4x4 lighting question

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

BigBudsNPK said:
What if I run the light I want in a 3x3 instead? It sounds like the move here.

Alibaba just sounds like a headache.

NukaKola · Dec 30, 2020

JoeBlow5823 said:
Alibaba just sounds like a headache.

It’s actually quite painless. Somewhat of a Chinese Amazon. Shipping from Kingbrite only took 6 days to CA. Considering the low rate of failure I’m not too concerned about returns, however I’ve heard of people getting replacements without having to return anything. For half the price of local sellers Alibaba is a great budget option. DIY is pretty easy as well and if a board goes out it isn’t difficult to replace.

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

I spent 2k on my led best decision I made by far, I have grown under HID FOR YEARS. Never seen plants so stacked or drink so much. I’ll post some pics because I started my current grow under 1-600w light until I got my 1000w LED.

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

This is after about month under the 600

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

Piper84 said:
View attachment 4782251
This is after about month under the 600

Damn i get better growth under my 315 cmh

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

30 days after leds and had nute lock out issues

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

And here we are after a week of flower I removed 2 plants because of space

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

Piper84 said:
30 days after leds and had nute lock out issues
View attachment 4782261

Those do look pretty sexy... This is 11 weeks exactly from seed. They were under 315 CMH for the first month then 1000w MH 4000k. This is also the day i flipped to 12/12. Just popped the HPS in a couple days ago, running that at 1100w. 5x5 tent.

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

JoeBlow5823 said:
Damn i get better growth under my 315 cmh

I have done better before but don’t care anymore LED way to be, light penetration , node spacing, plant morphology. HID should just go back to lighting up the streets.

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

Piper84 said:
I have done better before but don’t care anymore LED way to be, light penetration , node spacing, plant morphology. HID should just go back to lighting up the streets.

Depends on what works for you. I could only get canopy temps up to 80 in the summer but my dehumidifier would also be running overtime so no electric saved there. We got 16'' of snow last night. Im happy running my HPS during winter. The plants put off enough humidity to make the house comfortable and the keep the air super fresh. And the light helps heat the house. win win.

Honestly, LED's are far better for lighting up the street. They have replaced a couple of the lights in my neighborhood with LED and they light things up way better.

Piper84 · Dec 30, 2020

JoeBlow5823 said:
Depends on what works for you. I could only get canopy temps up to 80 in the summer but my dehumidifier would also be running overtime so no electric saved there. We got 16'' of snow last night. Im happy running my HPS during winter. The plants put off enough humidity to make the house comfortable and the keep the air super fresh. And the light helps heat the house. win win.

Honestly, LED's are far better for lighting up the street. They have replaced a couple of the lights in my neighborhood with LED and they light things up way better.

before the cold it was running around 84 in the room without a humidifier dehumidifier everything tip top, now I’m running a heater and a dehumidifier(not for grow area) and everything running the same.

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

Piper84 said:
before the cold it was running around 84 in the room without a humidifier dehumidifier everything tip top, now I’m running a heater and a dehumidifier(not for grow area) and everything running the same.

Yeah so everything works well for your setup.

straightblazin420 · Dec 30, 2020

JoeBlow5823 said:
I could never keep my canopy temps at 80+ while keeping the humidity in an acceptable range. I would basically have to cut off air circulation and humidity would be running 90%+. I need the heat from the HPS just to get the canopy up to 72-75. Imagine the trouble i would have keeping an LED canopy at 80 degrees. My once-per-year winter grow adds about 100$ a month to the electric bill and a good chunk of that is fans. The HPS also helps heat the house so theres a few bucks saved on the propane bill. I just do one winter grow and it satisfies me all year. A few hundred bucks in electric is nothing compared to 70 dollar mediocre eighths from the store.

View attachment 4782103

i like that setup, i shouldve got a hood vent for my lights. i think it might've saved me from needing a portable ac in the room. i hear you on the heating bill though. my furnace has barely been on this year and there have been olat of days where its -15c outside and i have to open a door and windows for awhile to let some heat escape. i have the ac venting out into my return air line for my furnace but its been blowing heat out of the vents lol very hot, every now and again i check the temps, the house climbs to 75F and the tent gets to 27-28C so i guess 83F? and thats when i have to open doors. i thought it would help heat the house in the winter not overheat it

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

straightblazin420 said:
i thought it would help heat the house in the winter not overheat it

Yeah i dont have overheating issues but the furnace definitely doesnt have to work very hard.

straightblazin420 · Dec 30, 2020

JoeBlow5823 said:
Yeah i dont have overheating issues but the furnace definitely doesnt have to work very hard.

yea it sucks, i had some really nice buds foxtail on me and they look kind of ugly now. still nice to smoke though! Anyway, enjoy the last moments of the shittiest year of our lives! let 2021 be better for us all!

PJ Diaz · Dec 30, 2020

themda said:
Here’s a look at 3 plants and my hlg550 in a 4x4. They were vegged longer than normal but still not enough light to cover, this would be better with hps I think

View attachment 4782049

There's plenty of light there, the problem is how it's spread around the space with that fixture. IMO the HLG 550 is better for larger rooms, where you are using many fixtures together. In a small tent, you're better off with 4 individual QB288's each on individual heatsinks, positioned closer to the corners of the room, to reduce the center hotspot.

JoeBlow5823 said:
Yeah the leds shine straight down and dont get good penetration. My 5x5 with a hps running 1100w. Cant wait till this run is close to being done. One week into 12/12.

View attachment 4782097

LED's emit light at a 120-degree radius, and they penetrate well in the right conditions. Do you grow with LED lights yourself?

JoeBlow5823 · Dec 30, 2020

PJ Diaz said:
There's plenty of light there, the problem is how it's spread around the space with that fixture. IMO the HLG 550 is better for larger rooms, where you are using many fixtures together. In a small tent, you're better off with 4 individual QB288's each on individual heatsinks, positioned closer to the corners of the room, to reduce the center hotspot.

LED's emit light at a 120-degree radius, and they penetrate well in the right conditions. Do you grow with LED lights yourself?

My only experience with them is a cheap amazon unit that aims the light straight down. I cant get temps high enough to run LED.

I have seen newer high end boards at the grow shop though and they definitely dont seem to spread the light out as much as a good HPS reflector unless its a gavita style board thats really spread out. I would run a parabolic reflector if there was a way to do it with a DE bulb.

xtsho · Dec 30, 2020

600 watt HPS growing jungles. It might use more electricity and put off more heat but I want the heat and I have cheap electricity so that's how I roll.

And I've had 20 ounce harvests of great bud from 600 watts of HID in a 4 x 4.

It doesn't matter what lighting technology you use. What matters is having enough.

farmingfisherman · Dec 30, 2020

themda said:
1000w double end hps for sub $300. Or shell out $500 for name brand with over 500w. I run an hlg550 rspec in my 4x4 and honestly it’s not enough

Really?

themda · Dec 30, 2020

farmingfisherman said:
Really?

really really

4x4 lighting question

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