New Grower looking for lighting advice

[Miseria]

Hey guys!

Noob here. Love this community!

I'm building a growroom in my basement and have a question on lights. I have framed out a 8x4 (7ft tall) area in my basement for the flower room. I plan on growing 6 plants to start but want room to ramp up to 8 or maybe 10 down the road once I get the hang of it.

Is 1 600 HPS good for the initial 6 plants? I figure I could another when I move up to 8. Or would 2 600 HPS be overkill for 8 plants? I have a lot of space in the basement and some available fresh air for ventilation.

Or would I be better off just going with 2 400W HPS and add a third later if needed.

Any advice would be mucho appreciated.

 

[Calyx Hunter]

Yo Miseria welcome to .com!!! It's awesome here.

It sounds like it'll be a cool setup. The higher wattage you go the more heat you'll have to deal with. The higher wattage will also light up more square footage. As a rule of thumb I go with the idea that 1000 watts is good for 5'X5' and a little bigger.
600 watts is good up to 4'X4'. Check out my 4x4 grow with a 600W HPS link in signature
So for 8'X4' I would think that a 600W lamp for each 4x4 area would be good
Remember to pair ballast and lamp types properly
If I could make your purchase I'd go with two Solis Tek 1000W matrix ballasts. They're awesome, dimmable and have built in timers (with wireless remote)! And you could use 600W now and upgrade later to 1000W! You can also use Metal Halide for veg and HPS for Bloom. I'd also purchase the Solis Tek lamps.

 

[Mike Wright]

Calyx has got the hps covered, you might also want to consider LED. I went with a 400 watt hps and it easily covers a 3x2 area, but now I want an LED - a lot less heat. There is a lot of buzz about LED's going on around here right now.

 

[Miseria]

Awesome info, thanks for the reply! I haven't even started yet but already having a blast building the room (and attached veg room ).

Checked out your journal - very cool stuff! I might set up a journal as well so folks can join in my noobishness! Doing tons of research now so hopefully will limit the mistakes.

@Pantagruel - I was going to research LEDs a bit also but I'm building this in my basement. I'm in CO and the basement can get pretty damn chilly at times so I'm concerned without the HPS lights to heat things up it might be too cold. Still sounds worth doing some more digging. Having fun researching all this.

This is the area I'm going to be working with -

 

[Calyx Hunter]

That is going to be a sweet grow room. Unlimited potential there. If I could afford it I'd invest in LED tech. Another CO buddy in the hizzy! It's been brutal cold lately here. My setup is in a room and my air cooled HPS keeps the tent at about 70 degrees. At night I use an oil filled radiant heater in the room to keep it at about 80 degrees. Ahhh cool days and warm nights. You should totally start a journal. Us newbs learn from the mistakes of others but hopefully you wont have any. I pull ideas from so many different journals and growing styles on this site. It's been a ton of fun.

 

[Purple4280]

Hi all, I'm also a newbie. I'd like to piggyback off of Miseria and get everyone's take on HPS bulbs and ballasts. I've settled on using HPS bulbs for lighting. But I have no idea how to distinguish between the cheapo vs. expensive HPS bulbs and ballasts. What should I be looking for? I've seen HPS 1000W bulbs go from $35 to $150. And 1000W ballasts priced between $150 and $300. Any tips are appreciated!!!

 

[Miseria]

Hi all, I'm also a newbie. I'd like to piggyback off of Miseria and get everyone's take on HPS bulbs and ballasts. I've settled on using HPS bulbs for lighting. But I have no idea how to distinguish between the cheapo vs. expensive HPS bulbs and ballasts. What should I be looking for? I've seen HPS 1000W bulbs go from $35 to $150. And 1000W ballasts priced between $150 and $300. Any tips are appreciated!!!

I was going to go with the Solis Tek that Calyx recommended above or check with my local grow shop to see what they recommend or if any specific brands tend to get returned a lot so I know what to avoid. I'm trying to pinch pennies where I can but with the lights I'm going to avoid the cheap stuff. I figure cheap is more likely to = bad.

 

[Calyx Hunter]

The growershouse.com site and their reviews helped me decide

check these ballast and lamp reviews out.
1000w Digital Ballast Comparison Review & PAR Test Footprint Results - Lumatek, Solis Tek, Quantum, Phantom, Galaxy, Nano & More / Growers House Hydroponics Blog

HID Bulb Test Comparison Review: Hortilux, Ushio, Digilux, Baddass, SolisTek, Lumatek, Maxlume, GrowLite, Ultra Sun / Growers House Hydroponics Blog

I went with their winners in both categories. I like my combo but would have made a slightly different choice in lamp in hindsight. Ballasts and lamps should be paired as I've learned later. Solis Tek makes lamps to match their e-ballasts. After using the Solis Tek 600W ballast for a little while now I can say that I love it. I think deciding on your grow equipment is super crucial and fun!

 

[Miseria]

The growershouse.com site and their reviews helped me decide

check these ballast and lamp reviews out.
1000w Digital Ballast Comparison Review & PAR Test Footprint Results - Lumatek, Solis Tek, Quantum, Phantom, Galaxy, Nano & More / Growers House Hydroponics Blog

HID Bulb Test Comparison Review: Hortilux, Ushio, Digilux, Baddass, SolisTek, Lumatek, Maxlume, GrowLite, Ultra Sun / Growers House Hydroponics Blog

I went with their winners in both categories. I like my combo but would have made a slightly different choice in lamp in hindsight. Ballasts and lamps should be paired as I've learned later. Solis Tek makes lamps to match their e-ballasts. After using the Solis Tek 600W ballast for a little while now I can say that I love it. I think deciding on your grow equipment is super crucial and fun!

That's good advice on pairing the bulb and ballast. I'm thinking Solis Tek 1k digital ballas with their 1k HPS bulb.

Kind of at a loss for what to do on the veg room though. Any advantage to going MH over T5s? And if so do you still need that much wattage for veg? Or would 400 work

 

[Calyx Hunter]

So you're going for 6-10 plants.
What size veg space are you planning?

 

[Miseria]

So you're going for 6-10 plants.
What size veg space are you planning?

I can make it as big as a want really. Was planning on 4x4 just to make the assembly easy.

I plan to have 6 plants in veg and 6 in flowering to start. Might bump flowering up to 8-10 down the road once I get the hang of it. Though I'm sure I'd have to bump up veg too at that point. With that in mind 8 is prob the max I'll go to.

 

[CO Finest]

I have grown eight Bomb ice in a 5x5x7 tent no problem. Just make sure you got the fans set up right. Happy Growing.

 

[Calyx Hunter]

Your veg light depends on how you'll want to use it. By that I mean how large you veg them. The answer to this really varies. I've found plants veg very well under T5's. They're only under it from when they're little baby seedlings to a small plant. But that's where growing styles differ. If your pockets are deep it'd be really cool to have seedlings/clones under T5's, then have a MH for veg, and then HPS for flower. Three grow areas would be the shiz. Sorry dude I'm just jealous of your basement getting setup.

 

[Miseria]

Haha great give me more options lol.

Srsly though....three rooms sounds pretty cool. The way I've framed this up is pretty much 3 4x4 (7') sections in a row that can be separate or combined based on what I need/want. What kind of wattage would be need for a 4x4 area with a MH bulb? Or would switching from T5 to MH half way through veg be a good idea?

 

[Calyx Hunter]

Solis Tek Matrix LCD 1000W Dimmable Digital Ballast - Lights

If you got two of the Solis Tek 1000W Matrix ballasts you would have the option to run 400W, 600W, or 1000W MH or HPS. These would give you serious room for upgrades or changes. The Solis Tek lamps have Low Iron glass and give off UV which is great for the plants. Do those two for veg and flower and use a T5 fixture germination and cloning.

Solis Tek 400w MH Digital Bulb - 6K & 4K
This bulb shoudl be good for veg in 400W for the 4x4 and 600W would be better but I think unecessary.

Solis Tek 600w HPS Digital Bulb - 2000K - Lights
This 600W would be good for flower in 4x4

T5 4Ft/8-Tube Designer System - No Bulbs
Something like this with 6400K lamps would be good for germination/cloning

 

[llywelyn1959]

hi im setting up a grow 8 plants in 9 foot x 8 foot its fully insulated 200mm thick was thinking on trying cfl s anyone had any good results off cfl s and which one do I use ??????????

 

[llywelyn1959]

hi guys any advise on cfl s in grow room 9 ft x 8 ft fully insulated 200mm thick

 

[GrownSavage]

Cfls will do the job just fine I prefer HPS just for the fact of Dual Spectrum as I only have one room so the Dual Spectrum HPS works for my Vegging And Flowering Although the downfall on HPS is the amount of heat it produces but you can manage that with the correct ventilation,

Like I say the two things what turned me away from CFL is changing the bulb when going into Flower I am not sure if you can get Dual spectrum CFLs I am sure one of veterans on here will correct me if you can, not a massive problem but I am one for the easy life and the fact I have mine in a naturally freezing room I have had to also take extra measures to keep roots warm at night with a thermometer heating system (yellow heating pipes wrapped around my pots so when they get below 20degrees C.


I believe you will need a minimum of a 250W Cfl for a meter squared?? bonus of Cfl is massive heat reduction good for rooms which do not need to extra heat or are hard to get appropriate ventilation in, HPS is good for rooms which need the extra heat like mine.

Hope I helped a little! this site is full of experts and they will probably be able tell you a lot more helpful information!

 

[DigitalNomad]

Plan for 2 rooms, one will be your veg/mother/cloning closet. The other your flowering room.
I prefer 2- 600 watts (lumatek) - a 600 watt makes about 2,400 BTUs of heat, and 1,000 watter makes about 5,000 BTUs of heat. Even with air cooled lights, you have some heat. If you start with one 600 watt, you can add the second 600 watt after your first harvest.

The veg/clone/mother closet can use CFLs, those plants only require about 1-2,000 lumens. The key is to make sure light does not bleed into your flowering room.

depends on the strain you chose - will determine your floor space. You can grow 10 indicas in 3-5 gallon pots in the same space that 2 6' hazes grown in 10 gallon pots and vegged for a month. Believe it or not, the 2 hazes could yield more too. Its not about plant count, it is about cultivating plants to maximum potential.

DN

 

[DigitalNomad]

you can buy 85 watt CFLs, but its not just wattage its the color/Kelvin rating - I mix the two spectrums - 3700K and 6500K and replace the bulbs every year.

DN