Can 1 light do it all?

[akaman]

high community, it's been awhile and i haven't done anything new but i'm considering buying a new light and beginning again. i was using a 150 watt hps but the results were less than i expected for my first grow. never went above the 150 because of issues with hi electric bills and space. to make a long story short i left the city to move to the country, now im afraid of the heat signature a higher wattage light would produce and i don't know if they look for that down here so here's my question finally! i have been looking at the procyan 100. i know it's expensive but i don't care, if it truly works for both veg and flower. i just need some input before i make the jump. as always i appreciate any and all input, neg or pos, thx in advance for taking time out to read and help this noob!

 

[DEAN420]

Either get a 400w or a 600w Hid, if u get a dual spectrum bulb you can veg and flower with it.

The heat signature from one of the two Hid's above will not be noticed IMO.

 

[Evolution]

The heat signature from one of the two Hid's above will not be noticed IMO.

Agreed

 

[akaman]

thx ThatBoyDean and Evolution for the fast response. I thought about the 400 watt but that would still leave the issue of the electric bill that's why I was asking about the procyan 100. How do you guys feel about that light? Plus I forgot to mention the heat issue, sry, all i have to cool things off is my ac which i hooked up via a air duct. electric bill is the most important thing to deal with that's why i was considering the procyan. im online listening thx. p.s. whats IMO stand for?

 

[DEAN420]

Never used led lights before but IMO most of them at the moment are only good for veg growth.

 

[akaman]

thx again ThatBoyDean, I'm really afraid of getting busted that's why when i read about the savings on electric bill using led's I almost bought without investigating. also would I need a ballast with that (the 400 watt hid)? down here if you get caught with a j, or even roaches they feel the need to search your home.i cannot afford that. I ask about the ballast because i read that they sometime catch on fire.

 

[akaman]

by the way whats imo stand for?

 

[DroJo]

IMO= In my opinion
IMHO= In my humble opinion


TBD told you correctly tho, 400w & 600w heat signatures are quite managable. A 400w will cost about $12-$18 a month depending on where you live.

 

[akaman]

thx DroJO, my house is all electric and my bill is 700 bucks a month so you can see why i'm concerned about the electricity used. what's your feelings on the procyan 100?

 

[akaman]

also do you need a ballast for the 400 ?

 

[akaman]

when you post quick response does it notify that person or do you have to post a reply to be notified. i ask because it seems I dont get an answer using quick reply.

 

[Evolution]

Why not go with fluressents/cfl i your so concerend with the bill,..

 

[akaman]

Why not go with fluressents/cfl i your so concerend with the bill,..

I thought that they were used mainly for vegging, thats why i was asking about that led system( procyon 100) trying to find something that would do both vegging and flowering and at the same time cutting the heat problem and the electric bill. DroJo told that a 400 watt system shouldn't cost that much in electricity and that the heat signature could be maintained. So with that in mind i spent the better part of last night researching dual conversion systems that allow you to just change hid bulb to hps bulb and flip a switch. Sunburst has one for about $300(400 watt). It comes with the ballast already built in and 2 bulbs, 1 hid and 1 hps. That sounds like it will work for me. I hope i'm right. By the way, it's said that the Procyon 100 was equal to 400 watts, but i could'nt find anything written to back it up. So hopefully all goes well. Thx Evolution and good luck with all your grows.

 

[TorturedSoul]

cutting the heat problem

It comes with the ballast already built in

If you are concerned about heat you would do well to stay away from HID light fixtures that have built-in ballasts. Since all ballasts produce heat, you would be far better off with a traditional setup - one in which the ballast is remote from the fixture and may be placed outside of the garden area. Also this makes the fixture lighter in weight.

 

[akaman]

[TorturedSoul;1005137]If you are concerned about heat ]

high TorturedSoul, greetings, i was talking about heat signature, being i moved from the city to the country, they might do flyovers here and i was worried they would spot the heat from above. it was suggested that i use 400 watts. if i did make the jump to higher wattage it would be from a 150 hps to a 400 watt dual conversion light(with the ballast separate). what do think about that personally? is it managable? also what are your feelings on the procyon 100? thx in advance

 

[TorturedSoul]

i was talking about heat signature, being i moved from the city to the country, they might do flyovers here and i was worried they would spot the heat from above. it was suggested that i use 400 watts. if i did make the jump to higher wattage it would be from a 150 hps to a 400 watt dual conversion light(with the ballast separate). what do think about that personally? is it managable?

What do I think personally? 'Tis a small thing, actually. In my country there are some privacy rights that have not been trampled yet that prevent an all-out microscopical scrutiny of the citizens without cause. If you do not live in the US, check your local laws.

One would be infinitesimally unlikely to be caught without other things happening that generally fall into the category of "dumchit." Such things (in no particular order) would be telling someone, being seen regularly carrying in large bags of soil and carrying out large bags of used soil, telling someone, having large cardboard boxes that say "Acme Pot-Growing Kit" on them in big black letters set on your porch (lol), telling someone, getting caught stealing large amounts of electricity, telling someone, growing extremely healthy crops of extremely stinky plants without taking simple odor-control steps, telling someone, regularly having $1500 electric bills while living in a small residence that is not "all-electric" and when the average electric bill (both in your neighborhood and at your address for the same time last year) is closer to $50, telling someone, getting into infantile screaming fits (or worse) with your spouse at 3am and having the law called on you by concerned neighbors, telling someone, placing such a large (or faulty) load on your electrical system that you burn the house down, telling someone, kidnapping someone and being seen dragging her into your home, telling someone, getting pulled over with either large quantities (most often well over an ounce, but check your local laws) of cannabis - especially broken down into multiple packages - or with plants, telling someone, growing plants in clear view of a window, telling someone, having "obviously blocked" windows in your grow room so that the neighbors wonder what you're hiding in there (instead of building a box around a set of drapes/curtains/blinds to serve the same purpose while not being obvious), telling someone, spending $150K/year on nice things while working as a shift-manager at McDonalds, telling someone, showing up wasted, glazed, and reeking at your local hydroponics store (or acting paranoid and strange), telling someone, living above someone in an apartment building and having a poorly-designed or faulty system that will dump a hundred gallons of water into your neighbor's living room while you are at work thereby allowing your landlord or maintenance man to use the emergency-entry rule, telling someone, renting and having a nosy PoS landlord who thinks it is acceptable for him to sneak in while you are not at work - and failing to take steps to prevent it, telling someone, running your air conditioner when it's snowing, telling someone, having more female plants than you expected and planting the 23 "extras" right outside your back door, telling someone...

Oh yeah, and let's not forget telling someone. NOT cool and the single-most idiotic thing a grower could ever do aside from hanging himself/herself from a tree in the backyard. No, scratch that - there's always the chance that the rope would break and the stupidity would go unnoticed, lmfao.

Several years ago I got a chance to see FLIR in action and it is not "superman x-ray vision for houses." It's great for following suspects running through undergrowth or in "open" urban areas at night. For discovering a hobby-level grow area that has been built with even an ounce of common-sense, not nearly so great. It shows, more-or-less, relative heat amounts that make it to the surface (walls, roof) of your house.

If you're paranoid about it, don't build a shoddy grow area with 1000-watters in your attic, lol. (Although it has been done - generally with the lights running while the sun is up instead of at night.) Buy air-cooled lights and pull air in from outside the grow area to cool them instead of just sucking your grow area's air through them. That way you separate the bulk of the heated air from the "stink."

also what are your feelings on the procyon 100?

I saw a "review grow" where one grew as much romaine "leaf" lettuce in 35 days as a 400-watt HPS. In one tray/flat. Without giving ANY background about the conditions/environment of the grow. But it looked like lettuce and was likely just as edible.

I cannot say whether one would have useful penetration into a thick flowering cannabis canopy. I can't say whether one would be useful at growing a crop that requires flowering in addition to vegetative growth.

I know that the real Procyon 100 uses Cree LEDs, which are definitely in the higher-end quality-wise of LEDs that are commercially available to the public at this time.

I know that it only lists having LEDs at two specific pinpoint wavelengths. I firmly believe that more of the light spectrum is required for complete plant life cycles. (But, to be honest, I do not know this with 100% certainty.)

I know that reading the "light wars" between the people who swear by HIDs and the people who swear by LEDs has been very entertaining. I suspect that were the LEDs far, far cheaper that the wars and the hype would not have happened and that more actual information gleaned from side-by-side identical experimental grows would have been available. But such is human nature, lol

At this point in time I recommend a good HID setup if at all possible - for a variety of reasons. As always, YMMV, of course.

 

[bizz]

i think if you post multiple times, people only get notified of the first one... and if it wasnt addressed to them... ignored?

i am not familiar with that particular light, but i'd imagine you could go whole cycle with it, people have been getting similar grams per watt using LED compared to HID lights, so figure anywhere between .25-1.0 grams per watt and if procyon is 100w then you will yield between 25-100 grams depending on how things go, your strain, your skill/luck, etc...

 

[ledtester]

thx again ThatBoyDean, I'm really afraid of getting busted that's why when i read about the savings on electric bill using led's I almost bought without investigating. also would I need a ballast with that (the 400 watt hid)? down here if you get caught with a j, or even roaches they feel the need to search your home.i cannot afford that. I ask about the ballast because i read that they sometime catch on fire.

akaman, you're being to paranoid brother,,,first off no one at the electric company gives a rats a$$ what you are doing until you don't pay the bill...otherwise every time someone decided to do home renovations the man would be knocking at your door! Second, look for ways to offset your usage if you can't afford the extra hydro...every bulb you change to cfl will save you 80 watts everytime you use it...turn the thermometer down on your water heater.hand wash you dishes. hang your clothes to dry outside or inside.

LED's are only the answer right now if your growing in a shoe box and there's nothing else available due to their costs...it's more economical to use fluro's with just as good a harvest.

The other thing is you are being to naive and listening to the wrong stuff man. There's no way they can search your house because of a joint. they need a warrant still and no judge will grant one solely on that.

Lastly..footprint of your lights...this is another misconception of people do to holywoods portrail of FLIR cameras. They cannot see through anything and even have a hard time seeing though fog. Cops and those that sell grow equipment would like you to think that they can point the thing at your house and see your lights but that's all true. They detect heat so that if your exhausting your grow room out, that area will come out red on the camera. But they are not xray cameras. Good luck brother and even if things are that bad where you are remember they'll fry you regardless of how big or small you are, so go big brother!

 

[ledtester]

It's great for following suspects running through undergrowth

They can't even do that if you have ever seen a real chase on tv. They can't see through anything,,not even glass! They detect heat escaping from your house and are used for energy audits. Anytime you see pictures of people or lights with these things the cameras are in the room.....hydro shops try selling masking crap, but it;s totally useless.

 

[ledtester]

thx ThatBoyDean and Evolution for the fast response. I thought about the 400 watt but that would still leave the issue of the electric bill that's why I was asking about the procyan 100. How do you guys feel about that light? Plus I forgot to mention the heat issue, sry, all i have to cool things off is my ac which i hooked up via a air duct. electric bill is the most important thing to deal with that's why i was considering the procyan. im online listening thx. p.s. whats IMO stand for?

The hydro cost for a cycle of 2 1000w HID's , pumps, water heater and air is $260 where were at..the power company won't even blink at a 400w grow or 1000w for that matter. Forget the LED and save the money for the lawyer.