Lighting help

[William Holden]

I've read and read and read. I finally decide on a light setup, and then someone tells me "No, get this instead..." so then I read up, and just get lost in a maze of confusion.

I'm looking for cheap, and effective.

My first idea was to grow with CFL's, but I also only planned on about two plants in a small area.

I then decided to get a larger area, more plants (roughly 6 MAX, maybe just four to start off with), and decided to get Tube flouros, about six 24inch strips (two bulbs per strip), but that will cost me a lot. ($20 per strip)

Then, I was told it'd be cheaper and better to purchase a 150w HPS 'Security' Light from Home Depot or some shit. I looked into it, and I can get a 150w HPS light for $15 online, i'd get two so i'd have a total of 300watts, and 32,000 lumens.

However, I dont have a LAMP that will accept a 150w bulb, and I dont know how much one of those will cost, and I dont know how effective two 150w bulbls will be hanging over six plants compared to 6 strips of floros above, and around all the plants.

I just want good quality buds from this, yield isnt that important, but price is.

where I can get a $15 150w HPS light...

Also, will a HPS light produce a LOT of heat compared to a floro? I dont have too many venting options, and I dont want a 100 degree box of withering and decaying plants.

Thanks

EDIT: *pulls out hair* OR,

 

[SmokeyMacPot]

Re: Lighting help.

hps and metal halide arnt just the bulbs you need a ballest. that is what cost a bit of money. for a cheap grow you can use floros. also check out www.insidesun.com

 

[PaRaLyZeD-420]

Re: Lighting help.

hey bro you'd be better off getting the 150w mh more heat, you should be able to find a lamp that will accept the bulb at any hardware store, you might be able to find the whole set-up, bulb,lamp and ballast together and cheap, look for complete sets. Peace!

 

[lemonskunk420]

Re: Lighting help.

Has anyone ever used a 125w (8000 lumens) compact fluorescent for flowering,and if so how small was your yield? and how many plants did you have?

 

[William Holden]

Re: Lighting help.

250w, not enough?
400w, too much?

I'm going to have some serious venting issues, the cooler it can be due to lighting the better.

Remember, im buying a tall stand up, two door shelf closet thing for my room, and I cant have all types of noticable stuff on the outside of it. On the top and bottom, and sides I could have small holes for venting, and small fans inside of it, which will only circulate the hot air, but unless I can do something amazing with all of this, I dont know.

 

[William Holden]

Re: Lighting help.

Heat is a giant issue here guys. Sorry for all the questions, but im going crazy here.


According to some reading i've been doing, the lights lose alot of potential the further away from the plant that they are.

athough keep in mind that with HIDs the power which is provided by the light is diminished exponentially every foot that you go down... at 1 foot away the power provided is 400, but at 2feet below it is providing 1/4 of the power per square foot, so approx 100watts, then another foot down is 1/9th or 25 watts....

With the intense heat from the light, I cant have it real close to my plants because it will burn them. However, too far away, not enough stuff from the light for the plants.

Uhhhgg. And whats this talk about using diffrent lights for the veg. stage, and then diffrent lights for the flowering? I'm not talking about light cycles, I know to keep it 18/6 for veg and 12/12 for flowering.

Lets just say, I make $5.15 an hour, and only work like 14 hours a week. I dont have a shitload of money.

 

[SmokeyMacPot]

Re: Lighting help.

i would go with the flouresents. little heat and they are good enough. also look up flourex lights.

 

[GrowPanda]

Re: Lighting help.

I Just have a couple questions. I have 3 plants grwoing right now that are females and I have 2 65W bulbs and one 55W bulb. The plants are about 2 and a half weeks into flowering. My concern here is that the two 65's are 'Soft White' and the 55W bulb is a 'Cool White'. How will this affect my grow and is that enough wattage (185W) for three plants?
Oh, and they do look very good right now and seem to be on the right track. Very strong stems and great leaves. The area is well ventilated. I do have 6 400W HPS bulbs fully set up and ready however my current living situation does not allow me to use them. So CFL's for now are my only option

 

[WizHigh]

From what ive just read and your confusion and what you would like to do, I suggest you get a 400w MH/HPS convertible lamp. You will be able to veg and flower with it. The ballast is already built in and you will only be spending $200 +bulbs. Great for 6 plants or less and youll be able to be in 4ftx4ft space with great penetration. Electric cost per day is $1.50 18/6 schedule. So when when you get to 12/12 it will be cheaper per day.

I get great rsults with this

 

[GigaGrew]

hi there friend.

ok here is the low down.

first. watts and lumins mean very little. lumens are for human eyes and you could in theory have a million lumen light source that has zero good light for plants. watts is a generic indicator of strength/energy usage.
the real numbers when judging lights are something called PAR which has to do with plant usable light. the other is the nanowavelength of the light expresesed as 200nm e.t.c - kelvin scale is a good aproximation tho.

CFLs and tubes pretty much come in two generic colours 2700k(red version) and 6500k (blue version) there are similar numbers elsewhere (depends on country and styff)
Metal halide are for the same phase as 6500k CFL's and HPS is same as 2700k
there is also a few more options such as L.E.D (i know nothing of these) and also lesser known is Ceramic metal halide CMH which can do all of the above jobs in one bulb and is going to become more popular as soon as people get into it.

during the vegitative state our plants need the bluer lights to grow which is when you use 6500k flouro's or a MH bulb.

Flowering stage (with standard plants this is when you change to 12 or less hours of light-pls note many people run blue light for the first part of the 12/12 because they say it reduces stretch) 2700k or HPS is used for this stage.

my personal reccomendation is to use the cheap option of a few 6500k CFLs (per plant) and vegitate them until they are about 1ft tall or less. ( small plants fastish turn around)

then get the biggest HPS your heat and finances can handle for the flowering stage.

i have just bought a 600w hps and im running it in a bedroom upstairs with no extraction and only 1 desk fan blowing on the bulb and at about 9 inches above the tops im holding at 80-82f. you would be suprised at what you can do just using reflective survival blankets to create 4 walls around the plants but with a few inches of gap between it and the floor and rood (suspended), causes great stimulation to a natural thermo stream pulling cold air from the bottom up through the canopy and towards the heat.