A friend of mine just started a horse business. She says it costs $30.00 an hour to run lights. She doesn’t want people riding after 7pm because of the lights. I told her I could never board at her place because I work! And half the time I cannot even get to the barn until 6:30pm. She lives far away so I would not board with her anyway. But I am curious about what the average cost to run lights for an hour would be?
Ask her to look at her electric bill. Divide the total by the number of Kilowatt-hours. This gives dollars per kilowatt-hour
Total up the number of lights, multiply by their wattage. … divide that by 1000 to get kilowatts. Multiply that result by (dollars per kilowatt-hour ) gives … electricity cost per hour. add in some money for maintenance … cost to light the place.
What hosspuller said :yes:
And depends on your utility supplier.
I almost never turn on the lights in my indoor.
Barn lights in my small 2-stall barn are only on when I’m out there feeding at dawn or dusk.
Electric on the budget plan has crept up over the 10yrs from $24/mo to the current $48.
The only other use of power besides lights (cold ballast fluorescent) is 2 heated buckets & a sinking deicer for the trough.
And those run for maybe 6mos - depending on temps dipping below 40F.
Oh yeah, and my small radio - also on only when I’m there.
rates may also depend on type of meter …the smart meters can bill different rates at peak demand times
Pretty easy to do the math. As Horsepuller commented. I’ll break it down a bit more.
Frist you have to know what the utility company charges for electricity. They charge by the kilowatt hour of usage. A kilowatt (kWh) is 1000 watts, 10, 100 watt light bulbs will use 1000 watts per hour if plugged in near the meter. If the rate is 10 cents per kWh, and those 10 light bulbs are on for 5 hours a day it will cost 50 cents per day, $15 per month, $180 per year. You will need to know how many lights are being used and what size they are. If there are 4, 500 watt flood lights being used, 2,000 watts, 2 kWh, 20 cents per hour. But if the building is located fair from the Meter, it will have a long “wire run”, and depending on the size of the wire, there will be some power loss due to “resistance” because electricity doesn’t “travel smoothly” through wires so it will require a bit more power consumption than just what the lights themselves are using.
If you friend is paying $30 per hour she must be running some massive lights, 10 cents buys 1,000 watts of electricity per hour. $30 will buy 300,000 watts, 30 kWh, that will power 3,000 100 watt bulbs, or 600 500 watt flood lights.
kWh rates vary around the country here it is under 9 cents. But even if she is paying double, I find it hard to believe it is costing her $30 per hour.
This is a pretty cool site that explains things a bit and gives an energy consumption calculator.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cost.html
Her estimate is ridiculous. $3, maybe. But not $30.
Gumtree has given some very good information for calculating power.
All that said, the lighting setup has a lot to do with power consumption. If they have old lights scavenged from a high school gymnasium, they might be inefficient. But even still that won’t be a change of 10x the cost.
David
I have Never sat down and figured out kilowatt hours, but it cost me somewhere between $100-200 per month to run my arena lights being used between 3-5 times pet week for about an hour or so each time. I have, I think, 12 overhead huge flood light fixtures. It looks like daylight in my aRena when the lights are on with no shadows. It actually is the brightest lit arena I have ever been in, much more than my instructors arena as I have ridden in both at night and her place is top notch. I probably could have used less lights and have thought about removing some Bulbs to save money, but I put in as many lights as was recoMmended. HOwever based on my numbers $30/ hour seems high.
There is no way she is using $30 hr. She might have seen a jump in her power bill and said it was the lights but when you start adding up all the things that use power in the winter that doesn’t in the summer power bills jump. Heaters in pump houses, water tank heaters/de-icers, heat in the tack room, outside lights ans so on.
[QUOTE=Eleanor;7933483]
There is no way she is using $30 hr. She might have seen a jump in her power bill and said it was the lights but when you start adding up all the things that use power in the winter that doesn’t in the summer power bills jump. Heaters in pump houses, water tank heaters/de-icers, heat in the tack room, outside lights ans so on.[/QUOTE]
That is true. This is an interesting topic for me as a friend of mine kept her horse at my place for free board, but fed three nights a week (four horses in total, one being hers) and dragged the arena about once weekly. She was also responsible for her horse’s feed. We came to am impasse this winter as I asked her to pay $100/ month towards the electricity bill during the winter months as she was the only one that used the arena lights at night. But, yes the barn aisle lights and 5 gallon heated buckets are also on this meter (my house is on a separate meter). I literally just paid my electric bill so went to see 12/13 compared to 12/14 as last December she was here and this December she was not. The electric bill is $88 less this year and really the only difference is the arena/ barn lights usage. I am in central NC so don’t have a heated tack room, no water heater, don’t use the heated water buckets too often, etc.
Interested to hear what others have said as this is just so timely a topic for me. As an aside, the other “sticking point” my friend and I had was I felt she was responsible for all his feed as she paid no board, and she felt she was only responsible for his grain and I should pay for his hay. We only feed hay here about 4-5 months out of the year here. She ended up taking her horse home. Bummed as it was fun having her here but between the winter electric bill and winter hay costs we just couldn’t come to an agreement:(
I have Nickel Halide lights, they were a very expensive initial purchase. However while I never calculated the running cost, I did not notice any increase in the electric bill when I started using them on a daily basis. I know they have an initial heavy pull to warm up, so once on, they stay on for the evening. Barn rule.
I’d rather turn them off at night check than have them go off, and on again.
Thanks for the replies! I do not believe that it costs my friend $30 an hour to run the lights. luckily I am way to far from my friend to consider boarding with her, but we were arguing and she claims that is her cost. I personally think its petty to say that people who work full time jobs that do not have flexible hours, should not be able to ride, while others who get to the barn earlier, can run the lights. why not have a rule that everyone has to ride later so everyone can be included in access to the arena lights. so kids can go home and do homework and eat dinner and then come out and ride when the working folk have access to the barn!
I just cannot see how the lights would cost that much money to run. my last barn used to turn the lights on in the indoor in the morning and leave them on all day long. if it cost $30 an hour I am sure they would be out of business. just because its daylight outside doesn’t mean you do not need lights.
I felt the board costs should incorporate all riders. It is the riders that have jobs that often can afford to pay the board. so why not include them in the ability to turn on the lights!
[QUOTE=gumtree;7933365]
Pretty easy to do the math. As Horsepuller commented. I’ll break it down a bit more.
Frist you have to know what the utility company charges for electricity. They charge by the kilowatt hour of usage. A kilowatt (kWh) is 1000 watts, 10, 100 watt light bulbs will use 1000 watts per hour if plugged in near the meter. If the rate is 10 cents per kWh, and those 10 light bulbs are on for 5 hours a day it will cost 50 cents per day, $15 per month, $180 per year. You will need to know how many lights are being used and what size they are. If there are 4, 500 watt flood lights being used, 2,000 watts, 2 kWh, 20 cents per hour. But if the building is located fair from the Meter, it will have a long “wire run”, and depending on the size of the wire, there will be some power loss due to “resistance” because electricity doesn’t “travel smoothly” through wires so it will require a bit more power consumption than just what the lights themselves are using.
If you friend is paying $30 per hour she must be running some massive lights, 10 cents buys 1,000 watts of electricity per hour. $30 will buy 300,000 watts, 30 kWh, that will power 3,000 100 watt bulbs, or 600 500 watt flood lights.
kWh rates vary around the country here it is under 9 cents. But even if she is paying double, I find it hard to believe it is costing her $30 per hour.
This is a pretty cool site that explains things a bit and gives an energy consumption calculator.
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/cost.html[/QUOTE]
thank you for this information! something is very off! $30 an hour? she would have to be running massive lights that light up the farm! and it says that some companies reduce their rates for the evening hours to encourage less usage during the day. so this would make it cheaper for the full time adult worker to ride vs the kids who come after school! LOL
I think she will find that she can’t keep boarders if she won’t let them have lights to ride with. Her place her rules, but I sure won’t board there.
As others have said, the costs depend on where you are, but $30/hr is way too high.
However, I have been in a lot of barns that are fanatical about turning all lights off every time they are not in use and then turning them back on the next time they are needed. It costs way more for big arena lights to be turned off/on multiple times a day than it would cost to just leave them on all day. It takes a lot of energy to warm the lights up every time they are needed.
What kind of lights will greatly affect the electrical usage. Our barn is about to convert from metal halide (very expensive to run) to LED to reduce consumption. The replacements are not inexpensive, but the payback is reasonably fast…and the lowered power draw will help with other things in the barn.
[QUOTE=Eleanor;7934949]
I think she will find that she can’t keep boarders if she won’t let them have lights to ride with. Her place her rules, but I sure won’t board there.[/QUOTE]
Well I wouldn’t board there and I am her friend! I work and I don’t want to be penalized because I work! But she is about 600 miles away so this isn’t even feasible even if I wanted to give up riding my horse during the week!
Very interesting!
I board at a barn that has an indoor and outdoor but no lights in the outdoor. In-house lessons get preference in the indoor and the BM doesn’t want people riding during lessons (it would be impossible anyway, the groups are big and the indoor is small). The boarders are trying to convince the BO (different than BM) to put lights in the outdoor.
We (boarders) don’t want to be pushy, but people won’t continue to board there if they can’t ride for large blocks of time in the evenings on multiple days of the week. Lights will cost less than not having boarders!
5 cents per hour per light. That would cover everything up to 400 watt fixtures.
[QUOTE=airhorse;7935894]
5 cents per hour per light. That would cover everything up to 400 watt fixtures.[/QUOTE]
well since it so cheap, then just add a credit card swipe terminal in the arena to turn the lights on.
[QUOTE=clanter;7935924]
well since it so cheap, then just add a credit card swipe terminal in the arena to turn the lights on.[/QUOTE]
:lol:
