12'X12' Space Lighting help please

Hi everyone! Just have to throw out a big thanks first to everyone on rollitup for there ongoing help and support! Thanks guys! Anywho. I just finished building my grow shed yesterday . I have a 6kw silent deisel generator. Now... The shed is 2 story but I will only be growing on the second story (12'X12'). My question of course pertains to lighting. I was thinking about putting 4 1000w hps bulbs up there. Now, I have limited funds as to dumping all my money in the shed and that damn generator but I knew that thing would save me lol. Anywyas. I will be doing the SOG method therefor i wanted the 4 bulbs but thats like 1200 in bulbs. So i was wondering if anything else would be adequate? or if i should stick with this set up and just grunt it out for maximum bud! Thanks everyone.

Hey man whatup! I don't get on AIM a lot...

I don't know what else you could do, but 12'x12' is a lot to cover. 144sqft/4=36. I think a 400w hps would be too small to cover 36 square ft.

When you go to buy your lights, I'm sure you can get a deal since you are buying 4 of whatever you get, so don't buy unless you know you're getting a good price.

Anyway, I bumped, so maybe someone else will have some input.

and will enable better light coverage.
For example instead of two 1000w, three 600w= 1800w, despite the overall wattage being lower, and bulbs may cost more than buying two 1000w this will provide more efficient light than the two 1000w and save on electric or diesel in your case, how about a NYC diesel, diesel powered grow, a lovely smoke IMO.

Just to let ya know,,where I live the 600 Hps are around the same price as a 1000 watt Hps. Hell, the 600 Hps I have,, is more exspensive then some 1000 watt hps I have seen around. 12x12 eh?? You need at least 50 watts per square foot for decent bud production. you have 144 square feet to work with. You dont have to use the whole 12 x 12,,,,you could always breack it up into three smaller rooms. One for clones, and a few mothers. One for vegging your clones, and one for flowering, this one should be bigger then the others. hope this helps.....by the way,,,I flower with 75 watts per square foot. Four 1000 watters will only give you roughly 27.5 watts per square foot. So either you need 4 more, which will give you 55.5 watts psf, or you need to make a smaller room.


Hydro#1

I would need 8 1000w hps in a 12 by 12 room? I will be doing SOG method and they will be rotating (25 plants per 6'X6' square). 8 1000w seems a little exrtream? I mean thats a shitload lol.

I wouldnt listen to hydro he's talking out of his shithole.

8 x 1000 is serious overkill, you wont need anything like this.
Bustan - Toronto Hydroponics Grow Lights Nutrients Hydroponic Supplies Canada
read on there recommended coverage area for primary light source and this is a hydroponic website were looking at, yeah 6ft x 6ft it says.

Split a 12 foot room into quaters, 4 lots of 6 x 6,

If you have the height and the money to go for 1ks do it but only 4 of them mind

Thanks everyone. Even though hydro was talking out his shithole thanks for the input anyways lol

Sorry NGT, but Hydro#1 is "spot-on" as you say, with his answer, because if all space is used for growing then you would need more lights. But hopefully he'll get the idea that actual square footage of canopy needs at least 50 watts of light.

And L2D420, that's a very nice building! But with a second story, I can't call it a shed.

Nice place Im actually in process of the same setup 2 story 10 foot cielings.Im looking for 600 watt lights as they will be best and was thinking6 or 7 lights.for this area or maybe go 5 lights with some light rails to move the lights. You consider light moving rails you could use 4 rails and 4 1000 watt bulbs and cover everything assuming you dont use the little bat wing reflectors. I have grabbed a few 1000 watt ballast on ebay for $24 each plus like 14 bucks shipping.Bulbs can be found for $40-80 bucks if you look.Rails can be gotten if you look for under $80 each.Saves you time or you could buy the light mover with a 4 way spinning arm set up where its 1 rail in the middle then and X set up of crossed arms 1 light on each spot covering about a 8 foot spread in all directions then giving off light diameter which should cover 10 x 10 or 11 x 11 giving you a foot or 2 walk around to tend to plants

potroast said:

Sorry NGT, but Hydro#1 is "spot-on" as you say, with his answer, because if all space is used for growing then you would need more lights. But hopefully he'll get the idea that actual square footage of canopy needs at least 50 watts of light.

And L2D420, that's a very nice building! But with a second story, I can't call it a shed.

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8 x 1000 in a 12 foot by 12 foot room, your as crazy as he is

I'm guess your going to want to water these plants and go round and check on them or are we just gonnna bury them and not bother watering them only the front 3 or 4 that we can actually get to.

You would probably want to be able to walk around them so that would make it 11 x 11, have walkways running through to get to service all the plants, 8 x 1000 your both nuts

ACtually i will have them on auto drippers. On dripper for each of the 4 quadrents.. Ill have pics up of the shed shortly for everyone to enjoy!

Ok I was trying to go take a shower and go to bed but I really feel like explaing this... This will be my setup starting from "The ground up". I will have the floor lined with felt paper (commonly used in roofing work aka. my occupation lol) This will keep critters out and heat low. Then The floor will be covered with 1" styrofoam sheets commonly used to insulate attics. Next are the pots, they are a given. I will have 4 wall mounted oscilating fans (one on each corner of the room). Next on the walls I will have the same 1" thick foam insulating them and the same goes for the ceiling. The will be a total of 4 auto drippers for each of the 6'X6' quadrents (12'X12' total upstairs space). Each of the dripping systems will have there own fertilizer for the quadrent they are in thus cutting down on fiddleing with that all the time. I will also have a 55 gallon plastic drum full of fresh water downstairs to refil the dripper system. I will have 4 1000w HPS bulbs that will be all air cooled by one self enclosed fan unit. I will then have another fan filtering out the "dirty air" via carbon coal filter. everything in the room will also be lined with mylar. All electronics are running off of a 6KW deisel generator. This gets a little complicated so read carefully. EVERYTHING IN THE ROOM WILL HAVE NO NO NO!!!! TIMERS!!! They wioll all be turned on constanyly but will not come on until the generator turns on. This is where the magic happens. On the generator i have a transfer switch that i have wired a little differently for 120v power. I have a 120v line coming in my shed and it has a timer on that set to 12/12. When it kicks on, the transerfer switch sends a power signal to the generator telling it to turn off thus turning off everything in the entirer room. When the timer shuts off it tells the generator to turn on since it has lost power thus turning on everything. This system is going to be very costly (about 3 grand not inculding my 1800 generator) but it will basically run itself from start to finish with me only checking it at the intervals when the plants will be rotated. This is a SOG method. Also almost forgot. On the bottom floor there will also be a tiny 8'X4' room for the 4 to 5 mothers that will be vegging on a 400w MH bulb. Anywho. I almost have enough money saved up to order the rest of my stuff and get cranking... Ill keep everyone posted. Also someone, who will remained unnaimed on this site is helping me a lot with this and even hopefully going to hook me up with clones. Thank you, you know who you are!

WOW I wish I had the space and the $$$ to set that up. This sounds like a very promising setup. Are you going to do a log of the grow on here? I would love to see how the setup and initiation of the perpetual harvest all goes. Please keep us posted. Happy growing!

Yes I am going to post a full grow jurnal from start to finish. From the construction and framing of the shed. To the construction of the grow room, to the grow and the harvest. Everyone will see and be able to help. It should be very cool and a new "blossom" for rollitup lol

4x1000 is a lot of heat, 8x1000 is a house fire waiting to happen! And, with 4 you will have some room to manage the gurlz. You will want to visit them all while they are growing, right??? Have you given any thought to track systems to spread the light area a bit? You wouldn't need to track much, if any, maybe two lights with two stationary. Or 6 1000's? I wouldn't put 8 in that space simply because I like to be able to move about the room, tending if needed. You could put 8 lights in that space but IMHO it would be a waste and a ton of heat to deal with.

Im assuming NGT you havent had a very big grow as 8 1000 watt lights isnt that much in the scheme of what he is doing in that area.If I had my choice Id do 6 600 watt lights or maybe some movers but the 8 lights would be an optimol setup.Most of the ebb and flow bigger growers I know use 3 400 watt lights per 8 x 4 table with approximately 8 tables per room so 34 lights per room.Granted they have an open building to work with.Im concerned on the generator with no timer though.Will your fans be on a mainlline power as they all need to run 24 hours aday except when a cos2 injection or generator is running so hows that work?In the shed you will find if you can add bats of insulation or 2 inch foam board to the rafters to reflect heat from the shingles it will help alot. Check into a portable a/c unit they are like $300- 500 bucks not a window unit but actual portable unit.Gotta keep us posted I want to know how long the generator will run per fill up and how many galloons it holds.I have been interested in these but sound would be my issue..

The generator is a silent deisel. I have the generator right now and you cannot hear it from anymore then about 15 feet away. I built a self eclosed box that is 8 feet high for the generator (without a top for ventalation). This cut down on sound drastically and you cannot hear it at all now it literally sounds like a wisper. As for the fans. Like I said i will be havving a 120v power line out there i just didnt want to run my whole op on that for risk of the power bill. I can run little stuff like my fans and my mother light. Anyways gtg to work ill get back to you guys later.

Also I modified the gas tank on the generator. It runs for about 8 hours on a full (5 gallon tank) I put a 40 gallon deisel truck tank in my shed and ran a hose to the generator which is outside. To fill the tank I simply unhook it and take it down to the local gas station lol. This is going to be a kill grow gentelman.

L2D420, it does indeed have all the makings of a highly productive op.

Don't underestimate the amount of work and periodic maintenance that has to be done for an op this size. You're going to be a manicuring MANIAC, dude. An op the size you're suggesting could very easily turn into a full-time gig (for more than one person) when you start getting the harvests rolling in regularly.

Live2Die420 said:

The generator is a silent deisel.

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Do you live close enough to a busy motorway that the scent of diesel exhaust isn't going to be a giveaway?