250W or 450W Into my cab?

[Guest]

With my outdoor crop ripped off, and with no bud, its time for me to bring my work indoors, but I need the help of ICMAG members.

The question is what would be best for my grow-cab-to-be. I'm thinking 2' x 2' x 4-5' first grow I'm probably going to be doing a SOG in soil from seed, but eventually I want to be able to install biobuckets inside. I don't know if cooling is going to be an issue, I'll be keeping the ballast in another room, and the temps around here don't really exceed 70 degrees except for a few days during the summer. I just want to be able to grow the best plants and the densest nug's I can in the area provided. So the question I pose is: In my 2' x 2' x 4-5' cabinet would the quality of the buds grown with a 400W HPS be noticably better than the same cabinet with a 250W HPS?

Also, if anyone can tell me how much cooling and ventilation I'm going to need in my conditions with either light.

Thanks guys

 

[TheGhost]

How's it going Hempster.

I have a 2'x2' space with a 250w and it performs very well in this space @ 62 watts per square foot. My outside temps get pretty high in summer (95f +), in my situation serious attention needs to be taken to the ventilation system to keep the temps under control. A 400w in a 2'x2' space is going to give you 100 watts per square foot, but I wonder if you will see a benefit once you take into consideration the potential problems of running a large light in a small space, like - temp issues, extra power consumption, larger (louder) fan. I really don't think that you will see a larger yeild with a 400watt in this space, I am sure that others will disagree with that last statment but when you really get down to it its still 2'x2' and @ 62 wpsf a 250 is pretty good already, 100 wpsf in my opinion is not going to make a difference and if it does I don't think the difference will be worth the extra cost and troubles of fitting a 400 in a small cab.

Just my opinions.

Later
Ghost

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input Ghost. I was leaning towards 250W myself.

I think that if I go ahead and use the SCROG method the extra light penetration that the 400W would give me would be neglible, but what do I know, thats why I'm asking you folks.

Peace

 

[BagseedSamurai]

Whats a good (cheap) place to get a 250?

 

[Sauce]

More light = more bud. While the 250w is better fitted to the size of your cab, a 400w is possible and will get you more bud in the end. As long as you have a decent vent fan I would personally get the 400w. They aren't much more than a 250w either. An air cooled hood or cool tube would help a lot in a cab that size.

Bagseed - Bghydro and Plantlightinghydroponics are both good.

 

[Guest]

www.e-conolight.com

 

[ShroomDr]

Check out the 'Stanley Blower Fan Mod' thread too.(<$40)

Mine just sits there on top, but my next cab, I'm going to try to mount it inside, blowing though a built in carbon scrubber.







This last on is day 25 of flowering. The screen is to close to the light as you can see.


But live and learn... and improve

 

[Guest]

get the 400 for 100 bucks take the fixture out take tempered glass make heat shield
100 bucks cant go wrong or you could go ebay....which i dont recomend

 

[Guest]

Hey, thanks a lot guys. Econolight looks like it could save me about 40 bucks, which should be enough to help cover the cost of rigging up a cooling system.

It looks like I'm going to be putting a 10 count of Apollo-11 seeds into a soiless medium under a 400W HPS. I can't wait to find my spacey mother plant

You guys rock, thanks

 

[Guest]

if you want to save even more buy the ballast kit only like 50 bucks
@ www.e-conolight.com as well

 

[Guest]

Thanks again