Do Grow Lights Use A Lot Of Electricity?

Grow lights help your indoor plants thrive, but do they use a lot of electricity?

Growing plants at home is starting to become pretty popular for most people, largely because indoor plants add a beautiful aesthetic to our living spaces. As you know, plants need light to grow, however, indoor plants may not always receive enough sunlight. And that is where grow lights come in. With grow lights, no matter the season or the time of day, indoor plants can grow and thrive.

Nevertheless, many people are concerned that grow lights use a lot of electricity. In this article, we will explore the energy consumption of grow lights. Keep reading!

How Much Power Does a Grow Light Use?

Well, the amount of electricity/power a grow light uses depends on the wattage of the grow lights you are using and the number of hours the light is running per day.

Let's say your grow light is 600 watts which is on for 16 hours per day. The average price of electricity in the US in 2022 is 13.75 cents per kilowatt-hour, which equals $0.1375 per kWh.

If you are a UK resident, the average price of electricity for you in 2022 is 28 pence per kilowatt-hour, which equals £0.28 per kWh. 

The average daily energy consumption of a 600 watt LED grow light =  0.6 kWh x 16 = 9.6 kWh. 

That gives us a daily cost of 9.6 x 0.1375 = 1.32 dollarsper day living in the US. And for the UK residents, it's  9.6 x 0.28 = 2.688 pounds per day.

Typically, a plant needs 14-16 hours of light per day. Therefore, the watts of your grow light purely determines the amount of electricity you use. Higher the watts, the higher the electricity consumption.

"How many watts grow light do I need?", you might ask. It actually depends on the size of your grow space.

As a rule of thumb, you will need 30 to 40 watts per square foot. That is, if you have only one plant, you will need only 30 to 40 watts of power. 60 to 80 watts if there are two, 120 to 140 watts if 4, and so on.

Read More:The best grow lights you can buy now

Do Grow Lights Use a Lot of Electricity?

A lot of people think that grow lights use a lot of electricity. But, do they really? Let’s take a look at this question.

The truth is, a powerful LED grow light, like the 600 watts light we mentioned above, uses a lot of electricity. In the case of 600 watts light, it will cost you around $40 per month - it's surprisingly high.

However, if you have only around 10 small indoor plants, you will need only a maximum of 300 watts to generate enough light to grow your plants. Even less, if you have only a few small pots of herbs. According to our calculation, 1.7325 dollars is the bare minimum cost for powering 1 small plant, per month.

The best thing about LED grow lights is that they use very little electricity compared to other forms of light that give you the same output. Also, it doesn’t produce a lot of heat so it can be placed close to your plants. In that sense, LED grow lights are great, they have a much longer lifespan and they save you money in the long run.