Man, these energy prices are really fucking us home growers.
I've been thinking of ways to save and try cut energy use.
Firstly, I've knocked the light down from 300W to 240W, every little helps.
In a 90cm X 90cm tent I reckon it won't make much difference.
Next, from a tip I picked up from the migrow website in a piece about reflective surfaces.
I got a couple of those mylar emergency blankets and lined the lower half interior of the tent. Shiny shiny! This raised the temp by 1.5C. plus the lower half has much improved light reflection.
Any more energy saving tips dudes?
@teleman i use the WIFI inkbird controllers. My extraction fan only comes on if the temps increase, it seems to be off more than on. My fan pulls close to 100w so i feel it helps.
Sativa to change the things I can, Indica to accept the things I can’t.
@teleman, are you running auto's or photo's? there's 6hrs of light.
Good point, I'm an auto man. 👍
@teleman i use the WIFI inkbird controllers. My extraction fan only comes on if the temps increase, it seems to be off more than on. My fan pulls close to 100w so i feel it helps.
I've always wondered if you need some extraction always running a bit to handle air exchange? I also use the inkbirds for temp and humidity
energy saving tip 1..
make the use of natural sunlight now its finally coming..
use to keep mums/ dads bonsai style... use to raise seedlings and veg small plants on your windowsils if possible (dont take the piss!), use for the first few weeks of your autos..
run a guerilla grow on the side (yes its a big effort lol)
tip 2:
use light measure device (yes theyre expensive and the phone hack is not reliable according to dr bruce bugbee (only picks up green light like us !? dont quote me - check yourself)) to deliver your ideal DLI (daily lighting integral - the ideal amount of light your plant needs at each stage) for your plants and avoid giving them too much light
tip 3:
run the highest efficiency light u can afford
standards for leds now are 2.5umols or better for top end.. below 2 and youre lagging behind (hps are around 1.6umols btw if i remember correctly ??)
tip 4:
run high yield per space per time varietals .. ie your faster flowering strains, and select known varieties to yield well and deliver good flavour/ high etc..
tip 5:
run autos on 18/6 not 24/0 or 20/4 etc
tip 6:
to maintain veg light needs to be greater than 15hrs so u could veg on 15/8 instead of 18/6... however u still wanna hit your DLI so this may not actually save u anything as may likely to need longer veg times etc.. maybe plant specific??
scratch tip 6 lol
tip 7:
hmmm run out of tips
for now
keep em coming.. those prices havnt finished rising !
Time to pop some more beans 😗
If you are using a heater time it so it turns up an hour after lights come on, this allows the light to be the initial heater. Then if you are running cooler nights have the heater go down an hour before lights out.
We just smiled n waved sittn there on that sack o seeds
Im glad im still on a tariff i only pay £11 gas n £14 electricity every 2 weeks all year around n it covers my winter debt en. So i dnt see a difference but im enjoying it whilst it lasts cos it wont be long before it stops. But fab ideas on here. I was thinking of buying a new tent but didn't realise u can get shiny covering for it
One life, live it, smoke on !!!
Yep best thing you can do is to increase your yield per run indoors if you can, bigger yielding strains with shorter flower times means less runs required to keep you in the green, and as mentioned try make as much use of the sun if you can. I'm lucky I run solar panels and the system provides more than enough juice to run the tents without much movement on my bill, I also run rain water as we are on rural property but it means I don't pay for water or power, so the only thing I have to spend money on is the nutrients, seeds and peripherals. I want to look at creating the smallest eco footprint I can for indoors without it being more beneficial just to run outside, collecting your own rain water and making use of solar etc can really help lessen the load on your wallet come bill time. Little things like making your own soil and using organic teas can go a long way to saving you some coin on nutrients too
I feel like a, like a slice of butter... melting on top of a big-ol' pile of flapjacks... yeah.
My tip is to use an electricity meter to estimate the average PPF of tent by getting an exact percentage readout your LED lights. if your light has a dial that is. Apart from seeing in real time the watts being used, I use it to set my 2 LED lights to draw exactly the same amount of power as each other. Knowing the numbers from the light tested in proper settings @100% power. I can estimate the PPF of the area at 50% & 80% power without a fancy meter.
It helps to fine tune the light out put by giving you a digital read out “ in watts” from your lights. ☮️
“When life gives you lemons paint that shit gold.” 🍋 💩 🏆
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