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With the growing cost of living, everyone is looking for ways to cut expenses. So you might be asking: Will houseplants raise the electric bill?r maybe even lower it? Keep reading to find out!
Plants by themselves are unlikely to raise the electricity bill. In fact, over time, a significant amount of plants could even help reduce costs due to temperature conservation. However, in the situation that you use artificial growing lights, your electric bill can go up.
Keeping plants in our home can change our lives in the long run. While there are many health benefits, there is definitely an economic effect as well. To understand exactly how the presence of houseplants can impact bills and costs, keep reading!
Can Plants Affect Your Electricity Bill?
Anyone who has ever had plants at home can understand that there is a lot that they offer to your space. With houseplants, you can bring in a certain aesthetic and value to your interior. However, there is a major hidden economic effect of having plants at home. And by far, the most prominent effect you will see is on energy costs. The type of effect you’ll see in your electric bill varies depending on whether you use natural or artificial lighting sources, so let’s break down each case:
Effect of Plants on Energy Bill (Natural Lighting)
If you keep your plants near a window or natural light source, your energy bill could see a positive effect.
The reasoning behind this is simple. Having plants at home can have a temperature conserving effect on the space inside, meaning that when you have plants at home, your home is likely to be warmer in the winters and cooler in the summers.
The transpiration process in plants helps to release water vapors into the air. This means that you can see a drop in temperature of up to 10 degrees when it’s hot outside. In winter time, however, the moisture helps to hold heat in the room, and thus gives a warmer feeling to the occupants.
This effect of plants in a space is one we observe all the time with outdoor plants. If you like near a large park or any region with dense trees and greenery, you will notice that the area is generally cooler in hotter months. In the case of outdoor trees, this can be attributed to the availability of shade and cover.
In indoor scenarios however, you are likely to see changes to your electricity bill because of humidity, which will allow you to cool off a bit in the summer, and have your winters not be as cold. This can help conserve energy by not having to turn on the AC or heaters as much throughout the year.
Effect of Plant Grow Lights on Energy Bill
There is one scenario where you may see your energy costs rack up when growing plants at home. That is, when you use grow lights for your plants.
Grow lights are essentially artificial light sources that mimic the light spectrum provided by the sun, in order to help plants meet their light requirements. There are various reasons why you might want to use grow lights for your indoor plants, such as living in areas where you don’t receive a lot of bright indirect sunlight, or you may own some plants that need higher light requirements than others.
No matter what the case is, it’s important to know how much of an effect these artificial lights will have on your electricity bill, in order to determine if grow lights are worth it for you. First however, let’s look at the different types of grow lights and see how they compare in energy use:
Types of Houseplant Grow Lights
There are three main types of grow lights that are used for indoor plants. These are LED lights (light emitting diode), HID (High-Intensity Discharge) and Fluorescent lights.
As you can see in the table below, there are pros and cons to all three types. For regular houseplant owners, I always recommend going for the LED lights since they are easier to find, cheaper, are energy efficient and last long, so they are a good investment. Personally, I use these Full Spectrum LED lights
| LED (light emitting diode) | HID (High-Intensity Discharge) | Fluorescent lights |
| Higher upfront cost | Lower upfront costs | Lowest upfront cost |
| Most energy efficient | Less efficient | Energy efficient |
| Long life span (5-10 years) | Bulbs need to be replaced annually | Shorter lifespan |
| Produces very little heat | Produces a lot of heat | Low heat output |
However, to determine exactly how much each type of grow light will affect your electricity bill, we need to look at a few different factors:
How Does Your Electricity Bill Work?
The amount of money that you pay on your home’s electricity bill is measured by the amount of kilowatts per hour (kWh) that you consume each day.
First, we must know that watts are a unit of power that measures the rate at which energy flows. Basically, they are the miles-per-hour measurements of the electrical world- they tell you how fast the energy is going. However, the amount of watts on your light is not an equivalent to kilowatt hours. You see, a kWh is 1,000 watt-hours. This means that if you run a 40-watt grow light for an hour, you’ve used 40 watt-hours, or 0.04 kilowatt-hours.
Since the average residential electricity rate in the U.S. is 16.09 cents per kilowatt-hour, we can estimate that using the light for 1 hour daily will cost you $0.19 per month, and $2.35 a year, which is not bad at all.
However, to be successful using grow lights for your plants, you need to be using them at least 8-12 hours a day, every single day.
Breakdown of Energy Costs Associated With Grow Lights
Generally, to power your plants, you need about 20 to 30 watts per square foot, which will cost you an average of $2 a month.
However, if you’re contemplating on using grow lights on multiple plants in your home, let’s say 10, you need an average of 300 watts of power. (probably less, depending on the size of your plants)
If we do the same calculation as before, using a 300-watt grow light (enough to power 10 plants) for 12 hours a day with an average cost of 16.09 cents per kWh, we’re looking at a cost of $17.63 per month, and $211.56 per year.
To break it down even further, here is a list of different types of grow lights with their average monthly and yearly energy consumption:
If you want to do this calculation for your own grow lights, check out this calculator here: Electricity Bill Calculator
Energy Bill Cost For Grow Lights in the U.S (12 Hours of Daily Use)
| Grow light | Average Wattage | Estimated Monthly Energy Cost | Estimated Yearly Energy Cost |
| Individual Full Spectrum Grow Light | 10w | $0.58 | $7.05 |
| LED Grow Light Bulbs (you can switch these out in your regular lamps!) | 11w | $0.64 | $7.75 |
| Fluorescent Tubes Grow Light (2 Tubes, 2ft) | 48w | $2.82 | $33.85 |
As you can see, plants can raise your electric bill if you use grow light systems. However, there are many energy-efficient options that only add a few more cents to your energy bill every month.
Nonetheless, if you live in a home that gets plenty of natural indirect sunlight, you can skip grow lights altogether, and reap the benefits of possibly lowering your energy costs due to the plant transpiration process.
At the end of the day, choosing a houseplant for your home is a choice that is about a lot more than just the costs. While keeping a lot of plants at home can add up in cost over time, most plant owners can enjoy the peace and tranquility of a greener home with little to no major expense incurred.
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