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Best Light set up?
- Thread starter LifeLess
- Start date
Depends on how you plan to work the room. Are you looking to blanket the entire space uniformly?
All I can talk is LED. On LEDs that would probably entail 4ea 4x4 lights. My short experience with LED lights (my only real experience growing dope) in a 4x4 tent, that I try to have the right VPD at, is that they like to be at lest 2' above the plants, more when the plants are small. So if this is an 8' tall ceiling, tables to raise the plants would make tending to the plants easier. If you leave the lights up high and the plants low on the ground, and turn them up to get the needed umoles, the humid air will warm up from the photons being soaked up, and the cooling reqt's increase.
To fill the room, a way to have a motor raise and lower a 4x4 light would come in real handy. Way more so than a tent. When you need to tend, you could raise the lights to make walking around easier. Your plants could be in mobile tubs (see the organic soil SIP thread), that you could move as needed to gain access to the plants at the back of the room, moving also to rotate their light exposure. When you are done, lower the lights to where they need to be, with the control unit at the door. Mounted right next to the light control unit. There is no light height control.
Growers Choice makes a good LED, and a good controller. Nobody has made a motorized light raising/lowering light hanger. The people at Growers Choice should integrate that light height control function into their controller (and a USB port / readout for a PAR sensor). I have a very simple design concept for the motorized hanger.
With a bar design LED, being able to reach through the bars, to work the ratchet, is helpful. The bars don't get very hot. I suggest wearing the green glasses, especially if the light is on and you are under it, looking up..
Edit: All that typing having been done, there is a pretty cool thread on 5 lights and 4 plants. but they used a 10 x 10 room.
All I can talk is LED. On LEDs that would probably entail 4ea 4x4 lights. My short experience with LED lights (my only real experience growing dope) in a 4x4 tent, that I try to have the right VPD at, is that they like to be at lest 2' above the plants, more when the plants are small. So if this is an 8' tall ceiling, tables to raise the plants would make tending to the plants easier. If you leave the lights up high and the plants low on the ground, and turn them up to get the needed umoles, the humid air will warm up from the photons being soaked up, and the cooling reqt's increase.
To fill the room, a way to have a motor raise and lower a 4x4 light would come in real handy. Way more so than a tent. When you need to tend, you could raise the lights to make walking around easier. Your plants could be in mobile tubs (see the organic soil SIP thread), that you could move as needed to gain access to the plants at the back of the room, moving also to rotate their light exposure. When you are done, lower the lights to where they need to be, with the control unit at the door. Mounted right next to the light control unit. There is no light height control.
Growers Choice makes a good LED, and a good controller. Nobody has made a motorized light raising/lowering light hanger. The people at Growers Choice should integrate that light height control function into their controller (and a USB port / readout for a PAR sensor). I have a very simple design concept for the motorized hanger.
With a bar design LED, being able to reach through the bars, to work the ratchet, is helpful. The bars don't get very hot. I suggest wearing the green glasses, especially if the light is on and you are under it, looking up..
Edit: All that typing having been done, there is a pretty cool thread on 5 lights and 4 plants. but they used a 10 x 10 room.
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go to lothlorien lighting company and grab a couple of magic crystals,the customer rep is named galadriel...of course you'll need to learn elvish...
or alternately define your parameters better,how much you want to spend,cooling resources,led vs hid....
or alternately define your parameters better,how much you want to spend,cooling resources,led vs hid....
Led is very nice but i also like cmh/hps mix.
In an 8 x 8 maybe 4*de 600w hps as top light plus 9*315w vertical cmh
In an 8 x 8 maybe 4*de 600w hps as top light plus 9*315w vertical cmh
I would not use anything but LED now that they have surpassed HID in a big way. You will save power and have a lot less heat to deal with. You will have coverage that you could only dream of with HID. Whats going to be the cost of those 13 lights you propose using and the bulbs replaced often? Do you have any DIY skills? If so you could save a lot of coin going that route. Check out my PLC DIY light(link to thread in signature) You have many options going the LED route, check them all out.
Have a great day all! Peace, negative.
Have a great day all! Peace, negative.
You don’t have to raise and lower led’s, just buy one with a dimmer.......
You will need 4 for your space, buy the best you can afford. Buy either Gavita or HLG.
im close to doubling my yield from hps to led’s, mine paid for themselves in Their first grow. Don’t buy cheap Chinese crap, or you won’t get the best results and will regret the purchase.
You will need 4 for your space, buy the best you can afford. Buy either Gavita or HLG.
im close to doubling my yield from hps to led’s, mine paid for themselves in Their first grow. Don’t buy cheap Chinese crap, or you won’t get the best results and will regret the purchase.
If you would like to try the latest LED design, 4xFC4800 and work well in that space.
Check more details here: https://bit.ly/30DesD0
Check more details here: https://bit.ly/30DesD0
Forget HPS/MH/CMH lights. Modern white leds are the way to go; you'll get better yields with under 50% of the energy costs compared to HPS.
I'd buy led lights with Samsung LM301H chips and Meanwell drivers . It needs to have a dimmer too. Good quality parts cost a bit more but they are more durable in the long run. Cheap leds lose their efficiency faster than good quality leds, I’ve read.
3500K is a good spectrum for veg and bloom. 4000K-5000K if the lights are just for veg. 3000K if they’re just for bloom. But they are selling lights with mixed color temps too.
I’ve had 3500K Cree CXB3590 cobs for bloom and veg for about a year now and they work quite well for both, and I just put together a 3500K-5000K 60watt Samsung LM301H light to be used as a veg light in a 60x60cm tent or a 80x 35cm cab
Sorry, I can’t recommend any plug-and-play lights for you cause I have DIY lights myself but you will prolly need four light panels for that space or two big ones.
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Unlike old purple leads, modern white leds need good bit of clearance to canopy, 50-60cm, or even more if you wanna use all the watts in your light fixture, because they are so intense that they will fry/dehydrate the leaves if you have the lights too close to the plants or you’re running the lights too hot. Extra CalMag will help to keep the leaves in better shape.
Plants seem to do better in hydro/coco under white leds cause they have naturally more moisture in plant tissue compared to soil growing, so you can run your lights little hotter/closer if you’re a hydro/coco grower.
I'd buy led lights with Samsung LM301H chips and Meanwell drivers . It needs to have a dimmer too. Good quality parts cost a bit more but they are more durable in the long run. Cheap leds lose their efficiency faster than good quality leds, I’ve read.
3500K is a good spectrum for veg and bloom. 4000K-5000K if the lights are just for veg. 3000K if they’re just for bloom. But they are selling lights with mixed color temps too.
I’ve had 3500K Cree CXB3590 cobs for bloom and veg for about a year now and they work quite well for both, and I just put together a 3500K-5000K 60watt Samsung LM301H light to be used as a veg light in a 60x60cm tent or a 80x 35cm cab
Sorry, I can’t recommend any plug-and-play lights for you cause I have DIY lights myself but you will prolly need four light panels for that space or two big ones.
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Unlike old purple leads, modern white leds need good bit of clearance to canopy, 50-60cm, or even more if you wanna use all the watts in your light fixture, because they are so intense that they will fry/dehydrate the leaves if you have the lights too close to the plants or you’re running the lights too hot. Extra CalMag will help to keep the leaves in better shape.
Plants seem to do better in hydro/coco under white leds cause they have naturally more moisture in plant tissue compared to soil growing, so you can run your lights little hotter/closer if you’re a hydro/coco grower.
Growenhaft
Active member
what are the climatic conditions like in this room?
my room is in the basement, i had less weight with led.
for me, hps is the better choice. it produces light and heat. both are required.
Thanks for all the replys your insight is appreciated. My room is built in the garage. Summer here is a crap shoot. Few weeks of 90s mostly upper 80s. Room is insulated and sealed with a pos portable ac that doesn't do anything. Ceiling height is 11 ft thoughts about gavita de 1000? Heat is only a issue for a little bit.
If youre going with the HDI route I would suggest that you go for 2 630W DE CMH lights, that would be perfect for your area. Now if you want to go de LED route, i would suggest an il9x 100W fixture. Ive worked with a smaller version of that light (670 W because my space is a 4x4) And it works wonderful. Maybe that and another small light would do the job. Let us know what you decide!
miss squirrel
New member
If you use anything but SILs at this point you are spending money because you like to. 8x8 or 80x80
xerb
Member
Want to save some money?
Get on Craigslist and look for somebody selling a complete setup.
If you have $500 and get lucky, you might find a complete package that cost over $5000 retail.
I got lucky, everything in original boxes, without a single successful cycle on the bulbs!
Good Luck, XERB
PS I like a mix of CMH and HPS lamps. The results speak for themselves.
My last grow from seed at 3 weeks:
Get on Craigslist and look for somebody selling a complete setup.
If you have $500 and get lucky, you might find a complete package that cost over $5000 retail.
I got lucky, everything in original boxes, without a single successful cycle on the bulbs!
Good Luck, XERB
PS I like a mix of CMH and HPS lamps. The results speak for themselves.
My last grow from seed at 3 weeks:
Recently went w/ electric sky LED’s and lovin’ life. They’re spendy compared to some but worth it IMO. Growth is def better than SF.
If you are in a garage with warm temps its best to use LEDs, however in the Winter you could use HPS for heating. 
