light footprint

[ReactiveLlama]

Greetings,

As some of you know I'm in the pre-construction phase (less than 2 months until I bend my first nail and make my first crooked cut!). My grow is a appt stealth cabinet. Originally my cabinet was going to be sized to fit the foot print of a clear space of floor, just under 3x3'.. I knew at that time that such a cabinet would be more or less permanent. To wide to fit through a door! Part of the reason for this was the space I had and I wanted to use ALL of it. The rest was because I assumed that like most light fixtures my light would cast a circular or square pool (depending on reflector) immediately under the light and that going for a square shape would make the most effective use of this light. This is still an option and my primary design.

However..

Gotta love however.. I've been looking around here specifically in more recent days at I think Racefan's grow box. My box would have been about 30x33" which gives it a area of 6.8 sq feet. I believe racefan built a 2x3 for 6 sq feet. Racefans UNLIKE mine can probably be moved through a door. Now mobility is a nice option, but the question is: using a 400 Watt MH what is the best shape to suit the light? I can't see me moving in the next 2 years so I don't mind the larger cab, but if it makes no difference in terms of the lighting then perhaps something more like Racefans is the way to go...

Like I said I'm about 8 weeks out from construction (less if I win some money.. but I ain't holding my breath) so I'm still able to do massive tinkering with the design.

Thanks!!

[POTential]

It's 50watt per square foot so a 2'x3' is the best you can get with whole feet. You could try something like 2ft 5in by 3ft.