Power saving tips and ways to save money!?

[blacknife]

you guys need to double your electricity costs.. i see around 8 cents/kwh used lots but remember under most billers all your other fees <transmission distribution, etc> are bassed on usage and cost at least as much as your actual electricity. Your 5 dollar a month savings quickly turns into 10

[mrhasan]

[quote=naesco;793620]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

But most importantly, the environment.

Completely agree to that.

[kien]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

I would like to ask, suppose you buy a LED fixture today, would you be using it for, say, 5 years?

It is possible that some people have already bought and ditched several LED fixtures ranging from DIY, Vertex, AI, Radion, etc, to move up to the next best LED fixture :-)

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Baldy

Comparing average mh to a radion isn't exactly a fair comparison. My DIY fixture cost 750 for my 75g. I would need at least 2 radions to equal it in output. 750 vs 1360 makes the time to recover the investment less. Radions, sols, mitras, they're all overpriced compared to what you can do yourself.

DIYs are always on a very different league. Like Denny said, DIYs always welcome unexpected costs. But once done properly will have the possibility of major savings. On the other hand, you won't be getting any sort of "warranty" with the DIYs. Is the heatsink enough? Is the wiring properly done with the codes for safety? Is the fixture totally safe? Semiconductor devices can easily go wrong no matter what in DIYs. Surely you will be getting warranty from driver manufacturers like invertronics or meanwell but they can easily go wrong and the warranty over here shouldn't come over reliability.

One thing's for sure....all brand LEDs are overpriced to some extend. And that's because they are controlling the market and players will always take this advantage. One thing that we don't see is the R&D costs that incorporates within these LEDs. Radion, mitras...these come from big companies and they will surely make 20-40% since those will eventually be distributed among various sources (starting from dealers to those back door engineers who spent hours perfecting these fixtures).

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

It is possible that some people have already bought and ditched several LED fixtures ranging from DIY, Vertex, AI, Radion, etc, to move up to the next best LED fixture :-)

And within a span of...I guess....2 years? Maybe 3 years? They have hardly recovered the main objective (placed by many) of profiting by reducing electricity bill......

Kien where's you mitras? Didn't see them on your tank in the recent pics

[kien]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

And within a span of...I guess....2 years? Maybe 3 years? They have hardly recovered the main objective (placed by many) of profiting by reducing electricity bill......

Kien where's you mitras? Didn't see them on your tank in the recent pics

In the span of 1 year for some, maybe :-)

My Mitras? I have never owned Mitras. :-) I'm just not cool enough..

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

In the span of 1 year for some, maybe :-)

My Mitras? I have never owned Mitras. :-) I'm just not cool enough..

LOL. Ah my bad

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by blacknife

you guys need to double your electricity costs.. i see around 8 cents/kwh used lots but remember under most billers all your other fees <transmission distribution, etc> are bassed on usage and cost at least as much as your actual electricity. Your 5 dollar a month savings quickly turns into 10

I haven't dealt with proper bills yet (included within rent) but as far as I know, in Calgary, it comes to something like 12c/kWh including those.

Anyhow, since its a product factor, its the same in both LED and MH and gets canceled in the calculation anyway. A slight difference will occur only due to the addiction factor of the bulb. Maybe instead of 4.7 years, it will be like 4.5 years (I am bad without calculation).

[reefwars]

i just had my radion die , it was covered by warrenty and replaced, i dont think a diy fixture has that option and all maintanance is covered by yourself.

how about the finish , i havent seen one diy fixture yet that resembled anything close to a radion or ghl's or most brand name fixtures finish. to me having a light that looks nice is almost as important as having a light that does what i want it to.

while people are comparing led to mh savings , remember to include supplemental lighting, not may users using just mh bulbs might as well throw some fans in there too.

[Baldy]

I was using 8.5c per kwh because thats what it was showing for power costs on my last bill. I was under the impression that transmission and other charges were fixed

I definately agree with the warranty argument. If mine goes out i cant just send it back, but honestly thats one thing i enjoy about this hobby, Im kind of a tinkerer. The R&D argument is valid as well, but i hate how all the manufactured units are behind the DIY guys when it comes to the full spectrum setups, but the mitra looks like its a big step in the right direction. as far as finish, depends on the builder. I think mine looks not too shabby, but i digress.