@dbrn32 @kdawg@and anyone else who reads this Hello all been a long time since I’ve posted/been on have a question that I know you all can help with. so, I currently am growing in a 4x8x6 tent I have 1-6" filter taking air out 1-4" bringing clean air in I have 2-hlg 300rspec Leds and a few small fans running. I am adding 2-sf2000 Leds for more light. right now, before adding the 2 sf2000 Leds I need to find out (because as you all are probably experiencing where you live) the utility companies have raised their rates crazy. currently my utility (electric company rate) is 0.169830 a kwh. when I bought my house the cost per month was $120 now my bill is 327 a month I know before someone here I believe it was dbrn32 estimated my tent cost around 20 bucks a month with all running in it. I’m trying to figure out exactly or as close as I can estimate what the cost will be currently per day or month with what I have now and with adding the 2 sf2000’s into the tent with all else remaining the same. I have called electric company and they are blaming everything from ac’s which I know will bump the bill up to any type of electrical appliance. but my whole thing is I’m trying to see an approximate cost of running my tent at 18hrs a day and then at flower (12 hrs.’ a day) I know it shouldn’t be this crazy expensive but if anyone here can tell me with all I have running and going to add the 2 sf2000’s in what the daily or monthly cost is approximately for this tent I would be extremely grateful. if you all need any more info, please don’t hesitate to ask…thanks in advance for any and all help
Do you have something like a killawatt to capture your energy consumption? If not, you can look at nameplate data on all of your equipment and calculate a worst case scenario. Just need voltage and full load current for every device you run.
One sf2000 without dimming is 200 watts. Multiply 200 by 18 (hours per day) then by 30 (days per month). 200 x 18 x 30 = 108,000 wh (watt hours) per month.
Divide that by 1000 to get kwh per month. 108,000 / 1000 = 108 kwh per month.
Multiply that by your cost per kwh to get cost of running 1 light full blast for a month.
108 x .169830 = $18.34 per month.
Each of your components should have a watt rating. You just have to add them all up.
Consider yourself lucky. My juice (.39 per kwh) is more than double yours.
Thank you this will help me out a lot. at least now i have an idea of how much and how to figure out what my tent/setup is costing per month…I really appreciate your and everyone’s input.
my tent set up i didnt see a difference but just a few months ago they raised the rates by 20% and that i seen, once it cools down, then the electric bill will go down since i wont be using 2 cental ac units.
so is there a tool i can buy to monitor the electrical use from this wall outlet? if so a link would be great 
You need a Kill-A-Watt meter. A basic one will give you the voltage, amp, watts, kwh, hz and a couple of other metrics. Here is the one I have. Been using it for several years and always reads exactly what my multimeter and amp clamps read. Handy device.
ok so heres my question about this…so do you run all electrical plugs into say a strip then plug strip into this then this into wall? and it will give you a total for all electric running thru it? and will it keep a monthly trac or do u have to say write down what the end is on say the day your billing cycle closes then start from there or can you clear out what it tracked all month and start a new track?? and thank you for the info 
My 4x4 tent running with an HLG 550v2 Rspec running between 250-430 watts most of the time with my 2 ac infinity fans and circulating fans running all day and night raises my electric bill monthly $50-60.
Mine is just a basic meter. You have to write everything down. If you want data logging I’m sure there are devices out there, But why? If your trying to find out a brown out period or a power spike then yeah data logging is the only way to go. And these meters are not for measuring the load of your system all at one time. My meter will handle 15amps/1800watts max. My whole 2’ x 4’ tent wide open does not draw as much as one would think. Here’s the study on my 2 x 4 tent.
2ea. 350R max draw of 336 watts ea. for a possible total of 672 watts which will never happen. Realistic max used to date 498 watts.
1ea. UVA30-XL UV Light, 30 watts constant draw when on, no dimmer. Only on 4 hours maybe 5 hours in a light cycle.
1 ea. AC Infinity 6" exhaust fan w/carbon filter. Max at speed 10 is 65 watts with filter off, 60 watts with filter on. Never goes above speed 5 for 45/40 watts. Never on all the time. Run it on auto and it ramps up and down and off by tent temp.
3 ea Cheapo Two Speed 6" pole fans. High speed 15 watts each, Low speed 12 watts each I always run them on low.
1 ea. Humidifier controlled by a Inkbird controller that draws so little not worth messing with. Max setting 53 watts. Spend most of its time running at 75% and 50% settings and it cycles on and off with the Inkbird controlling it.
Absolute worse case max draw 24/7 would be 865 watts all in on the 2 x 4 tent. Reality at 24/7 is 551 watts. The 3 x 3 has the same fans, same class of humidifier and control and a 30 watts UVA light and the lights draw at max 164 watts less with the current 2ea. 260 Rspecs. When I pull the dual 260’s and install the 650R it will only be about 42 watts less max than the dual 350R’s.
Here we have average bill pay. If you have been a cust. in good standing for 3 or 5 years, never missed a payment or been late you can get on the ave bill pay where you get a average monthly payment. We have been on it well over 20 years. So our monthly bill is now $217 a month. Wife told me it went up $7.00 last month and $8.00 this month. Which has been unheard of here with our cheap energy prices here in Oklahoma. We are also on the averaging plan with the gas company.
I’m more concerned that all my equipment is operating to spec and I’m well under the max amp the tent circuits can safely supply. Each tent is on it’s own breaker and dedicated ground rod with bounded neutrals in the panel.
Enjoy your energy audit/power study! 
I have a P4400 like the one linked. I don’t use the kwh function but it is there. The way I read the manual you can get a cumulative total of kwh until it reaches its maximum of 9999 hrs (416 days).
You most likely can reset kwh. Worst case would be to just disconnect for a few seconds using the switch on the power strip.
My bad. I stated just use the switch on the power strip to reset kwh. The power strip would be after the kill-a-watt meter so one would have to unplug the meter if there is no way to reset it.
As an aside. For convenience and simplicity I changed my electric bills to paperless billing. The next step was to turn the auto pay feature on. Then of course who wants to get bank statements in the mail - done paperless bank statements. Lets not forget about every recurring bill I get. Insurances, credit cards, cell phones, transfers to grandchildren’s education accounts, etc etc etc. Auto pay everything. Electronic payment accounts further extends the loss of contact.
Yes, see something like what @Blastfact linked above.
It’s unlikely you will be able to run all of your equipment through one unit though. If you had smaller grow with one light and couple of fans you could. But multiple lights and fans is probably too much power to have on a single circuit and will most likely exceed the rating of killawatt unit.
You can check actual consumption of each unit though and create yourself a list. The unit will display in watt hours. Once you have total for all of your equipment this will be amount of watts the equipment consumes per hour. You can multiply this number by lengh of time equipment will be on per day to get daily power consumption.
Once you have daily power consumption divide that by 1000 to convert to kWh so you have usage and billing on same scale. Then multiply your result by the rate.
Keep in mind this will only reflect the energy usage cost for your grow equipment. It will not relect the rest of your home, service fees, line usage fees, or anything like that.
Thanks to all who have replied. This will give me a good idea of wht the cost is per grow. I have bought 2 meters which im hoping will give me all the data I need. I just am real tired of my bil climbing every month. I have had all the same equipment in this tent for at least 1 year now but my bill continues to go up! I have seen the initial rise and was expecting that when i added 1 new light over a year ago. But for some unknown reason my bill goes up every month I believe there is something going on with my meter. when I 1st bought my house, I had the old dial meter and bill was around 120 a month they changed to the new digital meter about 2 and a half years ago and my bill seems to be going up every few months I’ve asked for a new meter, but you know how the electric companies are…if you’re getting a big bill every month, they want that money!! 
Check into what type of plan you have. There may be several options. Time of Use plans have different rates for different times of day which isn’t always the best choice.
Vipar Spectra 1200W and Vipar Spectra 900watts with meter measure 1000 meter watts (both on full).
The second tent has smaller and similiar China cheapies (previously purchased before finding ILGM and purchased to “fill corners with more lighting”). Total 1500watt on the same circuit (OLD HOUSE and 1800MAX surge strip). Althought the wife and her dryer/washer routine can trip the breaker and all goes dark.
Yes, but it will continue as long as AMERICA is NOT energy dependent. Thanks to Brandon for shutting down the pipeline and Rockmonoof for the current pipline problems. SOLAR is the answer or pay to play and grow.
geese maybe I should move to Oklahoma…sounds like it’s a lot damn cheaper than here my average bill lately between $320 -$400 a month and I live alone and only have lights on (in the part I’m living in) around 4 hrs. a day of course my tent is on a 12 hr. schedule right now with fans running 24/7
I agree with you 100% could never understand why our leaders(and I use that term very loosely) would shut down a pipeline right here and buy from overseas…i guess thats where they all invest 
and we all pay the price!