there are going to be limits to what you can do short of stealing your electric.

Jriggs said:

ive read digital ballasts are more energy efficieant -- do you now if this is true? and is it worth the energy savings vs the initial cost -- basically im lookign for the best brand .. I dont need a swappable hps/mh bulb -- i am using a sog method.

thanks again.

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they use the same power, certain brands will give you 10-15 % more light for the same power.

i swear by digital ballasts. i like Lumatek, however they have changed 2 times since i have made large purchases of them.

gangjababy said:

a 400 watt uses 400 watts, actually it's closer to 430 watts with the ballast. same thing with the 250

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Losses are usually higher than that, that sounds like adigital ballast or special high efficiency magnetic ballast losses.

My 250w mag ballast halides pull 296 watts total, a 400 could easily pull 475+.

Are you sure your electricity is that much though? A single 400w light even the most inneficient, run only 12 hours a day shouldn't make much of an impact on your bill AT ALL.

Maybe you aren't venting it well and instead have the heat of the bulb fighting against a room air conditioner, which is also fighting against the main house heat or A/C?

Somethings not right.

Anyway the savings you'd see going to a digital ballast OR to a smaller HID light won't be very large at all and I think you'll continue to be disappointed if you don't look into this further. Are you using other energy saving methods in your house? Pipes and water heater wrapped well, ducts sealed, doors and windows sealed, CFL's everywhere in the house *except in your grow*, etc...

try going to procyondepot.com/HT you can get 125 watts with the power of 400!

Just a thought, Electricity rates sometimes differ with seasons and time of day. (Peak times cost more). Still waiting to see how much 420 watts of cfl's and more AC will affect my bill.

OregonMeds said:

CFL's everywhere in the house *except in your grow*, etc...

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Yeah, I know. I should have bought a 400w HPS. thought I could do it on 6-42w cfls, also trying to keep heat down. My guess is 10-42 watt cfl's produce as much heat as a remote ballast 400w HPS

Hayduke said:

Yeah, I know. I should have bought a 400w HPS. thought I could do it on 6-42w cfls, also trying to keep heat down. My guess is 10-42 watt cfl's produce as much heat as a remote ballast 400w HPS

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Your guess would be correct. Actually 420w of cfl's produce more because you can't remote mount their little ballasts.

The heat is spread out more, so it may seem like less than one concentrated heat source but it's not.

off peak electricity usuage kicks in either at 7 or 8p, that's why alot of folks in cali have their lights come on at 8p.

Become a supporter of nuclear power, HID lights dont cost any more to run 12/12 then your ent. centers amp.

restlesswynd said:

off peak electricity usuage kicks in either at 7 or 8p, that's why alot of folks in cali have their lights come on at 8p.

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Yeah I think it's 7pm. Hey restlesswynd, you a SCI fan?

Hayduke said:

Yeah I think it's 7pm. Hey restlesswynd, you a SCI fan?

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good eye man incidents happen!

I was just at the wharehouse the other day placing the final supply order for my new grow rooms and was planning on buying 2 lumatek ballasts. I was talking to the owner a I was placing an order in excess of $6k and he advised me AGAINST the Lumatek Ballasts as he said that they test everything that they sell and they underdrive the bulbs by 10% on the 400whps and by 15% on the 1000w hps. he did menton that with the 250's they are fine as there is little to no difference. So, he talked me against buying the Lumatek Digital and just upgrading to the North American made ballast up from the chinses eco one..

He did say if buying a digital that Lumatek is the one to buy but advised against them..

Good luck to you all..

thanks for all the advise.

Im thinking my bills are high cause this time around i am running the lights in the daytime (box is falligna part and sunlight woudl get in if i didnt).
It also been a hot summer so Ac unit has been on a bit more. All these things add up.

I did not know abotu the peak energy use times something i need ot look into and now consider.

Im going to be rebuilding my grow room over the next few weeks/months once this harvest is done (3 weeks!).

Not to hijack this thread, but I am on 12/12 but on during day. We are in the 3rd or so week of flower, adding second tray "SOG" in a week. WHEN and HOW would the best way to switch from running my lights in the daytime to running them @ night. I'm @ a loss on how to switch over correctly...... thanks in advance for any info!

honestyle -- jsut switch -- my power ahs goen oput a few tiems and not messes it up... but thats jsut my opinion.

thcheaven said:

Not to hijack this thread, but I am on 12/12 but on during day. We are in the 3rd or so week of flower, adding second tray "SOG" in a week. WHEN and HOW would the best way to switch from running my lights in the daytime to running them @ night. I'm @ a loss on how to switch over correctly...... thanks in advance for any info!

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wondering myself, I am guessing that an extra 12hours of dark would not hurt? I want to switch also, would it be better to do it gradual, or just skip a light cycle? in keeping with the thread this would lower my bill and run things cooler.