5UP3RM4N
Well-Known Member
Hi all, new grower here! Looking forward to being part of the forums & growing some nice bud. Got lots of info so i'll just get straight to it. I've been kind of banging my head against the wall trying to figure out my ideal lighting setup. I've spent hours upon hours reading up on it & on the forum trying to figure this out. One thing I've learned for sure is that there are a lot of different ways/opinions. So i figured i'd drop my situation here and hopefully figure this out. My game plan is to get a 1/2 lb to 1 lb off of four plants. Once i get that i want to convert the whole setup to a veggie garden. However i am only focused on the cannabis yield atm. I understand that there are so many other factors that affect this other than light. I'm more or less looking for the absolute minimum amount of light that can somewhat easily achieve this if all other conditions are proper? Mostly because of heating/cooling.
I'm a 5th year electrical apprentice atm & do a lot of big commercial/industrial jobs and the company i work for is pretty cool. We have shelves and shelves of old 150w, 250w, 400w, 600w MH and HPS wall pack fixtures, ballasts, bulbs, sockets etc etc. Tons of it. It's all from job retrofits where they have upgraded to LED. Some are even new, especially the bulbs. Seen a 1000w HPS bulb in there the other day lol. I could literally buy a cheap hood and build myself any kind of fixture that i need. On top of that we did an arena job about 4 years ago and the arena disposed of 200 400w MH fixtures. So i took a truck load of those too. I can get free 4 & 6 bulb T5 fixtures, T8, T12. Unlimited bulbs, ballasts etc. We have a ton of CFL bulbs. etc. Lighting contactors, relays. It's crazy. We don't put old lights in new installations, so this stuff just sits there and my company lets me take whatever i want. I also have a ton of pc power supplies, 12v-120v transformers, computer fans etc. & with christmas around the corner i wouldn't mind saving the extra cash. Also gotta save up for a europe trip next year.
So i have a lot of lighting/small cooling options. I'm also a techie, started doing electronics before electrical so i could easily build a custom COB light fixture if i wanted to, however i don't have a lot of time and i'm trying to keep the price low. I can build a fully automated heating and cooling system if i need to. Whatever i need to do. I've spent a lot of money so far trying to figure all this out, but just been running in circles.
Now that you have that info, this is my situation:
I have a 4x4x6ft4 Grow tent (i had to cut a couple inches off to fit it in the basement lol)
with an amazon (KingLED 1000w LED) running the setup.
I also now have a second light (Philzon 600w LED) that i bought off someone for cheap.
The king led is drawing 202.3W from the wall
The Philzon is drawing 107.1W from the wall
For a total combined wattage of 309.4W
I'm hoping to get a nice tasting 1/2-1lb of weed. Will that combo be enough to produce that off of four plants? If so i'll just rock that. I understand the strain matters, however just looking for the average good setup.
I have the tent in my basement running 18hrs light atm. Lights start at 1pm and runs until 7am due to the peak hours and stuff to save money. When it is time to flower i will be running the lights from 7pm - 7am because it's the cheapest. I've done my kwh calculation and if i run 300w in veg and 600w in flower I'm happy with the electrical costs.
The grow tent runs between 68F-70F during the day when my lights are off. It's actually cooler in the basement during the day because we have a lot of windows where the thermostat is on the main floor so the sun keeps it warm up there. In the evening/night it gets really toasty in the basement which does not help because that's when i need to run my lights as the price doubles during the day. However it stays a stable 75-78F in the tent when i run this lighting setup (309W). I don't have an exhaust fan. I only have a little clamp on fan to fan the plants.
From what i have gathered 600W is the magic number for that size grow tent, but I'm wondering if i can get what i want with less? I have a $350 CAD budget and have been looking at some lighting options. Eventually i will have to get an exhaust to deal with heat and smell & i will dish out the extra cash np if i have to do it right now. The only issue i have is that we rent the house. My landlords are super cool & they checked out my tent yesterday so that's not an issue. Issue is i don't want to drill a 4-6" hole to vent outside. If i owned this place, it would already be installed lol. Only place i can really connect to is the dryer vent next to the tent, so i was probably just going to vent it straight in to the basement.
I don't want to buy/pay for the electricity of an AC unit, so hoping to not need that. See below for the lighting options I'm thinking about:
- Read lots of good things on 315W CMH light fixtures. They produce nice healthy, good tasting bud from what i gather. Just stuck between vertical and horizonal light fixtures. However this light fixture is roughly the wattage i want to run for my veg. So i am considering using just this light for veg and also for flower maybe with my LED lights in there as well? That would give me my 600W for flower.
Been really looking at:
Vivosun 315W Grow light Amazon
with a: Phillips 3100K Green Power Elite
I'm not sure about the internal ballast on this one ^
or: (vertical hood)
Lightspeed netbox 315W CMH grow kit
using the lightspeed bulb until i decide to buy the phillips one.
I like this one because it has the external ballast that I'll hang outside the tent and fan if required. I like this because there will be less heat in the tent.
I like to keep my electrical outside of the tent & I'll be moving my power bar out soon (as seen in my pictures)
- Buying two 315W CMH or a 630W CMH are out of my budget.
So I'm really leaning towards the 315W CMH light due to quality and effeciency. Could this light alone achieve 1/2-1lb ina 4x4 off 4 plants? maybe supplemented with something? I can also supplement with 150-250W HPS if i need to. Hoping for a one light solution though.
- I could also build/buy a 250W HPS and supplement that with the LED as well.
- Or i could build/buy a 400W HPS & supplement with the KING LED.
- Or i could just scrap it all and buy a 600W HPS
- Or T5s & LED/HPS
- Or i can put a bunch of 150w of either type. etc.
- I don't really have time to research and build cobs & prebuilts seem pretty pricy, but they are def. not out of the question.
- If i could find some nice cheap quantum boards, that would be an option too?
It's a lot of info, but this is whats running through my head lol. Driving me crazy.
I have bolded my main questions to make it easier & i apologize for the long read.
Thanks for the help! I appreciate all your advice, & i hope i gave enough information. Just looking to figure out the lighting, i found everything else i need to learn on the forums for the grow.
I'm a 5th year electrical apprentice atm & do a lot of big commercial/industrial jobs and the company i work for is pretty cool. We have shelves and shelves of old 150w, 250w, 400w, 600w MH and HPS wall pack fixtures, ballasts, bulbs, sockets etc etc. Tons of it. It's all from job retrofits where they have upgraded to LED. Some are even new, especially the bulbs. Seen a 1000w HPS bulb in there the other day lol. I could literally buy a cheap hood and build myself any kind of fixture that i need. On top of that we did an arena job about 4 years ago and the arena disposed of 200 400w MH fixtures. So i took a truck load of those too. I can get free 4 & 6 bulb T5 fixtures, T8, T12. Unlimited bulbs, ballasts etc. We have a ton of CFL bulbs. etc. Lighting contactors, relays. It's crazy. We don't put old lights in new installations, so this stuff just sits there and my company lets me take whatever i want. I also have a ton of pc power supplies, 12v-120v transformers, computer fans etc. & with christmas around the corner i wouldn't mind saving the extra cash. Also gotta save up for a europe trip next year.
So i have a lot of lighting/small cooling options. I'm also a techie, started doing electronics before electrical so i could easily build a custom COB light fixture if i wanted to, however i don't have a lot of time and i'm trying to keep the price low. I can build a fully automated heating and cooling system if i need to. Whatever i need to do. I've spent a lot of money so far trying to figure all this out, but just been running in circles.
Now that you have that info, this is my situation:
I have a 4x4x6ft4 Grow tent (i had to cut a couple inches off to fit it in the basement lol)
with an amazon (KingLED 1000w LED) running the setup.
I also now have a second light (Philzon 600w LED) that i bought off someone for cheap.
The king led is drawing 202.3W from the wall
The Philzon is drawing 107.1W from the wall
For a total combined wattage of 309.4W
I'm hoping to get a nice tasting 1/2-1lb of weed. Will that combo be enough to produce that off of four plants? If so i'll just rock that. I understand the strain matters, however just looking for the average good setup.
I have the tent in my basement running 18hrs light atm. Lights start at 1pm and runs until 7am due to the peak hours and stuff to save money. When it is time to flower i will be running the lights from 7pm - 7am because it's the cheapest. I've done my kwh calculation and if i run 300w in veg and 600w in flower I'm happy with the electrical costs.
The grow tent runs between 68F-70F during the day when my lights are off. It's actually cooler in the basement during the day because we have a lot of windows where the thermostat is on the main floor so the sun keeps it warm up there. In the evening/night it gets really toasty in the basement which does not help because that's when i need to run my lights as the price doubles during the day. However it stays a stable 75-78F in the tent when i run this lighting setup (309W). I don't have an exhaust fan. I only have a little clamp on fan to fan the plants.
From what i have gathered 600W is the magic number for that size grow tent, but I'm wondering if i can get what i want with less? I have a $350 CAD budget and have been looking at some lighting options. Eventually i will have to get an exhaust to deal with heat and smell & i will dish out the extra cash np if i have to do it right now. The only issue i have is that we rent the house. My landlords are super cool & they checked out my tent yesterday so that's not an issue. Issue is i don't want to drill a 4-6" hole to vent outside. If i owned this place, it would already be installed lol. Only place i can really connect to is the dryer vent next to the tent, so i was probably just going to vent it straight in to the basement.
I don't want to buy/pay for the electricity of an AC unit, so hoping to not need that. See below for the lighting options I'm thinking about:
- Read lots of good things on 315W CMH light fixtures. They produce nice healthy, good tasting bud from what i gather. Just stuck between vertical and horizonal light fixtures. However this light fixture is roughly the wattage i want to run for my veg. So i am considering using just this light for veg and also for flower maybe with my LED lights in there as well? That would give me my 600W for flower.
Been really looking at:
Vivosun 315W Grow light Amazon
with a: Phillips 3100K Green Power Elite
I'm not sure about the internal ballast on this one ^
or: (vertical hood)
Lightspeed netbox 315W CMH grow kit
using the lightspeed bulb until i decide to buy the phillips one.
I like this one because it has the external ballast that I'll hang outside the tent and fan if required. I like this because there will be less heat in the tent.
I like to keep my electrical outside of the tent & I'll be moving my power bar out soon (as seen in my pictures)
- Buying two 315W CMH or a 630W CMH are out of my budget.
So I'm really leaning towards the 315W CMH light due to quality and effeciency. Could this light alone achieve 1/2-1lb ina 4x4 off 4 plants? maybe supplemented with something? I can also supplement with 150-250W HPS if i need to. Hoping for a one light solution though.
- I could also build/buy a 250W HPS and supplement that with the LED as well.
- Or i could build/buy a 400W HPS & supplement with the KING LED.
- Or i could just scrap it all and buy a 600W HPS
- Or T5s & LED/HPS
- Or i can put a bunch of 150w of either type. etc.
- I don't really have time to research and build cobs & prebuilts seem pretty pricy, but they are def. not out of the question.
- If i could find some nice cheap quantum boards, that would be an option too?
It's a lot of info, but this is whats running through my head lol. Driving me crazy.
I have bolded my main questions to make it easier & i apologize for the long read.
Thanks for the help! I appreciate all your advice, & i hope i gave enough information. Just looking to figure out the lighting, i found everything else i need to learn on the forums for the grow.
I bought pretty much everything else that I will need for the entire grow. Hydro and soil grows. So I've got a lot of money invested already & my GF has been giving me crap and she's not wrong lol so i wanna take it easy on the spending. Just want to make sure that the lighting won't hold my grow back because of the time/money i already have invested.
