Should I go HPS?

DSB65 said:

In a 3 by 3 you will need a 400 hps and a good exhaust fan.....

Click to expand...

Im gunna be doing a 600w in a 3x3x6 with a cool hood

zem said:

i have to contradict, cuz i think he can do it. the area is too narrow he could actually get a good glass sheet cut 1.5x1.9 or so and use it like a false ceiling below the light. that would be a cooltube by itself when exhaust fan is above it. the bulb by itself should take no more than 3" and it should be away from plants like 2" minimum. thats total 5" gone. for the buckets, i have been able to grow quite big plants in 6" deep perfectrly rectanular, for smaller plants under a 150 he can easily go with 4" deep tote single rectangular pot which can be lowered away from light as plants grow with couple of plants that are topped and trained in there and flowered small. they still got like a foot+2" in height before theyr too close and with a scrog and proper spreading of top colas he's got a cool microgrow. i'm only assuming thats his only place he can grow

Click to expand...

I don't agree. A bulb may only be roughly three inches but the mounting box the socket it goes into is roughly 4 inches and the bulb is centered. He will need some sort of reflective hood or material above the light or he will waste much of the light. A cheap batwing hood is around 8 to 9 inches tall/deep. You seem to have forgotten to factor in the size a reflective hood of some sort.

He can't have the bulb pressed against the top of his cabinet because of the height of the mounting box, but even if he could even with say a flat piece of aluminum used for a reflective material, which would give horrible reflectivity, it would get too hot for the bulb always being in contact with the aluminum plus most of the reflectivity would be lost directly above the bulb. Again to use a cheap batwing hood, something likely to come with a light that is so inexpensive, the top of the bulb is no less than 3 1/2 inches below the hood so you get decent light dispersal and reflectivity.

I am not sure how deep a 150-watt HID HPS light penetrates but a 250-watt only has about 18 inches of adequate light penetration, anything lower than that is in low light, inadequate lighting conditions, so he could not leave the light mounted to the top of his cabinet and have adequate light for seedlings and small plants. He would have to be able to raise and lower the light some and that means a system to raise and lower it and that will eat up no less than three inches and it would be tough to do it in only that amount of space.

So if you have 4 inches for the mounting box and even just 1 inch from a flat piece of aluminum when the light is fully raised and 3 inches for the raising and lowering system you are up to 8 inches of space used up right there .. and I don't think it could be done in that amount of space. Add 6 inches for pots and you are up to 14 inches used up. You may say 2 inches is enough to keep between the tops of plants and a 150-watt HID HPS, but I do not agree, but using your number that's 2 more inches so you're now up to 18 inches of the total height used up leaving 8 inches for plants to be grown in. If you switch to the 4 inch tall pots you say you use that adds back 2 inches so he's up to 10 inch tall plants, max.

I don't know about you but I am not wasting my time or taking the risk of growing for a handful of 10 inch plants. Maybe many would, but not me.

I hate CFLs and never advice anyone to use them but in this situation I just do not see a HID light being the answer, unless he wants to only grow a few midget plants.

If he did go HID in the cabinet I would still say he would need to step up to a 250-watt system to have a large enough footprint and also adequate lighting all the way down to the bottom of his plants, especially if your numbers would turn out to be more accurate than mine. You said your plants grew to 14 inches tall, then add your 2 inches between light and plant tops and that's 16 inches and that's a major stretch for a 150-watt light to penetrate. Go to a 250-watt and it would handle it, but only if your numbers are more accurate and IF he went with something glass enclosed.

But remember he is talking about a certain inexpensive lighting system, remember he said; " I found a smoking deal on a 150w Kit for less than $100 shipped." If that's his budget it doesn't matter what else might work, like me mentioning a CoolTube earlier. He would need to use tempered glass, at least 1/4 inch thick and the hood with the system he is considering might not be one that would be adaptable to closing off with a piece of glass plus he would need the materials to use to install the glass and seal the hood. If you are going to ventilate the hood it needs openings on each end. If it is a batwing hood he would have to seal them with aluminum with holes cut in each side piece. If it is a more conventional hood it may or may not be one that could be adapted to open up the sides for ventilation depending on how and where the bulb is mounted and how deep the reflective hood, that you seemed to have forgotten about in your figures, is, so you cannot assume he could do it, or at least do it well enough to be worth doing. If he put the piece of glass you mentioned in a fixed position like what you called; "a false ceiling below the light," then he would be unable to raise and lower the light. The light would have to remain above the glass ... unless he altered his cabinet so the glass could be put at different levels and the light and the glass could be raised and lowered separately ... but again ... think to factor in the height of the reflective hood you neglected to include in your figures. Without it much of his light would be wasted. He couldn't rely on something like Mylar because it would not stand the heat when the bulb would be raised as high as it would need to be raised and as I mentioned, a flat piece of aluminum would be a horrible reflector. If he used some flat fixed in place reflector the lower his light got from it the less effective and less efficient it would become. He couldn't mount it to the top of his cabinet and have decent reflectivity at all times so unless he did like I mentioned with the piece of glass you talked about, a "false ceiling below the light," where he could raise and lower all three, reflective material, bulb and glass, there would be very little reflectivity once the bulb and "false ceiling" glass were lowered.

He would end up with an inadequate Rube Goldberg ghetto grow setup at best.

He would be better off with something more like a Bright Wing 250W 2700K Compact Fluorescent Grow Light (not a recommendation for this particular grow light, it is just an example of a type of light that would be a better option)

• Promotes flowering and fruiting growth
• Bright Wing Reflector Dimensions: 18"Lx14.25"Wx4.5"H
• 95% reflective textured aluminum Reflector
• Includes Feliz 250W 2700K full spectrum Compact Fluorescent lamp
• Mogul base socket and 120V 8ft grounded power cord
• Integrated mounting bracket with chrome wire hangers
• Does not accept glass lens
• Warranty: 5-year fixture and 6-month lamp

$99.80


But even then he would have some height/space issues to deal with, but not as many since it is only 4 1/2 inches high/tall and then add 3 inches for a system to raise and lower it.

hps is the way to go

waynebuilt said:

hps is the way to go

Click to expand...

I would agree 100% of the time ... IF there is the space for one that would be adequate. If not, you have to go to plan B if you want to grow.

LOL>.nice to see all of this discussion. I appreciate all of the input. Trust me somewhere down the line all of this can and will be used again. I think I will stay cfl;s small grows till i get a good system and feel for what I am doing. Once I have some more experience, then I will utilize another lighting source and reevaluate my grow size.

Thanks again for all of the input, special mention to Brick Top.

Arch

zem said:

your 2 posts dont add up.... your sayin he can have more light with cfl's then your sayin he must put less light(watts)? anyway, a 150w hps is better in lumens and heat emission than 150w cfl's and to go with less than 150w cfl he will be seriously underlit..

Click to expand...

I'm just saying he can't put a 150w HID bulb in his 2' box. But he can pack a few CFLs in there. Mainly cause the plants can get closer to the lights. And in such a small space 2' x 1.5' x 2' heat will be an issue, He can get more CFL's in there than he can get HID in there. partially cause he won't have the room required to keep his plants far enough away from the HID. But mainly cause you might have trouble finding a HID bulb/ballast small enough.

Try out a T5 and it may surprise you a bit.

Damn bigv....thats awesome. You did that with a t5? Check out my little grow and see what ya think. Any input from you would be a big boost in letting me know how I am doing either way. Thanks for the info!

Arch

Yeah^^^^

A 2ft x 4-6 bulb T5 system would work quite well in that setup (low profile, and would fit almost perfectly). But you may experience heat issues if you go that route.

Heat is not going to be a problem with a T5 set up especially when compared to HPS but thanks for playing.

LOL.i guess i may as well invest in another two 75cfm fans for that cabinet then..j/k. That is going to be a veg cabinet.

I had a similar space in my first grow with an additional 2 ft of height. I used a 150w hps with remote ballast with homemade cooltube cooled with an 80cfm fan. with another 80cfm fan sucking air through the filter I was able to keep temps in check. The buds were able to touch the tube without being harmed. I harvested about 40g of nice compact bud off one plant(Atomic Jam). I'm a light smoker as well so this lasted me about a while. with yer height restriction you cwould have to go vert with a cooltube, you might be able to fit a plant on either side making the most out of the light. You definitely could not fit a 250w in there. You definitely need hps to get some good bud in my opinion. I think a 150w could keep you smokin if done right but i'm not sure about that small of a space.

Yep..Im hearing all of ya. Once i get my current grow under my belt successfully, then I will build my next cabinet. Make the one I have a veg cabinet.

You could also look into vertically hanging a 150w HPS bulb from the middle of the cab and put one or two pots on either side of it. This could give you maximum use of the bulb and a naked 150w bulb isn't that hot especially if you have the ballast remote outside the cab. A 150w bulb is good for around 12" of decent penetration, so you could light your area fairly well like this. If you go with that kind of set up you could even put a 42w blue spectrum CFL in each corner or above each plant and use those for the plants as seedlings then as side lights on the backs of the plants once you turn on the HPS. I know this thread is a couple months dead but just thought I'd give some input for if you wanted to stay with a single cab instead of two.