cost of running 400watt lights versus 250watt lights

[thefedz]

I don't know enough about electricity costs....

400 is 60% more then 250...

does that mean that it would cost 60% more each month to run 400 watt lamps?

 

[thefedz]

anyone know? =)

/shameless bump

 

[ChrisRD]

If the actual power draw was consistent with the lamps' rated wattages yes. Unfortunately, it gets a bit more complicated than that because not all ballast/lamp combinations will draw the same power.

In other words, just because you're running 250 watt lamps doesn't mean the ballast is drawing 250 watts from your wall outlet.

 

[reefmongrel]

To give you a sense of actual cost, 100 watts on for 10 hours is 1 kilowatt hour. Or use the formaula for your wattage :

WattsXhours divided by 1000 = kilowatt hours. Look at your electric bill to see what your power company charges by the KW hour to get a cost.

Reefmongrel

 

[ChrisRD]

Right, and it might be easiest to just divide your total electric bill ($) by usage (KWH) to find your actual cost per KWH. The way some utility companies break up the costs on the bill showing separate delivery costs, cost per KWH, etc. can be a bit confusing...

HTH

 

[Anonymous]

62.5%