Debating 2 x 500w blackstar or 1 x 900w blackstar for flower cab - thoughts?

I've looked into the other brands and I just can't see paying what they're wanting for the amount of light compared to blackstar. And I love my 240w veg light but 240w would be nowhere near enough for flower unless I had 3 or 4 of them, but they just don't have the penetration/intensity you need for flower I think. I'm growing in a 47"x1.5' wide space with 5' of vertical room. I have a 400w hid in there now but i'm already running out of vertical space, so I think I'm going to go LED, which is what I wanted to from the start but didn't want to invest a lot of money into lights and be disappointed. I think for me to not be disappointed I'm going to have to be getting a similar power draw from an LED to what I'm used to with HID. Would like to get closer to 600w than 400w though as I was very happy when I used to grow with 600w with the quality and yield -- the 400w not so much but I got size limitations now I didn't have then... and I don't think it'd handle a 600w HID heat-wise. Right now the 400w with cab closed is pretty close to 85.

So thoughts.. particularly from those who've actually used a blackstar. I'm a daily smoker with a good tolerance and grow for myself not to sell, so i'm only concerned with getting enough yield to get me by from harvest to harvest and store a little for when needed. Need to yield 5-6oz minimum every 2 months. I'm cycling 3 plants in and out of flower cab each 12/12 for 6 plants total (though the last couple have yet to go in). So realistically I only have to get 1oz a plant which seems wayyyy low to me for a well vegged/trained plant...

My main concern is spending the $1k for these lights (whichever way I go) and getting airbuds and crappy yield. I don't expect the light to grow a good plant for me but I do expect it to deliver yield per watt similar to what I would get with HID. I don't expect to get more wattage than the light is rated for power draw.... so I'm thinking I should be getting the equivalent of a 500-600w hid for the 2 500watts combined and around a 500w hid for the 900w.

Yeah these LED are incredible for vegging. For that grow area and amount of plants I would go with the 2 x 500w.
If it were me I would go for another company for your area and amount of plants I would go with this http://www.hydrogrowled.com/Penetrator-168X-PRO-LED-Grow-Light-P97.aspx . 47'' x 6.5''. THats the penetrator 168x. Even though it only puts out 310w true watts ( bout same as one blackstar 500w) it can grow some serious bud, there spectrum and lens are proven to grow with little watts. When I do a whole flowering grow room, Im getting a bunch of 168x.

What I grow with are the spectras. I love my led, its also a proven light, but its also proven to be harder to grow with then others. It puts out way to much power. Its proven it to me, i would of never thought such little watts could grow soooooooooo many plants. Spectras are different from other LED lights ive seen. You can run these very high and they still give enough intensity to grow plants bushy.

Let me give you a idea how good the spectra is.
RIGHT NOW, I HAVE GOING
1 Spectras 100 (140w true power draw) vegging 5, 3month old mother plants. 2 spectras could veg 10 mother plants. (MY SAME 648W 12 bulb t5 vegged 10 mothers)
1 Spectra 100 flowering my auto strain, 35 site tote 30'' x 20'' 20 inches away. 24h from seed. We will see what yield will be, but area coverage is perfect no stretch.
I would use 1 600w for each 35 tote.
These lights are expensive though, they retail 499 a light.
http://growledhydro.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=5

But as you can see, LED can save you alot of money of wattage used (electric bill). So dont cheap out and get the cheapest, research and see what light is best for your growing situation. Dont base it off wattage. Check budderific impressive ass grow out. He had a thread comparing black, penetrator and some other company. BUt that thread is gone. https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/509658-sour-60-autoflower-under-hydro.html. 30w power draw. He yield great but results are gone.

One advantage to using two 500w flowering lightbulb over a single 900w would be say if a bulb quit working the 500's would still have an active light source but the single bulb would not.

With your width to depth, 2 500s would give you better coverage, though don't discount what Swift has said. Then again 2 900's would be pretty sweeeeeet!

Go with the 2 500W'ers, you'll get much better coverage, as mentioned above.

In example three 150's do better than one 400 watt...

Yeah I've considered the option of actually going with 4 240w's as well. I just don't think the 240ws get that much penetration. They leave prety dark shadows below the top leaves on my vegging plants. I think a 500w with 2x+ that intensity will probably do the trick though, and a 900w definitely would. I'd love to put 2 900ws in there but budget is the issue... i'm only prepared to pay around $1k give or take a bit at the moment. i'd love to lay down $2-3k for the ultimate LED setup from a top notch company with badass warranty, but that's just not feasible especially since i'm not growing to sell so making the money back isn't realistic and I don't have that kind of money just laying around to spend on my covert grow Really spending the $1k is a lot more than I'd like to spend I just don't think I'm going to get the results I want without buying at least that much wattage and that's the least I can spend and get the wattage I want to ensure I get good yields. I think I will probably go for the 2 500ws because I also do believe that they just don't side light as well as HIDs and coverage is one of the reasons people don't get solid results always. Anyone know how the heat a 500w compares to the heat of their 240w models? I could see having 3-4 240ws in there no problem for heat... is 2 x 500w going to be a heat issue in an enclosed cab? I have ventilation but want to downsize it some and get rid of the ductwork that is preventing me from raising the light higher.

You're gonna need ventilation...or something to cool it off. I got 1000w's going in an 8'x8'x8' room and I need ventilation.

Guess we'll see -- I've already got 4" vent holes so I can put a 4" inline fan in to move air if needed. The single 240w blackstar I have doesn't put off hardly any heat at all, but I guess 5 of them in an enclosed space would build up. What kind of setup do you got producing 1000ws? and is that 1000 total wattage or the actual power draw? I'm actually at 1200w of led wattage but only about 650-700w power draw.

I've got two blackstar 500 in a 4 by 4 tent and if its closed it get nice and warm, upper 80s. I've got an 6 inch ice box planned for that tent( I like to keep it closed). It looks a little like this right now.....

I've got a comparison grow with 1kw hid same two plants under it, same strain , same age/size when it started. its called the dissent grow or some shit like that, the name changes like I change underwear for some reason.After this comparison (depending on results) I'll pull my hid down till at least next late fall(maybe for good) when its nice and cold and I can just draw in frigid outside air to cool the room and lights.

dbkick said:

I've got two blackstar 500 in a 4 by 4 tent and if its closed it get nice and warm, upper 80s. I've got an 6 inch ice box planned for that tent( I like to keep it closed). It looks a little like this right now.....View attachment 2081493

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dbkick said:

I've got a comparison grow with 1kw hid same two plants under it, same strain , same age/size when it started. its called the dissent grow or some shit like that, the name changes like I change underwear for some reason.After this comparison (depending on results) I'll pull my hid down till at least next late fall(maybe for good) when its nice and cold and I can just draw in frigid outside air to cool the room and lights.

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Yes heat with HID is my biggest problem as well. Guess I'll have to be on the lookout for heat -- there are several hydro stores around so if it ends up being an issue i'll just run and get a fan. I'll work it out I'm sure. How do you like your blackstars?

Senseimilla said:

Yes heat with HID is my biggest problem as well. Guess I'll have to be on the lookout for heat -- there are several hydro stores around so if it ends up being an issue i'll just run and get a fan. I'll work it out I'm sure. How do you like your blackstars?

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I bought one new , had it for a few weeks and then noticed 4 on craigs for sale, I bought them all. got a nice deal too. I don't know the outcome yet since I haven't run a cycle with them but they do seem to veg nicely but that's not really what I bought them for, they're supposed to be geared for flower and as red as they are I don't see how they could miss, dunno yet but we'll see.

it does get warm enough in the 4by4 tent with two 500s for me to add a 6 inch ice box to the tent, I've just bought an 8 inch ice box for the 1kw hid in the other room.of course two 500s in a 4by4 tent is almost twice the coverage, I like good coverage.

Same here that's why I went with multiple 240s.