HELP! Lighting purchase question!!!

Hi, I'm on my second grow, my space is roughly 1.5x2' so its a small shelf grow. What I'm wondering is, how small of a HPS can I get away with while still giving good light for tight bids? Heats a fairly big issue right now, so if you know a particular setup that will run fairly cool let me know. Thanks!

leds or cfls hope this helps and maybe get an exhaust fan to suck out the hot air

Go with T5's that will do the job for your small space.

I would opt for an LED due to area and heat problems. It does produce good bud and would be fine until you get a larger grow area. If you do want a HPS, a 250 would be fine, but with ballast and lamp heat, you could have issues unless you have good air flow. Peace

250 hps with a 4 inch 180+ cfm fan to vent the heat.

that space is very small, noway you can use hps, belive us, even though I have 500 miss spells lol, the light will be to hot to close to plants, small led or cfl, and a fan, only way

Cfl for sure. They are great for small spaces keep a fan on and try to avoid foliage touching lights they do still burn lleaves hope this helps

So far a resounding 'Yes' to CFL/LED. That's about what I figured. Thanks everyone for all the great input! Any recommendations on wattage? I've been told "100 for the first plant and 50 more after that - at the least!" Is this an accurate way of gauging CFL/LED watts/sq.ft.?

Depends on your budget really, if you wanted to invest in the higher quality LEDs, but they still give off 90-100 degree air through the vents... Will still need circulation with any LED, I believe the cfls give off a bit less head but you'll probably need quite a setup, I've never done CFLs myself but I've seen plenty on here with Y adapters and 4-5 bulbs per plant, check the CFL and LED lighting sections.

https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/

https://www.rollitup.org/led-other-lighting/

You'll see some setups and specs there I'm sure!

Lumen per sq/ft is total lumens divided by total area, so if you have like 2x2 area it would be total lumens divided by 4 = lumens per sq/ft.

highpsi said:

23w CFL = ~1800 initial lumens = 78.3 lumens per watt
23w CFL:

Light output at 2" is 1600 lumens, illuminated over 6 sq. inches
Light output at 4" is 400 lumens, illuminated over 2 sq. feet
Light output at 8" is 100 lumens, illuminated over 8 sq. feet

Click to expand...

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/isql.html

Ofcourse with CFL distance from plants won't be far anyway so it doesn't have as much of a factor as with hps or led.

topfuel29 said:

2000 lumens ft/sq minimal growth
5000 lumens ft/sq average growth
7000+ lumens ft/sq max growth

Click to expand...

This is what I use here and works great in a 5' wide by 8' long 8'ceiling

Only thing is i start them in a shelf area the size your starting them in with 6 26 watt cfl 6500k and veg for a month, you may want to start them off 12/12 from seed if thats where they will be the entire start to finish..
Because now my pineapple chunk is 4 feet tall with 4 weeks veg before flower