T5 power consumption

How much would an electric bill go up if your using a 36" 4bulb t5ho for 10hrs a day? While I know different areas will varie different amounts, I'm just curious.

 

watts are a unit of electricity consumed

36 inch lamps are 39 watts?

so you would consume 4 x 39 watts per hour = 156 watts x 10 = 1560 watts per day
or 1.56 killowatts

so find out how much your area charges for 1 killowatt, and multiply that by 1.56 to give your daily electricity cost for the T5 lamps

Steve

 

Well that seemed pretty easy after you explained it thanks!

 

To expand on what Steve already said...

156 x 10hours a day x 30days a month = 46800 watts
46800 watts / 1000 = 46.8 kW
take 46.8 and multiply that by the number they supply on your bill under kWh (usually between $0.08 to $0.15. this will give you monthly cost.

For an example, in Texas, the state-wide average value is $0.11 per kWh so you will probably be somewhere in the ballpark of $5.32 to run the lights per month.

 

You should probably get a kilowatt meter if you want to be accurate. Most ballasts draw in a little more power then the bulbs are rated at do to losses.