if i was to have a 1000 watt HID light on for 12 hours a day will it show up on my mums bill, if so how much would it cost a week,i am obviously gonna slip some money into her wallet a week so she doesent have to pay the electricity i am using, any help much appreiciated cheers.
Yeah, it will increase the bill. You just have to do the math to figure out how much per week. I don't know what kind of ballast you're using, let's assume it uses 125watts. 125watts ballast + 1000watts bulb = 1125watts per hour (or 1.125 kilowatt hrs.) 1125watts x 12 hours = 13500watts per day (or 13.5 kilowatt hours). 13500watts x 7 days = 94500watts per week. (or 94.5 kilowatt hours). 94500watts divided by 1000 = 94.5 kilowatt hours per week. 94.5 kilowatt hours (kw/hr) is how much power your "1000watt" light would use each week. Next you need to look at the Electric Bill, it should tell you how much they charge for each "kw/hr" that you use. All different areas charge different amounts for each "kw/hr". For an example let's just use $.12 (U.S. dollars), that's 12 cents per "kw/hr". So: 94.5 kw/hr x $.12 = $11.34 usd per week. So what you need to do is find out how much each kw/hr costs, then multiply that amount by 94.5 for a weeks worth of "leccy". Cheers!
T.H. I have a couple things to add to that. First, 125watts ballast + 1000watts bulb = 1125watts per hour (or 1.125 kilowatt hrs.)? Shouldn't that be 1KWH ballast for 1KWH bulb? 94.5 kw/hr x $.12 = $11.34 usd per week. this equation works fine unless your utility Co. like PG&E have stepped rates. They give one X number of KWH at a base price then charge a higher price if one goes over 100% -130% and then an even higher price per KWH if one uses from 130% - 200% of the baseline. where we live the cost runs in the neighborhood of $70 a month to run 1KWH HPS 12 hours a day etc. etc.
By Naturalhi: T.H. I have a couple things to add to that. "First, 125watts ballast + 1000watts bulb = 1125watts per hour (or 1.125 kilowatt hrs.)? Shouldn't that be 1KWH ballast for 1KWH bulb?" I guess I made that a little too brief, let me "fill in the blanks". The Orang is right; a 1000watt HID bulb must be driven by a "1000watt' ballast; that is to say a ballast rated to drive a 1000watt bulb (the ballast and the bulb must be the same "size" or "rating" to work together). Despite the "1000watt" designation, the ballast itself doesn't actually use 1000watts. The amount of actual power used by ballasts varies widely - so I just pulled 125watts "out of my ass", so to speak. A digital ballast may use that amount - a magnetic ballast may use more. "94.5 kw/hr x $.12 = $11.34 usd per week. this equation works fine unless your utility Co. like PG&E have stepped rates. They give one X number of KWH at a base price then charge a higher price if one goes over 100% -130% and then an even higher price per KWH if one uses from 130% - 200% of the baseline. where we live the cost runs in the neighborhood of $70 a month to run 1KWH HPS 12 hours a day etc. etc." Oh man, you're killing me here!!! (eyes roll back - mouth is agape!) I was trying to keep the explaination as simple as possible so I eliminated the "sliding scale" part - but you are absolutely right!
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Yasss! aw'll change ma personna to th' "Southern Breeze" ( Used when I wanted to make the female of the species panties drop) one of the personna's aw used when CB's were big, and aw wuz a hairy legged truck driver;>)