400w vs 600w hps

I'm about to get a new light system wanted to know if its worth the extra dough to get a 600w hps vs the 400w. I will only have 4 plants at any given time. is it worth it or will I be wasting electricity? Its only a 40 dollar difference between the 2 lights. Does 600w produce a lot more heat than 400w?

600w is the most efficient

Go with the 600 if you won't have heat issues. 600 is a much better light, you won't regret it.

Yep the guy in my signature smoking hash (Jorge Cervantes) says 600w are most efficient regarding heat/electricity/ and the length of the arc? or something.

regrets said:

Go with the 600 if you won't have heat issues. 600 is a much better light, you won't regret it.

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Are you saying I won't have heat issues? I dont want to have to air cool my light i'd rather just have a fan pointed at my light to keep it cool. Heat is a concern for me

If your space is at all small, and you are not air-cooling you are going to have a problem with heat on either lamp. But no, I am not saying that 600 gives off less heat than a 400, a 600 definately gives off more. What I was saying is that heat should be one of your main concerns and if you can't keep it cool, you have to go with smaller lamps. It's not too much more expensive to get an air cooled reflector and the set up of the fans is very simple. Frankly I am of the mindset that if you aren't going to air cool your lamps you shouldn't be using HID because you will have to keep the lights further away and you still may have heat concerns. When I started I decided not to spend the extra money going air cooled and it took me a matter of days to regret that decision.

I got what your saying, I know 600w is going to give off more heat than 400w. I found a whole 600w system for 300 bucks i'm about to go pick it up, brand new sun system ballast and reflector. is a fan pointed at the light not good enough to cool the lamp? and its a grow tent so the space is pretty small.

go with the 600 watt and use a 6inch exhaust and a passive air intake.

dude...i got my 600 for 135 bucks with a blower and cooled reflector....set it up like this...you need it! it will be too hot othwise....a fan wont do.

Where did you get a deal like that? used equipment?

theeggman said:

Where did you get a deal like that? used equipment?

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yeah...from craigslist. bought it from a guy who used it for one grow....you can get good deals on used shit...peoples situations change all the time if you know what I mean. Oh and dude delivered it and had an extra hortilux bulb for it....ha...the best part is...I can actually watch my plants grow from hour to hour again.

your tent will be an oven with a 600w with no inline ventilation make sure the light inside the reflector doesnt get into the tent would be the best bet

people told me to go with 600 too, I wouldn't have heat issues. Pretty crappy advice, the 600w I'm using makes my grow room over 100F and I have inline/exhaust fans. It's just too hot for a small area unless you have an AC or something in there.