Need a little lighting advice

4

420Yooper73

Active Member
Hi guys. Ok, so I just finished my first Coco grow :). It went well and all my plants did pretty well. I didn’t get the yield I was hoping for but oh well..at least they made it. I got to thinking that maybe my lights aren’t powerful enough. I’m using 4ft t8 style LED tubes...24 of them. They are 3000k and 22watts, 2200 lumens each. I just ordered a PAR meter but it hasn’t arrived yet. I’m sure it’s probably very low. I did some research on some different LED tubes that will fit my lights and they claim that the PPF is 31.3 per bulb and only 16 watts. I worked it through the equation to get PPFD and it works out to be 500. I guess my question is...am I to assume that the 500 number can be multipled by four since I have 4 bulbs per light fixture? That would give me like 2000 per fixture, and I have 3 fixtures over my grow area. that seems high to me. Is anyone else using the t8 style LED bulbs? If so, I would really like to know what your setup is. Thank you:headbanger:
 
my advice is get an hps, and fuck math
 
Lol...thanks...the only reason I went with LED is because I’m very limited on amperage in my grow space..so due to the power consumption and the excess heat from a big hps I just couldn’t use them...and now I’m in this LED dilemma
 
You didn't say how big your tent or grow area is. You want at least 30W from the wall per square foot, or 300W per square meter. More, in the range of 35-40W / sq ft would probably be better. My first LED light put out about 20,000 lumens, which was not enough for a 2' X 4' tent, at least with the spectrum it provided.
 
Old Salt said:
You didn't say how big your tent or grow area is. You want at least 30W from the wall per square foot, or 300W per square meter. More, in the range of 35-40W / sq ft would probably be better. My first LED light put out about 20,000 lumens, which was not enough for a 2' X 4' tent, at least with the spectrum it provided.
Click to expand...
Old Salt..thank you for the reply. My room is 14x15 but the grow room I built in there is 14x6..the ceiling of the grow room is literally all lights. Each bulb is 2200 lumens and I have 24 bulbs so total 52,800 lumens. It’s probably not enough. I’m hoping my PAR meter comes soon so I know exactly where I’m at.
 
420Yooper73 said:
Each bulb is 22 watts...so 22/120volts equates to .183 amps per bulb x 24 bulbs is 4.39 amps.
Click to expand...
The whole room is wired on a 20 amp circuit but my dehumidifier takes up another 4 amps and the fans probably use another 1.5 or so. I’m also adding ventilation fans so there goes another 4 amps probably...and come Summer I may need a small a/c unit so I’m pretty tapped for power
 
420Yooper73 said:
The whole room is wired on a 20 amp circuit but my dehumidifier takes up another 4 amps and the fans probably use another 1.5 or so. I’m also adding ventilation fans so there goes another 4 amps probably...and come Summer I may need a small a/c unit so I’m pretty tapped for power
Click to expand...
I was growing 12 plants but I may have to downsize a little.
 
420Yooper73 said:
Each bulb is 22 watts...so 22/120volts equates to .183 amps per bulb x 24 bulbs is 4.39 amps.
Click to expand...
so half the draw of a 1k, and less then half the lumens too

you need probably minimum 400000 lumines in that space to yield anything worthwhile,

which you could run on one 220v 30 amp circuit np
and even with having the electrician run the circuit and the extraction gear, you will still save a ton of money and time
 
10gal said:
so half the draw of a 1k, and less then half the lumens too

you need probably minimum 400000 lumines in that space to yield anything worthwhile,

which you could run on one 220v 30 amp circuit np
and even with having the electrician run the circuit and the extraction gear, you will still save a ton of money and time
Click to expand...
Thanks 10gal. Actually I could run a separate 220v circuit up to my grow room...I have an unused circuit in the garage which is just under the grow room :thumb:
 

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