Anyone grow hydroponics?

[Kaneman]

No, not weed. My Grandma got me an Aerogarden for a wedding present and we grew a shitload of Basil and Parsley, which was pretty cool to have handy and not have to pay $3 everything I wanted it in my dinner.

I have a spare room that never gets used so I was thinking about trying to grow some tomatoes or cucumbers or something. I would much rather do it outside, but our house is completely shaded. I've got a buddy with a 600W light up in his attic he said I can have. (He got busted, but not growing tomatoes, lol)

I wonder what it would cost to run a 600w light for 18 hours a day? Anyone have any experience with this?

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

I wonder what it would cost to run a 600w light for 18 hours a day? Anyone have any experience with this?

Find out your $ - kW/hr cost on your electrical bill.

[Rider]

Originally Posted by Kaneman

No, not weed. My Grandma got me an Aerogarden for a wedding present and we grew a shitload of Basil and Parsley, which was pretty cool to have handy and not have to pay $3 everything I wanted it in my dinner.

I have a spare room that never gets used so I was thinking about trying to grow some tomatoes or cucumbers or something. I would much rather do it outside, but our house is completely shaded. I've got a buddy with a 600W light up in his attic he said I can have. (He got busted, but not growing tomatoes, lol)

I wonder what it would cost to run a 600w light for 18 hours a day? Anyone have any experience with this?

Your pulling 5 amps on that bulb alone. You better not have anything else on that breaker when you turn it on assuming it's just a 10 amp breaker. The inrush current would pop the breaker if you have anything else on there drawing power.

[Trip]

just a guess for Texas based on the info I could find is about 9-13 cents a kilowatt hour. Don't know how accurate that is though.

Say you were at 10 cents pulling a 600W bulb, that would be $1.08 a day if you ran it 18 hours a day. That's dependent on your electrical rates being fixed at 10 cents though.

[Particle Man]

Originally Posted by Trip

Find out your $ - kW/hr cost on your electrical bill.

Or run an extension cord from your neighbord

[Kaneman]

$.116 per hour they tell me. It took me an 8 minute phone call just to find that out. Assholes.

Anyway, so $30 a month? Not sure if that seems worth it or not.

Rider, my buddy just had it plugged into a regular ol' socket. Had some fans and other "closet accessories" too, never had any trouble. But I know shitall about electricity.

[Trip]

Yeah, price wise it's not usually worth it. It's more worth it to control the freshness of ingredients and what you put into it.

[LeeNetworX]

My grandfather used to grow hydroponic tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets full of sawdust. Those things would get HUGE. Those got all of the sun they needed, however - I'm not sure how much minimum sunlight they would require.

[Kaneman]

Originally Posted by LeeNetworX

My grandfather used to grow hydroponic tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets full of sawdust. Those things would get HUGE. Those got all of the sun they needed, however - I'm not sure how much minimum sunlight they would require.

Sunlight would be awesome, I'd love to not be completely shaded here.

[OneSickPsycho]

I'd say a 600w setup might be a bit overkill for growing a couple tomato plants.