Help me decide on a light to flower with...

[hempknowsis]

So I bought a new cab and want to upgrade the flower section to either hps or cmh. The space I have to work with for 12/12 is:

22" wide
15" deep
32" tall

I'm thinking 100 watt would work well with this space....right? Or do you think 150 is ideal?

If you need a visual its the bottom half of this cab, (only middle shelf installed)

http://i.walmartimages.com/i/p/00/02/99/86/72/0002998672005_500X500.jpg

After choosing wattage I need help with CMH or HPS. I'm not a pro knowledge or experience wise with either so please help out. I'm leaning towards CMH because I've read that they are, at least in the smaller wattages: cooler, and more "efficient" lumens/light wave wise. I also heard they give UVB light and ultimately more quality buds/resin, although slightly less yield than HPS. I'm more of a quality over quantity guy in this hobby, so take that into consideration.

 

[limey]

I have no personal experience of CMH bulbs but from what I hear, they are good.

100w should be sufficient but I would probably go with a 150w if I could vent the heat effectively.

The issue you will have with any HIDs is that they run HOT and you dont have much headroom. In fact I'm pretty sure that you dont have enough headroom for an HID in that space (6" for pots at the bottom ; the smallest of the smallest indicas are still going to be 2ft tall when they reach maturity ; is the remaining 4" enough for a lamp and reflector and some space between the bulb and the tops of the plants? I dont think it will be). Maybe you could use an HID with 32" headroom with the right plants grown in a SCROG but I am not a SCROG expert.

I'd consider using a bunch of CFLs instead. they have the added benefit of being safer. Have pootle around some of other people's micro CFl grows - there's some amazing grows being done in tiny spaces by some very clever people! it's really worth you putting in some hours of research on this site, for inspiration and information

Limey

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I would recommend a 150w as well and the CMH would make things much nicer than what I went through with HPS. Please be sure to get a ballast that's rated to run it, the CMH thread has that info.

Just make sure you mount the lamp so that you're facing the end of the lamp (A dot, not a long line) when looking toward the back of the box. The 15" sides of your flower chamber should be facing the long side of the element inside the lamp.

 

[hempknowsis]

Any other suggestions?


Hyrdo - What do you mean it would make things nicer than with the 150 HPS?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Hyrdo - What do you mean it would make things nicer than with the 150 HPS?

HPS puts out a lot of light in the infra-red spectrum. When that energy hits any object that doesn't reflect infra-red, it absorbs it and generates heat.

CMH doesn't put out nearly as much infra-red so you have fewer heat issues to deal with. CMH also puts out a higher quality end product.

 

[hempknowsis]

Gotcha thanks.

Should I go with 3k kelvin or 4k?

http://advancedtechlighting.com/mhced17.htm


Will this ballast work with one of the 150w cmh on that page?

http://www.advancedtechlighting.com/m0150-71c-511.htm

 

[BLUNToPOTomuss]

For flowering you want as close to 2500k as you can get.

 

[hempknowsis]

Another thing, I noticed the 4k kelvin has double the life of the 3k. Still worth it to go 3k?

...and protected or unprotected bulb?