Prepping and energy use/cost

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

Hello all. A while back i put up a post and one person was able to spit out an algorithm to figure out energy costs. I dont remember who it was. But now i have everything necessary to grow or start at the least indoors.

Who was that and are you willing to help me out?

I was excited to start but now that i have everything i need im getting cold feet as if it increased our electric bill significantly mama bear wont be happy and we all know happy wife happy life.

carlosescobar · Feb 17, 2026

it wasnt me but i have looked into the cost of my grow and its not good haha, my led is approx £20 per month, but once you start having to use a heater (UK in the winter) it shoots up ,
last march i used a 5w greenhouse heater on low and my energy bill jumped from £80 pm to £200. im experimenting at the moment with one of those mini plug in blow heaters , which clicks in for a few minutes when the temp drops below 25oC.

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

carlosescobar said:
it wasnt me but i have looked into the cost of my grow and its not good haha, my led is approx £20 per month, but once you start having to use a heater (UK in the winter) it shoots up ,
last march i used a 5w greenhouse heater on low and my energy bill jumped from £80 pm to £200. im experimenting at the moment with one of those mini plug in blow heaters , which clicks in for a few minutes when the temp drops below 25oC.

Yeah. It definitely wasnt you lol whomever it was was using usd lol and im in ny state so I will possibly have to use a heater as well in my basement

RGWD0202 · Feb 17, 2026

dman049162 said:
Yeah. It definitely wasnt you lol whomever it was was using usd lol and im in ny state so I will possibly have to use a heater as well in my basement

Space heaters are typically 1500w and will crush your electric. Tent heaters are the way to go. Your electric won’t increase significantly with just a light and the fans. If you are staying under 700w with a light. Typically you won’t be running it at 100%. Mine never goes above 80%. And flower it’s only on for 12hrs. Heaters are the biggest energy suck but the tent heaters don’t appear to be too bad from energy usage. Look at your energy bill should tell you kw/hr cost and go from there. Probably an energy cost calculator online or chat gpt could probably figure it out

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

RGWD0202 said:
Space heaters are typically 1500w and will crush your electric. Tent heaters are the way to go. Your electric won’t increase significantly with just a light and the fans. If you are staying under 700w with a light. Typically you won’t be running it at 100%. Mine never goes above 80%. And flower it’s only on for 12hrs. Heaters are the biggest energy suck but the tent heaters don’t appear to be too bad from energy usage. Look at your energy bill should tell you kw/hr cost and go from there. Probably an energy cost calculator online or chat gpt could probably figure it out

Thank you

Grownsince95 · Feb 17, 2026

(watts ÷ 1000) × hrs/day × 30 × $ per kwh.

Go item by item then add them all up.

I'm in NYC and it's not cheap. Still cheaper than buying dispo weed though.

Currently monthly costs:
Light - $32
Heater - $78
Circulation fans - $10
Exhaust fan - $6
Rez pumps and heater - $5

Total cost per month: $131

That's almost $400 per run. I'm usually harvesting about 8oz so $50/oz cost to me.
I know there's places in the country you can buy decent weed that cheap but not around here! I'm thinking of adding one of these contraptions in my setup so my wife knows I'm not fudging the numbers! Happy wife, happy life right?

Amazon.com

a.co

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

Grownsince95 said:
(watts ÷ 1000) × hrs/day × 30 × $ per kwh.

Go item by item then add them all up.

I'm in NYC and it's not cheap. Still cheaper than buying dispo weed though.

Currently monthly costs:
Light - $32
Heater - $78
Circulation fans - $10
Exhaust fan - $6
Rez pumps and heater - $5

Total cost per month: $131

That's almost $400 per run. I'm usually harvesting about 8oz so $50/oz cost to me.
I know there's places in the country you can buy decent weed that cheap but not around here! I'm thinking of adding one of these contraptions in my setup so my wife knows I'm not fudging the numbers! Happy wife, happy life right?

Amazon.com

a.co

Good to know thank you

carlosescobar · Feb 17, 2026

Funnily enough my electric bill just came through the door , and its hardly gone up , so this must be using very little , and its switched off when the lights on. its keeping my cupboard at a constant 25 oC and it would help circulate the air , although i have it on low.

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

RGWD0202 said:
Space heaters are typically 1500w and will crush your electric. Tent heaters are the way to go. Your electric won’t increase significantly with just a light and the fans. If you are staying under 700w with a light. Typically you won’t be running it at 100%. Mine never goes above 80%. And flower it’s only on for 12hrs. Heaters are the biggest energy suck but the tent heaters don’t appear to be too bad from energy usage. Look at your energy bill should tell you kw/hr cost and go from there. Probably an energy cost calculator online or chat gpt could probably figure it out

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

RGWD0202 said:
Space heaters are typically 1500w and will crush your electric. Tent heaters are the way to go. Your electric won’t increase significantly with just a light and the fans. If you are staying under 700w with a light. Typically you won’t be running it at 100%. Mine never goes above 80%. And flower it’s only on for 12hrs. Heaters are the biggest energy suck but the tent heaters don’t appear to be too bad from energy usage. Look at your energy bill should tell you kw/hr cost and go from there. Probably an energy cost calculator online or chat gpt could probably figure it out

I just posted a cropped version of my bill(last month) nysegs billing confused tf outta me lol

Ninjadogma · Feb 17, 2026

If you are billed for your electricity based on time of use, I can help. Just give me:

How many days you'll spend in veg and your light schedule if not 18/6

How many days in flower and we will assume 12/12 schedule

What are your tiered rates that your utility charges? (e.g. on peak, off peak, super off peak) And what hours of the day does each tier apply to.

What time of day will the lights come on and when will they go off during the grow. This will tell you how many total hours for each tier.

Add your tier totals together, don't forget to include utility fees and taxes and you'll have your electricity cost.

If you want to grow on a shoestring budget, use a lower wattage light and keep it close to the canopy. Or, if you have access to sunlight, turn the light off and take them outside as often as you can. It's free energy!

Ninjadogma · Feb 17, 2026

dman049162 said:
I just posted a cropped version of my bill(last month) nysegs billing confused tf outta me lol

Thats actually a pretty clean layout, no tiered rates and they give you the per kilowatt rate for all regulatory fees, delivery charges and taxes. The merchant function charge, just round it up to a half a penny per kilowatt.

Grownsince95 · Feb 17, 2026

Ninjadogma said:
Thats actually a pretty clean layout, no tiered rates and they give you the per kilowatt rate for all regulatory fees, delivery charges and taxes. The merchant function charge, just round it up to a half a penny per kilowatt.

I'm bad at reading these too!! From what I can gather he's paying about 20¢ a kwh? Seems about right in the city we're about 25¢

Ninjadogma · Feb 17, 2026

Grownsince95 said:
I'm bad at reading these too!! From what I can gather he's paying about 20¢ a kwh? Seems about right in the city we're about 25¢

I have solar and am on a contract with the utility under what's called Net Metering 2.0. It was pretty good but despite generating my own electricity and even feeding some to the grid, California decided that I need to pay for poor people to have electricity too, so we started getting hit with a $40 bill each month on top of our net metering.

JIMKSI64 · Feb 17, 2026

My decision to use a space heater was easy.
That or heat the whole basement.
Beside by week 6 I will have so much lights running the heater in the tent can fill the gap.
During veg I run 8O degrees and lifting 63 to 80 on a thermoforge in a 4x4 aint happening. Room runs 74 degrees and the heater for the tent is close to 50% on time.

TerpBeans · Feb 17, 2026

carlosescobar said:
Funnily enough my electric bill just came through the door , and its hardly gone up , so this must be using very little , and its switched off when the lights on. its keeping my cupboard at a constant 25 oC and it would help circulate the air , although i have it on low.

Thats a cool little device. Are you in the UK and using 220?

dman049162 · Feb 17, 2026

TerpBeans said:
Thats a cool little device. Are you in the UK and using 220?

I was wondering where he got it. Ive been at work all day and this forum is blocked so I couldnt reply

Ninjadogma · Feb 17, 2026

dman049162 said:
I was wondering where he got it. Ive been at work all day and this forum is blocked so I couldnt reply

A little 100w wall plug heater like that will keep a tent with radiant heat reflectors warm if you're not constantly unzipping it. Your air exchange is what will knock down it's effeciency. Or, if you want to sit in your tent for a prolonged period, humans put out 600 btu's per hour and every breath you take is about 20k ppm by volume.

cpurola · Feb 17, 2026

Hubby installed solar 12 years ago and some of it charges batteries and some is going back to DTE. Loved watching the meter arrow turn around and point the other way on sunny days. LOL
Anyways, it was a 10 yr. contract and it's over, so instead of parity, they're giving us the lowest rate for credit they have, at the moment. Scam. Same power, and they give us less back. Oh, well.

Ninjadogma · Feb 17, 2026

cpurola said:
Hubby installed solar 12 years ago and some of it charges batteries and some is going back to DTE. Loved watching the meter arrow turn around and point the other way on sunny days. LOL
Anyways, it was a 10 yr. contract and it's over, so instead of parity, they're giving us the lowest rate for credit they have, at the moment. Scam. Same power, and they give us less back. Oh, well.

Thats why we bought our solar outright. Wife got laid off one year and we were looking at a pretty big tax liability against it, so we decided to have it go toward the cost of our solar via the tax credit. If you don't want to have buyers remorse, this is how to do your solar. Realistic expectations are everything. Go in with the mindset that you are prepaying for most of your electricity at a fixed rate for the next 10 years, and after that there's about another 10 years worth of electricity it will generate for you at zero cost. And in that time frame, expect a $3,500 hit every 7 years replacing the inverter because they have a lifespan.

Prepping and energy use/cost

Prepping and energy use/cost

dman049162

carlosescobar

dman049162

RGWD0202

dman049162

Grownsince95

🤘😆👍

Amazon.com

dman049162

Amazon.com

carlosescobar

Attachments

dman049162

dman049162

Ninjadogma

Ninjadogma

Grownsince95

🤘😆👍

Ninjadogma

JIMKSI64

TerpBeans

dman049162

Ninjadogma

cpurola

Ninjadogma

Prepping and energy use/cost

Prepping and energy use/cost

dman049162

carlosescobar

dman049162

RGWD0202

dman049162

Grownsince95

🤘😆👍

Amazon.com

dman049162

Amazon.com

carlosescobar

Attachments

dman049162

dman049162

Ninjadogma

Ninjadogma

Grownsince95

🤘😆👍

Ninjadogma

JIMKSI64

TerpBeans

dman049162

Ninjadogma

cpurola

Ninjadogma

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency