Need Help lighting my box

2'x2'x4' Tall


But for a space 2 feet wide and 4 feet high ...

What do you guys recommend for wattage in this baby?

I mean for a space this big should i just use a few big cfls like the 65watters with a clamp light or should i go with more small Cfls.

any help would be appreciated

Phreak8987 said:

Ive got me a nice little homemade growbox.

2'x2'x4' Tall

Dont have pictures yet but you can imagine. I already got two inside walls covered in that emergency blanket material and the rest with flat white paint.

But for a space 2 feet wide and 4 feet high ...

What do you guys recommend for wattage in this baby?

I mean for a space this big should i just use a few big cfls like the 65watters with a clamp light or should i go with more small Cfls.

any help would be appreciated

Click to expand...

2 wide is not bad man., you can definately fit a good amount of cfls in your box.,my grow box is only about 1ft by 1ft.. if i were you id throw a bunch of 42 watters in there and some 23 watters too..,mix of 6500k and 2700k..

around 300-400 watts would be decent depending how much of the space will actually have a canopy. anymore would just help. i have 312 watts (12x 26w 1750lumen) over about 2.5 sqft of canopy and they seem to like it so far. if money isnt an issue go for the bigger ones less clutter is always nice. but i know around here you can get 6x 26w bulbs for the price of 1 42w

skervy said:

around 300-400 watts would be decent depending how much of the space will actually have a canopy. anymore would just help. i have 312 watts (12x 26w 1750lumen) over about 2.5 sqft of canopy and they seem to like it so far. if money isnt an issue go for the bigger ones less clutter is always nice. but i know around here you can get 6x 26w bulbs for the price of 1 42w

Click to expand...

skervy if you could.,please post a link of your light setup.. is it selfmade?? 300 watts sounds sick.. post a pic

its in my signature link in my journal i dont have any step by step instructions but there is a picture and a basic idea of how it was made


quick edit actually the picture of the light fixture is in this link
https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-growing/269739-indoor-cfl-stealth-dresser.html

yoitsslobo said:

skervy if you could.,please post a link of your light setup.. is it selfmade?? 300 watts sounds sick.. post a pic

Click to expand...

450 watts ( measured, not rated ), big fixed bulbs ( approx 45 and 65 watts mixed spectrum ), totally reflective mylar . It's just about enough for 3x4 footprint, so I think your above suggestions are accurate. 300 watts or so. Just don't let them get too tall, or have too much shading below.
Man, why don't I just use a HID.
One half of the lights are shown.

ok i looked on homdepot to see how big the 68w bulbs are and their just under 10 in. 6 of them would do ya real nice. i notice their only 15$ and 10$ for 42w. thats not to bad i never looked at home depot before only walmart. if you dont want that you could do 10 42w bulbs i see they have 12 packs of them for 95$. no point really in mixing the sizes youll have more even light with all the same. oh imade a little ghetto mspaint to show ya how would be the best way to set em up lol. put them sideways on the top like in the picture youll have solid light over the middle of the cab and get the most oiut of the bulbs and space

a home made ballast that you can adjust would be the best thing unless you want to move the plants up and down. if you cant that that you could always do the normal vanity fixtures with splitters. i did that but i dont like it now it doesnt position the lights the way i want and takes up more room then they should. that box would work fine looks a bit smaller then 2x2 by the way

that would work but your gonna lose prolly over a foot worth of grow space with them in splitters like that. trust me if you can make your own customizations at all youll love it in the long run. i went with the premade vanity fixtures and splitters i hate it now. next run im gonna redo it like im suggesting to you so the light is all even and i get the most out of the bulbs and an extra 6 inches of grow height space. plus this way you can slap some mylar foil or paint right onto the top of the fixture and get the most possible out of the lights. with the spiltters angling the light half of it is gonna be aiming to the top corners of the box which is useless

im confused what you mean by up the box on each side. the top of each bulb should be facing to the middle of the box that way all your light will be centered right on the middle of the box where your plants should be. in the picture i made up the side view should be how it looks when your looking straight inside the box. the bottom view is how it should look if you were looking at the top of the box inside. if you dont want to get into customization just go with the splitters it will be easier on you. but if you can handle the customization this will suite you alot better. you would still make a fixture hooked to chains how you drew it in your picture but with a lip on 2 sides to mount the bulbs to how i drew in the side view


quick edit i think i get what you mean now by up the sides lol. and no thats not what i ment the 2nd picture is how it would look from the bottom of the fixture. not how it would look just standing outside the box looking in

ya there you go lol i couldnt draw one like that i would put a wire or whatever your gonna hang it on in each corner of it though so it has full support. i just used a small linked chain for mine with hooks to put it on. i can adjust it nice and even by just moving each corner up 1 link. i would show a picture of it but lights are off for another hour and a half