How do I know how much electricity a lamp uses?

[dotswithchemicals]

Gooseneck Desk Lamp - Black : Target

I'm planning to buy a cheap light like this to grow some plants in my 15 gallon tank. Does anyone know how much electricity a lamp like that uses? I feel that since its not meant to probably be on for 10hrs a day, it might take more electricity than an aquarium lamp.. but I'm not really smart on electricity, so I have no idea how it works.. any input would be great!

 

[blert]

The details say that the maximum it can handle is a 60 watt incandescent bulb. Go much higher with it and you risk a fire.

 

[aqua_chem]

Depends on what you mean by electricity.

If you are really asking "how much will my light cost me to run", it's actually quite simply. The watt is the unit of energy consumption, so wattage x time on = energy consumed, which power companies measure in kilowatt-hours (kW hr)

If you have a 10w bulb (.01 kW) in your lamp, and you run it 10 hours, then you get .1 kW hrs as your total energy consumption.


Any particular reason you needed to know?

 

[Jill]

The details say that the maximum it can handle is a 60 watt incandescent bulb. Go much higher with it and you risk a fire.

I use clip on lamps like that all the time for my smaller aquariums. Get a 23 watt daylight cfl spiral, and you're good to go (without going near the 60 watt limit AND you're getting the brightness of a 100 watt incandescent).

ETA that I haven't noticed a change in my electric bill. The cfls don't use a whole lot of electricity.

 

[dotswithchemicals]

Depends on what you mean by electricity.

If you are really asking "how much will my light cost me to run", it's actually quite simply. The watt is the unit of energy consumption, so wattage x time on = energy consumed, which power companies measure in kilowatt-hours (kW hr)

If you have a 10w bulb (.01 kW) in your lamp, and you run it 10 hours, then you get .1 kW hrs as your total energy consumption.


Any particular reason you needed to know?

Just wondering because I still live under my parents roof and don't want my electricity bill too high with my 4 aquariums... and I don't want to pay 60$ for a regular aquarium lamp!

Got what I needed to know.. thanks.