lighting opinions?

  • Thread starter noktommaster
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noktommaster

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ok so i have a room that is 49.5" by 32" and right now i have 305 watts of compact fluros in there. i am looking at some air cooled lights and wanted to get some opinions from people. i am trying to choose from three different ones. there is a dual 400 watt(800 total), a single 1000 watt or dual 600 watt(1200 total). please tell me what you think, i would really like to get some opinions from some of the more experienced growers out there.
 
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BayAreasFinest

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well it all depends on what you can cool. if u can run 2 600s in there and keep the temps down i would go with one of those to. if not id go with 1000watt with a hood that has a footprint that will cover your area.
 
sedate

sedate

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Yea in that space I'd air-cool a single 1000. I'm not sure multiple lights would really be much of an improvement.
 
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NBTrichgrower

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you have a little over 11 square feet, with a 1k you would have around 90watts per square foot, which is a little overkill, and with a 600 you would have around 55 watts per square foot. which is almost perfect imo.
 
sedate

sedate

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nbtrich said:
you have a little over 11 square feet, with a 1k you would have around 90watts per square foot, which is a little overkill, and with a 600 you would have around 55 watts per square foot. which is almost perfect imo.
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Heh heh someone did the math.

This guy is right - anything more than ~50w/sq foot really is a waste - nevermind exponentially harder to cool. And you really can light-burn a plant - my growroom is up at ~90w/sq foot and I wish I dialed it back a bit - I had to raise my lights a few times after I started UV burning my tops.
 
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saltr

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^agreed!!! I'm at 68w/sf, shooting for ~80. Other than heat and UV considerations, i believe it's nearly impossible to attain w/sf overkill.
 
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Jalisco Kid

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I totally disagree with sedate he has no clue what light is about. But then most don't. Having 75w/sq' will not help unless everything else is working for you. Krusty was made famous with his 10K thread where he punched out 30lbs at around 35w/sq'. JK
 
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Jalisco Kid

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I was going to edit the above post .I think that would be wrong, I just did mean to sound so crude. I keep my bulbs close to my plants and sometimes I will burn my plants. It is from heat not uv. I have burnt my plants with uvb but with uvb bulbs left on too long.
The glass on hid bulbs severely restricts uv rays out. That is why mercury lamps without the outter shell pumps out the uv's. JK
 
convex

convex

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This question is often asked, and usually gets responses of go big or stay home.

It is not always possible to handle the heat of 1k, often 430 agro's and 600's in cool tubes can get within a foot of plants rather than a 1k 30 inches above a canopy.
A 600 at a foot from canopy will deliver more lumens than most 1k's at 24 inches.

In the early days of indoor 35 watts psf was a goal, and as JK stated, folks get decent results when rooms are optimized

Lighting any chamber comes down to heat management - Unfortunately this often cannot be determined until you actually put a system together and assess the heat gain.

You listed an aircooled dual 600, as an option; I would look at this solution. Fire one lamp and monitor temps. If within parameters light the second and adjust venting if needed or drop back to one lamp until a venting solution is met.

Cheers
 
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noktommaster

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thanks everyone, now i have a lot of thinking and experimenting to do.
 
sedate

sedate

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Jalisco Kid said:
I totally disagree with sedate he has no clue what light is about. But then most don't. Having 75w/sq' will not help unless everything else is working for you. Krusty was made famous with his 10K thread where he punched out 30lbs at around 35w/sq'. JK
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Huh?

I didn't say he needed that much. I said that more than 50watts/sqf is a bit a waste/overkill.

I think we are in agreement here JK, optimizing the rest of the grow is as important than giant lights - for sure.

Jalisco Kid said:
I was going to edit the above post .I think that would be wrong, I just did mean to sound so crude. I keep my bulbs close to my plants and sometimes I will burn my plants. It is from heat not uv. I have burnt my plants with uvb but with uvb bulbs left on too long.
The glass on hid bulbs severely restricts uv rays out. That is why mercury lamps without the outter shell pumps out the uv's. JK
Click to expand...

Um - it certainly is possible to light bleach the plants without heat burning them - the two types of damage are not the same.

Just because you've burned your plants at some point doesn't mean that's my experience.

convex said:
It is not always possible to handle the heat of 1k, often 430 agro's and 600's in cool tubes can get within a foot of plants rather than a 1k 30 inches above a canopy.
A 600 at a foot from canopy will deliver more lumens than most 1k's at 24 inches.
Click to expand...

convex said:
In the early days of indoor 35 watts psf was a goal, and as JK stated, folks get decent results when rooms are optimized

Lighting any chamber comes down to heat management - Unfortunately this often cannot be determined until you actually put a system together and assess the heat gain.
Click to expand...


Agreed - this is actually why I ended up selecting a pair of 600's for my flower chamber -I wanted proximity and dispersion over sheer wattage.
 
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20north

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how much money are you willing to spend on your electric bill each month its what you want to work with on a personal level these are all great lamps you just haave to know well the the higher the watts the more heat you are dealing with how much do you want to deal with heat from your lamp always being paranoid your going to burn your plants if you have a super high ceiling get the biggest damn light you can thats my personal opinion on a personal level
 
J

Jalisco Kid

Guest
No I run 75w/sq ' but that would not work unless the room was dialed in. 78* air 70% rh 68* nutes.Co2. plus a ton of love. JK
 
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noktommaster

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Boywonder said:
,... Actually, you'd probably be just fine with a single 400w. Definately fine with a single 600w as your space is only just over a square meter. You could get more in there, but it may just be overkill, and cause unnecessary work too cool it. But then you havent mentioned how high your grow space is,...??
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the grow space is a little over six feet high.
 
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