Smart gardens are pitched as a way to cut down on produce costs, but are they really cost-efficient?
I’ve talked a lot about smart gardens before. They’re one of my favorite smart home devices overall, especially with the rising cost of fresh produce and with winter just around the corner. I like fresh ingredients, and it’s often less expensive to grow them at home than it is to go to the store and buy them.
Bear with me. Many of these numbers are rough estimates, and some are simplified to make the calculations easier to follow, but the end result should be a decent estimate of the overall cost of a smart garden. At $4 per bagged salad, you’re looking at the equivalent of 250 meals right away. The Gardyn might pay for itself in the long run, but you’re going to feel the expense upfront.
Utility costs contribute more than you might expect The Gardyn produces so much produce thanks to a combination of automatic watering and two powerful LED grow lights. According to Gardyn’s FAQ page, these lights use about 75 watts per second on average. Following the recommended schedule, you’re looking at about 54kWh per month of energy use.
Water costs in the U.S are about $1.50 per 1,000 gallons. The cost of 20 gallons is minuscule and hardly worth consideration. As I established before, the Gardyn will yield around $39 of value each month. With a $29 membership fee and $6 in utilities, that’s only $4 in savings.
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