12 plant 13 light flip flop question

[Noworries]

just wondering if i am understanding this right, but...

a 12 plant 13 light setup as:

xoxox
oxoxo
xoxox
oxoxo
xoxox

i've been reading different tree grows and saw a few comments mentioning flip flopping lights

im assuming you'd run 7 lights then halfway through flip the other 6 on and cut the 7 off

has anyone done this or seen the results? It seems like only 6 hours of intense light on buds would give you half the yield.

Is the flip flop method capable of producing nice dense quality buds?

 

[Sullimo]

I'm not sure I am understanding this correctly, but if I am... wouldn't a light mover(s) with 6-7 lights be superior to this? You'd get more natural light coverage and possibly save some dough.

Unfortunately I don't have any experience with flip flopping lights to give you a direct answer to your question.

 

[Noworries]

I found a few grows that were flip flopping and they had a lot of fox tailing

i know heaths the man and whatnot, but for my average ass im sure i'd have the same foxtailing problems with flipflop as I would be in coco/perlite so im kinda ruling it out.

getting the yield of 13 lights and only paying to run 7 seemed too good to be true lol (im sure if it worked that well everyone would be doing it)

thanks for the input

 

[Growops]

by the pic your posted with x's and o's id assume your talking about vertical lighting . flip flop is a relay that relays the lamp line from room 1 to room 2 every 12hrs so your ballst run 24-7 nd every 12hrs you flip them . so ppl like using a flip flop to hide a 12hr hydro spike , hope this helped

 

[Papa]

Growops is leading you right. a flip-flop setup shares ballasts between two rooms, using a relay to switch between the two. the primary reason for using a flip-flop however is to power twice the amount of grow space while using just a bit more of the amperage capacity necessary for one room.

the main power draw (lighting and a/c) is on in room one for 12 hours, and then the relay switch the lighting to room two (and a/c is now needed for room two) for 12 hours.

note: this does NOT mean an energy or $$ savings on electricity. it means that with (for example) 150 amps available for your rooms, you may be able to power two rooms without having to upgrade your service drop and main panel.

 

[ttystikk]

Papa nailed it. What a flip based system also allows you to do, with some creative work on your part, is to run one cooling plant for both of these spaces, effectively running only half the cooling capacity as would ordinarily be necessary. This is a lot more practical with water cooling than AC, since you can run fans to blow through IceBoxes on an as needed basis, controlled by a thermostat. The chiller runs whenever it needs to, the water runs through all the lines, but the fans only run when needed- means you can run a half sized cooling plant relative to the total square footage of your grow.