600 Watt or 1000 Watt?

jcommerce

jcommerce

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking of upgrading to a 12 or 16 plant recirculating deep water culture (RDWC) setup and am wondering what light(s) to upgrade to. I currently have a 430 Watt HPS that will be used with some fluros for the mother clone room. But I have a good sized room for flowering and want to give each bucket plenty of space so plants can branch out and light can penetrate easily. The dimensions for this flowering area are approximately 8w X 10l X 8h. but I can go even wider and longer, just not higher.

My question is will a 600 watt suffice, or should I consider two 600 watt lights or a single 1000 watt. George Cervantes clearly advocates 2 x 600 watt being much more efficient than a single 1000 watt and you can let the plants grow closer to the lights.

Thoughts?
 
HappySack

HappySack

Well-Known Member
That old crazy George!, air cooled lights? 1kw light are cheaper to buy, not run, than 600w. and put out a lot more light? I run mine about 18 inches above
 
Brick Top

Brick Top

New Member
Based on the info below the two 600 watt lights would be a better option unless you will not use the entire area.

You said it is or will be "8w X 10l" so if you will use it all one 1000 watt light would not provide enough coverage but if you will only be using most of it one 1000 watt light would be enough and be 200 watts less power used but I think the two 600 watt lights would be a better option, that is unless cost has to be factored in and the difference is enough for you to only want to go with the single 1000 watt light.


100 watt lights: 1.5FT x 1.5FT growing area
150/175 watt lights: 2FT x 2FT growing area
250 watt lights: 3FT x 3FT growing area
400 watt lights: 5FT x 5FT growing area
600 watt lights: 6FT x 6FT growing area
1000 watt lights: 8FT x 8FT growing area
 
jcommerce

jcommerce

Well-Known Member
The 430 should do just fine for the moms/clones, but I"ll probably hang 4 or so 23watt blue cfls or my single 105watt cfl.
 
jcommerce

jcommerce

Well-Known Member
From what I understand, two 600 watt lights will provide much better light coverage. Supposedly efficiency-wise, you get a lot more bang for your buck with two 600s even though the up front cost and 200 watts of extra power are more. This is the preferred method in Europe while Americans like their 1000 watters.
 
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