Ouch! ..$700 electric bill!

[waayne]

ya only downside to solar power, efficiency and cost, that and where you live

Yes jagle solar panels are costly but with rates increasing yearly, I'll have my
system paid for in 7-8 years.

Those are Solar 240 panels and they are pretty efficient.
There are 31 more panels that you can't see in the pic.

I live where we have over 320 sunny days a year ;)
That definitely makes them more cost effective, and certainly makes a difference on production capabilities.......

 

[Seamaiden]

Welcome back to outdoor growing, and keeping it veg-only during off-peak. If it's warm enough, and you're in the area I think you're in, you shouldn't be needing anything so energy-intensive as oil heaters. Can't you simply create passive heat sinks, using concrete blocks, stone, large containers of water (dark bodies are better)? Perhaps doubling up the panels on your greenhouse would help, too.

If you're not already familiar with Eliot Coleman's work, get thee so acquainted. He's practically a guru of cold weather organic cropping.

 

[Dz1PnK]

Also look into running your lights at "off peak hours"

This is funny(no offense Fuzz) if you're in socal I'd suggest doing this anyway if you're residential, as the electric company can shut your power off any time they feel like they need to. it's called flex scheduling, and was designed for summer when consumption is the highest, because of the rolling blackouts we were having a few years ago. It pretty much says they can shut off power to your house during business hours so they can run the ac on full blast at mcdonnalds. God bless America.

 

[cemchris]

Yall need some deregulated power. Shot our bills up at first but now its stupid crazy. Plan I'm on is 8 cent. If I use more then 3 K it goes to 7.2 cents. That's right the more power I use the cheaper it gets.

 

[kolah]

I wasn't sure where to post this...

I just got my electric bill...... 700 bills for one month... ;(
and I was just getting ready to buy another light...


The oil heater for the GH is costing more than I thought it would..:(

:sign0055:
This Base line crap is BS...I want a flat rate damn it!
Im paying four times the base rate!

Im thinking maybe if I get another Meter for my well pump that would help.
But it could be costly...got to look into that.


Any Suggestions?


Come on springtime!

Electric heat is a freaking killer. A wood stove is cheaper if you can get your wood for free plus the fact that it will not push your RH levels up through the roof. A small icehouse heater (run off propane) would also be less than electric heat (but that will raise RH and you'll need good ventilation)

Solar panels, man. Start small and work your way up. If you are going to continue your grow-ops this is a nice way to go. You may dish out some bucks to get it going but once you are over the hump then it's free energy, baby. I started off with the cheapy Harbor Frieght panels and worked my way up. A couple grand will get you off and running and then go from there. I am 100% off grid and love it.

Hooking up solar stuff by yourself is cake walk...just a few rules to follow and off ya go. If ya need a hand, give me a hollar.

 

[Snowblind]

700 is cheap!

If you have a dryer at home dont use it for your clothes anymore. Just air dry them. This alone saves a lot of money.

 

[greenjoe]

ouch is right...i used 1550 kwh for 57 days...bill was 84.80

 

[datDANK]

THERMAL MASS IN YOUR GREENHOUSE

if you have several large black barrles of water in your greenhouse it will absorb all the heat and energy during the day and keep your plants warm at night

CHEAP, EFFECTIVE

 

[mrdizzle]

I signed up for CARE and my bill went from $2500 to $400

you have to be poor on paper thou

I have steered my friends that route and it literally saved many of their growing careers

 

[Donnybrook]

Fer fucks sake Care-G-Ken ,

Those coke sacker power co's are surely puttin it too us with all the fuckin exorcisms taxes & tax on tax . So I'll tell ya what works fer me in $aving on those high ass electric bills . Now try & keep this all on the down low so everybody doesn't start dooin it & feck it fer us .

I got a real heavy duty extension cord , a fuckin 200 footer & I snuck over to me neighbors house late one night & plugged that fucker in his outdoor outlet . Hell my electric bill dropped down to $10 a month . That poor neighbor guy , Ken is his name , Hell I betcha his electric bill is as high as yer payin in the $700 er more range .

Umm , Ahh , Err , Hey Ken I think I may know a way fer ya to save on yer electric bill . After dark tonight start keeping track of yer power usage say from tomorrow forward , No Sooner & see if by chance it drastically lowers . Also if ya ever need to borrow a 200ft heavy duty extension cord I got an extra one .

Hmm , I guess I never made the connection that You were Ken & my neighbor is Ken . Also by chance do ya know if Those Other Neighbors have a 400 amp electrical service in their barn ? If they do I think we both will have free electricity fer life . Damn nice when a plan works out ,,,:big_boss::hi:

 

[GanjaAL]

I signed up for CARE and my bill went from $2500 to $400

you have to be poor on paper thou

I have steered my friends that route and it literally saved many of their growing careers

Hell yea LOL. Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[caregiverken]

Thanks Again everyone.

I figured the oil heater was the best electric heater to use
(and I had one laying around)

What electric heater is best?
(wondering for next year)

Too many No burn days to use wood
and propane makes too much moisture for sure.

Im not changing anything in the GH right now though
The heater is working well and the plants are happy

I don't think I will need to heat the GH much longer anyhow..
.maybe a couple more weeks...

I have moved some plants around and unplugged a 250w MH for now.

Im gonna check with the power co. to see if they can help me out.

Thanks again!

 

[chickenman]

Really cant complain too much, CGK, looks like it will pay off in long run, must live in warmer enviorment to do that, looks incredable... good job.

 

[paulycali]

Yeah the electric company is ripping us off big time. Its quite ridiculous with these teirs. It seems like its like 5 cents for tier one a kw and goes all the way up to 30 cents a kw in teir 4. Its like a 1/6th of my utility costs come from tier one and most comes from teir 3 and 4. Somebodys gotta put a stop to this. I wonder what states a use this teir system and which one use basic rates. Defineltaly sucks. My last cycle i ran my lights for 24hrs a day. Cost about $180. Ran my lights 12/12 and turned off ther fan for a week or two and my electric bill didnt drop very much. Only went down $30. WTF! Thats crazy! Should of went down way more but didnt. Very strange. Hope it changes soon becaue paying in teirs is just ridiculous

Anybody thinking about buying stocks in the utility companies? Looks like some money to be made there

I bought Mcdonalds stock the other day at like $37 a share and it jumped all the way to like $103 a share. Super stoked. Sold those shares :)

No stealing electricity. Go solar :)

 

[fishwhistle]

Ken,check out the geodesic dome greenhouses at growingspaces.com,alot of people in colorado use these in the depth of winter with no added heat just passive solar(water tanks etc)the growingspaces models are hella expensive but if you look up geodesic greenhouses you will come up with the info for a guy who sells a book for like 49 bucks that details how to build one yourself on the cheap,these things are pretty badasss and super efficient.
Just out of curiousity what all are you running grow wise to achieve the 7 hundy bill,watts add up quick!

 

[Dz1PnK]

30 cents a kw in teir 4.

No stealing electricity. Go solar :)

I'm sure it's particular electric companies more than states, cause in my area with sce it's 28 cents per kwh in tier 5...

Lol, if you go solar, you're gonna be giving back to the electric company, fo free! What a racket...

 

[gooey]

pay to play as they say

 

[markscastle]

I`m off grid and just using one of two generators to charge my batteries in the RV right now. I keep and extra battery with a 400 watt inverter for late at night. When I get my road in and get more set I`m starting out with an 1800 watt solor system that will run in the day time and have my batteries charged for the night time. I`ll just add a few more of those systems and more batteries for the greenhouse. I`m in the woods so was thinking of making a wood fired water exchange heater for the GH and solor vents,fans,ect. May run some floro`s off batteries/solor when I need to strech out the veg time. I summer when I want to flower I`ll make a smaller GH that can be covered like an outdoor flower tent.

 

[fuzzy]

T5s work great for vegging and little 1s.They also save a lot on elect.peace,fuzzy

 

[paulycali]

We should get a thread going on electric bills with teirs and another on whats everyone paying per kw