Cool white energy costs

L

LLeopardGGecko

• Jul 30, 2007

• #1

I have two 15 watt cool white fluorescent tubes on my 5 gallon terrarium. I've been wondering how much it's costing to run these lights (30 watts total) for 14-15 hours. The reason I ask is that I've downsized my entire CP collection down to a windowsill and this particular small terrarium in order to cut down on energy costs.

Does anyone have a ballpark estimate?

 

pingman

• Jul 30, 2007

• #2

I would say pennies! I have over 800 watts of Fl!

 

Zero

• Jul 30, 2007

• #3

I think around $.04 a day, $1.20 a month, and $14.40 a year.
Why did you downsize?
Did you have a LARGE amount of lights?
I have 4 40 wt, 3 25 wt cpf, and 2 2ft bulbs.
cost me $5.00 a month. all I need to do is skip a couple of morning coffees or get my bottled water from my ro filter instead of buying it and I have saved more than enough to pay for my plant lighting for the month.
peace,
Zero

 

C

CPsinSC

Ryan + Sara

• Jul 30, 2007

• #4

I think I figured out one time it would cost about $5 or so a month to run 4 40watts 24 hours a day.

 

Not a Number

Hello, I must be going...

Staff member

Moderator

• Jul 30, 2007

• #5

If you really need to know you can buy an energy usage monitor like the Kill-A-Watt EZ from P3 International.

Otherwise look on your last energy bill and find a figure like "average cost per kWh" and do the math from that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt-hour

 

T

The Griffin

• Jul 30, 2007

• #6

Dang. I have twelve in the basement. I also have two 400 MH and one 1000 which I have never hooked up. Lat I knew, a 1000 MH cost about $30/month.

 

L

LLeopardGGecko

• Jan 12, 2008

• #7

I'm still a bit apprehensive about setting up my terrarium at the new apartment, because I can't afford to get charged up the wazoo. My current terrarium has two 30 watt CFL and a 20 watt tube, for a total of 80 watts running at about 14 hours a day.

I'm looking at the electric bill and it's confusing as hell. Do you guys still think it'll be under five dollars a month to run these lights?

Edit: I managed to use a formula I found online and it seems that running 80 watts of light for 14 hours a day will only cost around $2.40 a month, which is more than manageable. I hope I did the equation right, seeing as math and I have never been close friends.

 

pingman

• Jan 12, 2008

• #8

Here's the math:
80 watts x 14 hours =1120 watts per day
or 1.12 kilo watts per day.
On you bill, you have a charge per kilowatt. Multiply that by # of kilowatts and you get your cost per day!
Peter.

 

MrFlyTrap2

OMG h8 pings

• Jan 12, 2008

• #9

Here's my post a while ago on costs of running setups.

http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109636