Tips with lighting/cost in general

[kanzzzz]

More people than I think might use this , however thought I would post it up incase it helps any people.

Like most people ,I need to think about the lighting I use and the cost involved in it. Its bad enough having to run 1000+ wattage in the flower for 12 hours a day. Never midn everything else.

On top of it to run a veg it can all mount up. One thing I started doing recently and Ive noticed incredible results is have a hps come on for small bursts in the veg tent.

Usually I have my 250 cfl in the veg, does the job I guess , but the growth can be kinda slow, great at keeping tempts/costs down tho.

What I did is put a 250 hps in the veg with the 250 cfl.
I usually have the 250 hps come on for about 6-10 hours when the flower tent is off.

If you want to get fancy you can hook the exaust from the veg to the flower and heat the flower tent dureing lights out.

 

[Phaeton]

This is off topic but it is late and I am stoned.

Winter just hit here in Alaska, the temps dropped below zero two days ago. Even with fuel oil being cheap it costs a lot to keep a house warm at night when it is -20 outside.

I did a summertime move, the veg light schedule was swapped so the lights are on during the coldest part of the day (night and morning).
This does as you mentioned above, it keeps the rest of the rooms warm.

I was going to go all sciency on you with max and min Daily Light Integrals versus hourly absorption min and max.
But you seem to have a handle on it just fine.

 

[coldcanna]

There's an article somewhere back in the advanced growing science sub forum. Some people will run their HPS for 12 hours on then half way through the dark period they have a 100 watt cfl come on for an hour or 2, that's enough to keep the plants from flowering. You can also flower them with under 12 hour cycles, such as 10 or 11 hours of lights on.

Of course all this is relative. Everytime you reduce watts used your looking at smaller harvests... are you trying to grow a few oz for yourself or enough to sell for profit? I think the best efficiency would be setting a goal for production then calculating the minimum power used to reach that goal.