How to Maintain Grow Light Cost and Increase Grow Light Profit?

You have more control over your growing environment when you produce plans indoors instead of outdoors. For instance, you won’t deal with rabbits, squirrels or most other large critters.

You’ll need to maintain grow light costs when growing indoors, however. Otherwise, you’ll tap out your entire expense account.

Intro to Calculating Cost of LED Grow Lights

First, identify the factors that contribute to energy consumption. This will help you calculate your LED grow lights cost per month.

After you tabulate your energy costs, you can calculate your grow light profit. You will, however, need to figure out other expenses, such as maintenance and repair. Replacement bulbs also cost money, but you won’t have to change them often.

4 Factors Determining LED Grow Lights Cost

1. Higher Wattage for More Intensity and Brightness

You may want brighter, more intense lights during the middle and later growth stages, which calls for running lights at a higher wattage. For instance, cannabis plants require more light during the vegetative and flowering stages.

The vegetative and flowering stages are the time when your crops have already sprouted from seeds. By this time, they also have started to mature into an “adult” plant. It’s not just cannabis plants either.

All vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees and bushes and other plants go through a similar growth process. Choose your ideal wattage according to how much you think you can reasonably afford per month for producing your crops.

At the same time, the lights have to be intense enough to activate the plant development process. The lamps need to be bright enough too.

Note also that intensity refers to the concentration of light power per square unit. Brightness refers to the effect that the light bulbs have on our eyes. Both terms are often used interchangeably to describe how much light you need for your crops.

2. Runtime Duration

How long you run your lights per day works hand in hand with how much power you use for your lights. Runtime durations vary according to the growth stage of plants and the type of crop you grow.

You may want to figure in the cost of LED grow lights for about 12 hours a day on average. Some plants, however, may only need 6-8 hours of light. Keep in mind one other aspect: Direct light has a different effect than indirect light, so figure in that too.

3. Direct Versus Indirect Light ( Plants/Lights Placement)

Direct versus indirect light usually refers to outdoor growing, but you could use a similar concept indoors. Direct light involves shining the sun or your lamps directly on your plants rather than the light reflecting from a wall, mirror or other source.

Sometimes, indirect light is used to describe partial sunlight too. That means your plants may not receive full sunlight all day long.

Either way, the placement of your plants relative to where you install your lighting may determine your LED grow lights cost per month. It also will help you calculate your grow light profit according to how healthy of a harvest you produce.

4. Local Utility Charges

Every location has a different utility charge based on its cost of living for that area. It’s usually figured by the kilowatt-hour (kWh). The company that provides power in your town, city or municipality has this information, which usually is printed on your invoice.

California’s residents have some of the highest utility charges at .32/kWh. The U.S. national average is about .17/kWH. On the other hand, the state of CA also has plenty of sunshine, so you can take advantage of solar power there more than you can in other locations.

5. Renewable Energy Availability

Thank goodness some of the states with the steepest utility costs also have more access to solar power. States with the most sun include California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Florida, and Kansas.

That doesn’t mean you can’t run solar power on cloudy days, however. Also, you can store up energy from the sun to large rechargeable batteries and harness that power for days. For that reason, you can even take advantage of solar power in Michigan, where recreational weed is legal, by the way.

Other cloudy states where you could use solar power for any plants – not just cannabis – include West Virginia, Ohio, Connecticut, and a few others.

Windmills or hydropower might also help. However, these forms of renewable energy sometimes don’t provide as predictable of a power source as the sun. Still, there’s also the possibility of harnessing these forms of renewable energy to save for later use.

What will your LED grow light cost be?

We’re focusing only on LED grow light cost for now because it’s usually the most energy efficient. However, you can use a similar formula for calculating your grow light cost for fluorescent, incandescent, high-pressure sodium, metal halide, or another source.

The wattage (converted into kilowatts) of your lights and how long you run them will determine your LED grow light cost the most. Use this formula:

Total Kilowatts x kWh x hours per day x 30 (days)

Even if you are good at math, you also could try out some online grow light cost calculators to determine energy expenses. You may have enough to think about as it is at the moment, right?

What will your grow light profit be?

Subtracting your energy costs from your sales is a start toward figuring out your grow light profit. It will give you a rough idea of how much money you make from your harvest. However, you also have other factors to consider when determining how much revenue your plants generate.

Factors Affecting Plant Growth Revenue

The cost of running your grow lights per month isn’t your only expense. Supplies, such as clips you would use to hold up portable lights, will cut into your profits a little bit. Tools, water and room customizations also will count against the revenue you earn from your plants.

Although wattage matters more so than the type of light, some lights are not as energy efficient as others. You also need to subtract this amount spent against how many sales you had.

If you use fertilizer, that is one more cost that affects your monthly sales. Thermometers, secondary lights for maintenance times that don’t strain your eyes, and other considerations also need to be made.

Don’t get Discouraged–Yet

Don’t get discouraged if you find out you haven’t made much money yet. In fact, it’s better not to expect a grow-light profit from your plants after the first round of production. If you do make money after your first go at it, however, then you’re ahead of the game.

Celebrate your current progress, and don’t give up. You’ll get there. You’ll make the kind of money you want to make from your plants eventually. Just realize this is not a short-term investment but a long-term commitment, and you will be fine.