I may try 10/14 if I can summon the courage but there is also a little voice saying trade the savings for more watts during lights on. I remember reading about reduced hours but the claim was that flower time increased so I didn't try it.
@torontoke seems to have done and repeatedly done due diligence here. Might have to go see the Wizard for courage.
I don't know if I'd call it courage that prompted me to try this. More like boredom and curiousity.
Now as far as your thoughts on using the saved hours for extra wattage.....that depends.
Depends most on what your lighting numbers are like now. This is just my hypothesis really and clearly I'm not a scientist or even a qualified bro scientist but from what I've seen over the years is most indoor growers go way overboard.
And 12 hours of way to many watts takes the plants over the line of diminishing return. I noticed that by the 9th hour during 12/12 that the plants begin shut down mode. I could visibly see that they couldn't or weren't taking in and processing those extra hours.
When I tired 6/18 with the 400mh it was obvious that it wasn't enough time to fill out completely to be worthwhile.
When I switched to 8/16 with the mh they filled in almost as much as I'd have gotten with 12/12. Once I switched to the led and the better spectrum and extra photons took over I doubt I'm losing anything besides hydro costs.
But every garden/space is different.
I've been tweaking this cabinet for a few years now and I'm finding limits to the amount of yield/physical growspace vs the amount of lights on.
Lots of trial error and repeating has occurred to lead me down the path I'm on now and I always recommend everyone choose their own path but at least people can choose knowing that their are options in the grow game.
Edit: oh and reducing hours speeds up the entire flower process but even dropping an hour or two the last few weeks can dramatically speed up finish. That's not just my opinion but most people who have tried playing around with cycles.
Thanks for popping in hillbill