4x4 lighting question

NukaKola

NukaKola

Well-Known Member
JoeBlow5823 said:
Alibaba just sounds like a headache.
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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.
 
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Piper84

Piper84

Well-Known Member
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.
 
JoeBlow5823

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
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.
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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

Piper84

Well-Known Member
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.
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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

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
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.
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Yeah so everything works well for your setup.
 
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straightblazin420

Member
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.

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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
 
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straightblazin420

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

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
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

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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.

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LED's emit light at a 120-degree radius, and they penetrate well in the right conditions. Do you grow with LED lights yourself?
 
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JoeBlow5823

JoeBlow5823

Well-Known Member
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?
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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

xtsho

Well-Known Member
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.
 
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