How will a Dealzer Growbox affect my Light bill?

A grow box or grow kit system can cost a lot in terms of electricity, but it doesn't have to. So what impact is your hydroponic garden going to have on your electric bill?

Well, it varies on a case-by-case basis, according to the energy draw that your system requires. But let's look at some the specific aspects of a hydroponics setup that use energy in your home or commercial space.

Grow Lights

In an enormous grow room, lighting can be a significant energy draw, but for a grow box, it's only going to be a little more than you would spend on your typical residential lighting for home -- and if you pay an electric bill, you know that that's not one of the main drivers of cost. Those residential energy bills go up and down according to large appliance use, for example, running a dryer or a refrigerator, not primarily from a set of light bulbs. Hydroponic grow lights may draw more than the traditional residential light bulb (and sellers rate hydro bulbs as low as 2.8 watts), but even if grow light draws twice as much, you're not going to see a major effect on your bill, unless you’re growing dozens of plants, and most grow boxes aren’t made for that.

Irrigation

Another major source of energy consumption for grow setups is the energy that it takes to pump water through the system to get it to plant roots. The specific energy draw that this is going to have depends on your irrigation methods and schedule. For a lot of small grow boxes, plant roots rest in reservoir water, so there's no pumping going on at all, although there still may be some water handling within the reservoir. For larger systems with a lot of PVC tubing, there is pumping going on to get that water routed around the setup and back into the reservoir -- and there, you may see an effect on your electrical bill, maybe in the $10-$20 dollars range, even for a system with a couple dozen plants.

Air and Water Handling

Along with irrigation, growers also have to circulate air and water in a hydroponics kit to keep them from stagnating. Again, if you have a large setup, with box-fan-sized fans, big bubble systems or other bulky equipment, you may expect to see another significant charge on your electric bill. But with a grow box, where fans are often roughly the same size as an internal PC cooling fan, the bill isn't going to change by much.

The bottom line is that grow boxes come with pretty energy-efficient systems that are not going to spike your electric bill in most cases.

For more detail on all you can get for modern hydroponics, take a look at online product catalogs and other resources from Dealzer to understand how we support our worldwide community of growers.