cheap lights

Hey stoners! I need some advice. I am just setting up my first grow room, which will house my first ever grow...

The general area is 4 ft x 22ft x 4 ft.

I will be growing from purchased clones that are 6" tall when I get them.

I was thinking 1000w hortilux HPS for flowering and 1000W MH for veg.

4 lights over 32 plants (8 each light)

I have already lined the entire room with panda film and done the wiring. I am going with soil.

I purchased some advanced nutrition nutes already so I will be going that route.

What I really need advice on are the lights? I know that hortilux are considered pretty good but they are pretty expensive.

I went to htgsupply.com and each horti 1000 hps is like $120 for each bulb!

I did a search on google and found discountgrowbulbs.com and they are selling the same bulb for $75... has anyone every bought from this site before?

Another thing I need advice on are the ballasts, do I go digital or conversion bulbs?
I am pretty confused about which route to go so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Pat

check craigslist classifieds: jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services, community, events, forums saw a guy on there selling like six of em for 60 bucks a pop brand new , and quit trippen about money its all worth it in the end. don't think of yield think of experience.

Thanks worldsandreams, I just checked craigslist and all I could find in my area is used and looks pretty beat up...

I'm not trippin' just on a limited budget. Maybe I should start smaller and get what I need to get the job done right and expand later... say in 8-10 weeks

Pat

Pat Fenis said:

Thanks worldsandreams, I just checked craigslist and all I could find in my area is used and looks pretty beat up...

I'm not trippin' just on a limited budget. Maybe I should start smaller and get what I need to get the job done right and expand later... say in 8-10 weeks

Pat

Click to expand...

Hey man, try 1000bulbs.com if you're looking for just bulbs. Even if the lights crap out after one or two grows, by then you'll have the funds to expand.

I would say get DIGITAL BALLAST setups, and just order from HTGSupply. The guys are stand up and will replace anything if something comes broken.

Your plants will grow just fine under any HPS/MH setup.

Happy growing.

titleistbudz said:

Hey man, try 1000bulbs.com if you're looking for just bulbs. Even if the lights crap out after one or two grows, by then you'll have the funds to expand.

I would say get DIGITAL BALLAST setups, and just order from HTGSupply. The guys are stand up and will replace anything if something comes broken.

Your plants will grow just fine under any HPS/MH setup.

Happy growing.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the tip, I noticed that discountgrowbulbs.com sells Philips 1000W HPS for $35. I think I am going to give it a try, that is pretty much dirt cheap.

On another note, I was talking to a friend and he said that because my room is only 4' high that I shouldn't go with 1000s because I would burn the plants before they ever get to the flowering stage. What do you think?

Pat

Yep, your friend is a smart man. Unless you wanna keep all your plants to 2 feet tall (not optimal), then you should go with CFLs. I don't know much about CFLs, but I've heard there are T5 systems with 8 4' tubes that work nicely for bigger grows. Those might do you well.

What kind of space is that big but only 4' tall??

Pat Fenis said:

Thanks worldsandreams, I just checked craigslist and all I could find in my area is used and looks pretty beat up...

I'm not trippin' just on a limited budget. Maybe I should start smaller and get what I need to get the job done right and expand later... say in 8-10 weeks

Pat

Click to expand...

Id say thats the best idea,think this through alot more before you buy lights.

If it were me & i was working with a 4 ft wide space i'd give serious thought to running 400 watters,you can only run 1 1,000 watt light on a standard 15 amp line but you can run 3 400 watt systems on the same 15 amp line.

There are things to consider when choosing lights,first off light fades to the square of the distance,meaning that the farther away the light is from the canopy the less lumens are received at the canopy & below.

The drawbacks of 1,000 watters in your space.

1, They generate shit loads of heat in a tight area,not spread out over distance,its a focused heat.

2, They need inline cooling (extra cash spent) or raised far above the canopy to keep from scorching the canopy.

3, Limited to one unit per 15 amp line.

The benifits of 400 watters in your space.

1, Less heat.

2, Less cost.

3, Can fit 3 light systems on a single 15 amp line.

4, Easier to configure multiple systems to light the entire grow area properly,flexibility is important when setting up a new grow room.

5, Can be placed extremely close to the canopy without any inline cooling,the saved money on inline cooling can be spent on air intake,room exhaust or air filtration.

6, Cheaper bulbs.

7 Cheaper light system costs mean you add more systems to light the grow area,if a ballast blows or a bulb blows with a 1,000 watter your pretty much fucked due to the large area being covered by the big light,if your running 400 watters a much smaller area is affected by the shut down.

Heres what im saying about 400 watters with your room dimensions,your thinking of buying 4 1,000 watters,if you use 2 400 watters instead of the 1,000 watter you get double the light systems & will still end up with more light at canopy level from being able to place the light closer to the canopy,you also get better light coverage because you've got twice the light systems by running 400 watters.

With your room dimensions the 4 1,000 watters,if equally spaced to cover the entire grow area would come out to 1 light every 5.5 feet,this configuration will leave a space of 3 ft between reflectors.

With the 400 watters it equals out to 1 light every 2.75 feet,with the length of each reflector you will only have a space of about 1.5 feet in between each light system that is not covered by a reflector.

2 400 watters vs 1 1,000 watter is a better all around way to go.

Now for the ballasts & bulbs,once again if it were me i'd go with standard ballasts over conversion because i'd use the 400 watt light scheme i worked out above,think about this instead of going conversion.

Get 4 400 watt HPS systems & 4 400 watt MH systems,stagger 1 HPS then 1 MH system down the length of your room,being that the reflectors are so close (assuming batwing style,open end reflectors) each light spectrum will compliment the others spectrum because each different color light will shine into the others reflector, making it an all around spectrum,also negating the need for expensive conversion bulbs.

Hope that helps.