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1. How to Keep Energy Costs Down Growing Indoors

How much does growing cannabis cost in electricity? Well, that depends largely on the choices you make as a grower. Growing cannabis can consume a lot of electricity if you’re not careful.

Growing cannabis is a fun hobby to pursue, but it is not without its drawbacks. Water, equipment, and soil are all one-time costs that we must all bear, and even so, the total price can be pretty high. However, you must pay some costs on an ongoing basis. It mainly manifests itself in the kind of a monthly energy bill. Cannabis growing is linked to your energy bill because the yield is determined by the amount of energy used in the grow. When you consider the energy that goes into attempting to replicate outdoor growing environments indoors, indoor grows generally results in a higher energy bill. Below are some basic details on how to minimize your energy consumption while growing cannabis indoors.

Benefits of saving energy when cultivating cannabis indoors

Growing cannabis indoors is something people haven’t done in a long time. It’s a relatively new phenomenon, primarily fueled by prohibition. Because you cannot easily hide large crops in a field, most cannabis production has moved inside, making it much easier to keep hidden. Cannabis cultivation is becoming a huge business as cannabis reform sweeps the globe. Legal large-scale grows sprouting up all over the place, consuming massive amounts of energy.

Similarly, home cultivation is legal or decriminalized in many areas, contributing to these figures’ rise. Undoubtedly, improving energy efficiency will have a tremendous effect on cultivation in general. Growing “green” benefits the environment and saves money for personal growers.

Ways to limit your energy consumption indoors

Growing cannabis indoors, without a doubt, imposes significant environmental burdens and costs. However, this does not preclude personal producers from taking action. There are several methods farmers can use to reduce energy consumption when growing cannabis indoors.

Modify the size of your grow to your needs

This will have the greatest effect on energy costs: only grow as much bud as you genuinely need. In its average life cycle of about eight weeks, a single autoflower can easily produce 30oz of cannabis. If you grow four of these, you’ll have enough for four months. If you’re only growing four small autoflowers, you won’t need much space.

Large indoor grow room with lighting
Lighting in a larger grow room will be much more expensive.

Furthermore, you could grow for two months, harvest for two months, and rest for two months. That’s two months when you won’t expend energy on cannabis growth! The goal is to excellently fit the amount of energy you put into your crops with the quantity of bud you require for personal reasons.

Increase your insulation

If your grow space, greenhouse, tent, or other structures are not properly insulated, you will exhaust energy. If you use a heater/air conditioner to keep your grow room temperature stable, this is true. In addition to using wall paneling to insulate doors and windows, you should also insulate any piping in your room. This can assist in reducing the amount of time your air conditioner or heater is running.

Look for the most effective lighting solution

The correct form of grow lights can make a significant difference in more ways than one: A powerful HPS light, for example, consumes more electricity than a newer LED fixture; it also emits significantly more heat, raising the temperature in your grow room. This burden is exacerbated if additional cooling is required to compensate for the heat. Additionally, adhering to “old” lightning innovation makes sense because it consistently produces excellent outcomes. Remembering new technology, such as LED lights, can be a perfect way to reduce your energy costs while still producing top-notch buds. LEDs produce less heat and frequently have a light spectrum that is particularly tailored to the needs of plants. This increases effectiveness because less power is converted into heat and a light spectrum that the plant does not fully appreciate.

Set up a programmable air system

Most expert gardeners will agree that it is usually better to oversize a personal grow room’s or tent’s air system. The following are the reasons for this: Assume you have the impression that your cannabis plants perform best when grown at a temperature of 26 °C. Your lamp generates a lot of heat, and it’s hot outside, perhaps 30 °C. Your air conditioning system operates at total capacity to keep the temperatures low. What happens if the temperature outside is 16 °C? Is it still necessary for your air conditioning system to run at full capacity? Almost certainly not! This is the time to turn it down and conserve energy. Moreover, installing an electric transformer capable of lowering the voltage for your extracting tube vent is wise. When you install a transformer like this, you essentially let your vent run at different speeds to save energy when the conditions allow.

Improve climate control

Heaters, coolers, and dehumidifiers do not have to run at full capacity all of the time. There is a lot of room for energy optimization. Professional greenhouse growers use a value known as vapor pressure deficit or VPD. The VPD measures the difference between the amount of moisture in the air and the amount of moisture that the air can hold when saturated. You can use this information to create the ideal climate for your grow room. This will profit both the health of your plant and your energy expenditure.

Do regular maintenance

An advanced grow room is similar to a high-tech lab, and you want all of your equipment to be fully operational. The only thing to ensure this is via routine maintenance. Irrigation and hydroponic systems, in specific, will need to be cleaned regularly. Filters and valves will need to be replaced periodically, and your system will require a cleaning “flush” once in a while as part of routine maintenance. Similarly, keep your grow space as clean as possible. This will help to limit the likelihood of equipment failure.

Energy saving LED lights with cannabis
Energy saving LEDs are a good choice for keeping costs down.

The pointers noted above will significantly help you in lowering your energy costs. However, at some point, you may decide that this isn’t enough and that you want to go the greenest way possible. There are two strategies you can take in this situation. The first alternative is to go green and install solar panels as a long-term energy-saving solution. Yes, there will be initial costs, but the money you will save over time will be quickly offset. Furthermore, it would be fantastic to grow cannabis entirely off the grid! If this seems too complicated or cost is an issue, there is a more straightforward way to grow cannabis with a low-energy footprint: start growing cannabis outdoors.

Picture of Marcus Smith

Marcus Smith

Marcus is a relative newcomer to the cannabis world. Though it may seem that his youth wouldn’t allow for a wealth of knowledge, this is untrue. Marcus Smith has close relationships with many cannabis breeders and grow owners which have allowed him to sample the best cannabis across the US and beyond while also gaining valuable insight into how different strains grow and develop. 𝕏

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