A few big lights or more smaller ones?

[RandyL]

I've got a grow room measuring 7.5 feet by 8.5 feet with a 9 foot ceiling.

For my next grow I want to arrange the plants in a U shape, so I can walk into the middle of the room and reach them all easily.

I have a 1000 HPS, a 400 HPS, and a 400 MH that I'm going to run in the flower cycle to give the plants a fuller light spectrum, from what I have read they will like it and use the extra blue light.

I was thinking of taking out the 1000 HPS and replacing it with 2 400 HPS lights. The purpose would be to have more light sources more evenly spread around the room to reduce shadows and get more light on more leaves. And save a bit on the power bill too.

I could then put 1 400 HPS on each of the 3 sides of the room that will have plants along them.

Think this will make a noticeable difference?

I'm going to use the 400 MH for the vegging time with the plants all closer together in the middle of the room, and keep the 400 in the middle for flowering.

 

[RandyL]

Anyone?

 

[weedfairy]

The heat from a 400 watt bulb will definitely be considerably less than 1000 watt bulb.
The different spectrums will be used, but flowering plants like the HPS more than the MH.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Big HID lights have substantially better penetration than smaller ones do. So I would expect that the answer to your question depends in no small part on both your growing style and the strain(s) that you are growing.

 

[RandyL]

I'm growing Bubba OG plants in Fox Farms soil with FF nutrients, and some extra stuff like the bat guano and bud candy and molasses.

I've never run a Metal Halide during flowering before, just HPS's, but research shows me the different light spectrum will help growth somewhat, so I'm giving it a try.