Trying to decide between 250w hps and 400w hps (Little temp control available)

Hello everybody!

My grow area is a closet about 4.5 'x 4.5' x 8' (L/W/H) and the only ventilation I can have is having the closet door open, but it can be open almost all the time. Right now i'm planning on flowering vertically by dropping either a 250w or 400w hps right into the center and circling them around it. What i'm having trouble with is figuring out if my closet can handle the heat of the 400w hps, or if I will have to settle for a 250w hps. I'm currently vegging with Sun blaze 44 T-5 (~200w) and 6x23w CFL's (~138w/home made reflecter) and the temps stick around 80-85f (thats with the closet door opened, if I close it, which is seldom, it would probably be around 100f). It's simply my small personal medical grow.

I really have little control over my temps and there is literally nothing I can do about it right now. I know that even a 250w hps is going to be upping my heat, but I think its worth it to use HID lamps. At what temp does the increased wattage vs heat start causing a negative effect?

Nothing is set in stone right now and while I have my plan i'm open to all ideas! My budget is probably $300 to spend on my flowering light system, if you know something that would work better for me for around that price feel free to bring it up.

I'd be happy to answer any questions I can
Thanks!

(I know pic-less threads are boring but it really is an easy space to describe, its just a closet XD)

Growing with a HPS but without a decent exhaust is to me like growing with a decent exhaust and without light. Stick to fluo or perhaps switch to LED.

If you can enter the space where the closet is, surely you could change it to 4.5x4" and have some space for an exhaust and ducting.

That's a big old cupboard and if it were a well ventilated tent you'd stick a 600W in it.
Obviously that's a lot of heat you can't handle.
I have a digital ballast for my 400w and that runs pretty cool and the bulb isn't too hot.
My 250W is a pain because of the heat of the normal ballast, it's like a furnace. So if I had to stick one of them in your cupboard the 250w would create a hotter ambient temp.
Fans are great for dispersing heat though. I've had to resort to suspending a fan blowing directly on a bulb, and mounting a fan to blow directly on a ballast.
Plants can't take quite a high ambient temp like 30/5C they just don't like heat directly pounding them.

not to high jack your thread but im in same boat kinda.im vegging with cfls.but i want to try hps and was looking at a 250w but with a seperate ballast.my last grow i did all cfl grow and want to try a hps.this time im guna grow in basement should be cooler than what i did in room with cfls.will i need a air conditioner for a 250w hps?

250 covers less than half of your area. 400s footprint is still about 2 feet short in all directions. 600 is minimum i would use in that space, if you want to cover the whole thing. So i guess whichever works for you but dont expect to use the entire area of your space.

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if u could get some vent. the 400 w/digital ballast will work fine just rotate plants daily.but a 600 would give u much more weight and density and still rotate

kmog33 said:

250 covers less than half of your area. 400s footprint is still about 2 feet short in all directions. 600 is minimum i would use in that space, if you want to cover the whole thing. So i guess whichever works for you but dont expect to use the entire area of your space.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Rollitup mobile app

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Yeah sorry I didn't specify, that's how much room I have available, not necessarily how much room i'm using. I would use the entire closet if I could get enough light coverage while maintaining reasonable heat. Right now i'm only using half the closet with my 4ft 4 bulb T-5 vegging 8 plants (of strong genetics) and my 6x23w CFL's are vegging 3 bag seeds (cuz i figured why not).
My room is a walk in closet, all the air goes in and out the doorway, but the door is pretty much always open. I have room for fans, and I use one already, I just cant cut any holes in the walls or ceiling.

The two best options i'm looking towards goes as follows:
-A 400w hps dropped in the middle of my circle of plants (which will be rotated as needed) with the bulb in a cool tube that sends the exhaust out the top of my doorway
-A 400w hps dropped between 2 semi circles of plants, which would look like " ( ) ", the but set a fan on the far end of my closet blowing air past the light and out my door (If that makes any sense lol)

Thank you all for your input I really appreciate it!


(yes I know that's too many plants for how much light I have. Last grow 3/3 were males and i'm just not gonna let that happen again)

I know its a pretty jank setup but it really is the best I can do right now
If you see anything else you think I can upgrade feel free to let me know



Edit: For reference, I found a pic of what I would like to do:

Maybe a HPS ran during the night with a hood, a 150mm simple inline fan, speed controlled.will take care of heat. (depending on where you live of course and mean temp etc).

Then there is ventilation and smell to tend with. Charcoal filter (small) with a 150mm axial fan plugged into a inexpensive variac controlled by via a electronic thermostat probably deal with that.

You will need 400w to really get return on investment...........you could go 250w, but you probably need just about the same setup as above to really have a good controlled growth and some decent smoke. Hell, you could even go 600w with the above setup? (depending again on your local climatic conditions).

I'm pondering the same thing. I'm in a large armoire and want to use a 250 bare bulb vertical and supplement with about 200w of diy led cobs.
I'm hoping that will bring down my temperature and give me better yields.
I don't understand why you can't cut any holes in the walls. Get a six inch hole saw, save the litgle disk you'll wind up with and patch it back up before you leave it's super easy

tightpockt said:

I don't understand why you can't cut any holes in the walls. Get a six inch hole saw, save the litgle disk you'll wind up with and patch it back up before you leave it's super easy

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I don't own the property I simply have permission to grow in the space i'm allowed. I'm really leaning towards a 400w hps and finding a way to make it work.

Gemuadrken said:

I don't own the property I simply have permission to grow in the space i'm allowed. I'm really leaning towards a 400w hps and finding a way to make it work.

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400 will give you buds for sure...just gotta find a way to get that heat out. Its almost summer you know...
Dont fuck with a cool tube, IMO the loss of light intensity isnt worth it. I went from a cool tube to bare bulband the density and weight increase of my plants was significant

you should get a few 250watt or 300watt CFLs.
For 300$ you can get like 5 250watts and keep the temperature down too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HG1JRK0/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Definitely what I would do and what I am doing right now. Getting what I linked you and going to get an other one if my buds dont smell too dank.