T5HO or HPS?

[fdsa187187]

Okay so i'm thinking of constructing a growbox and i'm trying to decide on lights. dimensions of the box i want to say are going to be around 26-28"l x 23"w x 3ft h give or take a couple inches. but i'm also possibly leaning more on a 250w hps with a cooltube reflector for less heat. probably not nearly as little heat as the fluoros but thats why i'm asking you guys. i'm kinda stuck because i do want more lumens (250hps has 35,000lumens according to htg) but i don't want the heat thats why i would get a cooltube reflector. but also on fluoros because i don't want to have a huge electricity bill. HELP!!!

[Boss]

An xbox 360 uses 600watts. Your computer, between 300 and 800w (just the power supply not the monitor or printer. You can easily offset the electricity by changing out all your incandescents to compact floros. So I wouldn't worry much about the light bill.

You could go with a batroom fixture (Crome with 8 outlets and buy the "Y" adapters to double it to 16) and use 26w compact floro's in a few different spectrum to get many more lumens, and a much better color spectrum.

Just a thought.

[fdsa187187]

what sorts of cfl's boss? i've been a fan of the cfl's they're so energy efficient but i hear they can accumulate heat. i plan on doing a 2x2x3 box(something like that). and have like 4 plants or so at a time. i've followed at you're grow (very nice might i add :]) and i've been thinking about doing it. 12/12 from seed everytime sounds very interesting. maybe more in a tight space like this if doing SOG? please excuse my ignorance

[Boss]

If you go with a 6 outlet fixture and 12 26w bulbs, it will raise your ambient temp by 1.5 degrees per bulb. So if you can keep air moving through well, and your room temp is 75, you will see 82 degree temps in the grow.

[fdsa187187]

alright that sounds cool. so should they be just the soft whites? or maybe a mixed spectrum? maybe some 6500k bulbs and some 3000k bulbs. but which ones do i use? the daytime, full spectrum or what are we talking here?

[Boss]

for 12/12 from seed I would use all soft 2700 or 3k's and 2 daylights.

[fdsa187187]

so 10 soft whites 3k's (or 2700s) and 2 daylights? still looking into it but just for reference you know?

[Boss]

Yep, or go with 8 or 10 if you need to keep heat down.