Grow tent lighting/heat question?

I am curious to know what the maximum or recommended lighting would be for a 48" x 24" - 50" high grow tent. Please keep in mind that noise will be a consideration since the tent will be in the bedroom.

I am also concerned about heat and safety, I don't want the thing starting fire if I was away and say the inline cooling fan decided to go out. I had this happen to me using a 250w HPS and the temps luckily were not bad to the point the thing could have ran a cycle without getting dangerously hot.

I am considering a 400w hps/mh with a cool tube hood but the concern is that my tent is around 23" wide and the hood I was looking at is 21.5" wide, so is it alright for the hood to touch the side of the tent? The ballast can be dimmable so I can dumb it down to 200 when I'm gone for more than a day just so I don't have to worry about heat.

I'm also considering maybe 2 - Blackstar 240 Leds for the summer and just using the hid in the fall and winter. Any suggestions and feedback? Thanks in advance.

hang ur light the other way the length instead of width i dont think it would be good to have it touching....with a 400 ur temps might go 10 degrees above ambient temps...just have a fan in there...

Well, how many plants do you plan on keeping in there?

I'm also looking into the LEDS and the blackstar specifically its a good light for the loot...2 of those u will be fine in the tent..GL..JMO's

DinafemHazeAuto said:

hang ur light the other way the length instead of width i dont think it would be good to have it touching....with a 400 ur temps might go 10 degrees above ambient temps...just have a fan in there...

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That won't be possable because the other way is 24" which wouldn't even fit. I'll just stay away from such a large hood. There is a decent one thats 17" wide, just doesn't come in a complete set like the others.

Well, how many plants do you plan on keeping in there?

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Not more than 6 and as few as 4 depending on strain and light of course.

I'm also looking into the LEDS and the blackstar specifically its a good light for the loot...2 of those u will be fine in the tent..GL..JMO's

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This is my preferred approach, just don't have enough for 2 of them at this exact moment but may buy 1 and add another as soon as I can. I have read every Blackstar grow journal out there and have estimated that 2 Blackstar 240's should have no problem generating 4 or 5 OZ dried and even more once things are refined and mastered. The energy savings are awesome and the light pays for itself in energy savings in a single year, sure you won't as much compared to a 400w HPS but not having to worry about heat, cooling and replacing bulbs is very nice. =)

Bro u said the tent is 48Lx24Wx50H so hang the light the length way...Or u could hang 1 light vertically...And this also helps with lower nugs i believe..But as far as heat 2 blackstars equal 1 400w in the temp raise bro...

200 wattsz

You posted that the tente was 48x24x50 so hanging the other direction would be larger not smaller unless you posted the numbers wrong. I personally like the option that comes with the digital ballasts of dimming I wish lumatek made a 600/400/250, but I went with the 400/250 and am kinda sad because I think I could of went with the 600/400. I was originally going to use a smaller grow space and I live in a very HOT climate. I"m using a SuperSun II from sunlight supply it was the smallest phyical footprint that I could find for a 6in aircooled hood 22 1/2x13 1/4x8. The yeildmasters are close in size but they have only 86% reflective material versus the 95% in the Super Sun 2. My hood stays cool to the touch with the 6in vortex running. If you are concerned about fire, a very legitimate concern btw, there are tools designed to prevent such things from happening that you were describing. I use a Sentinel MDT-1 timer which has a high temp shutoff as well as some other features, the shutoff allows you to set the max temp in the grow space and if it goes over that it shuts the lamp off and will not turn it back on until you tell it to.
You can always use two 6 in. 90 degree fittings, which is what I"m upgrading to myself, to give you alittle tighter bend upwards without kinking the pipe and reducing airflow.

@pazuzu420 Thank you for the heads up on the temp shut off device, I am very concerned about fire safety and don't want to worry about my grow when I should be enjoying it. I am a legal medical patient and am concerned for human safety and not just a fire gets you caught. I will look into that device for sure. =)

As far as my dimensions...well I most likly listed them incorrectly. My tent is (when measured by me) 47" long, 23" deep and 59" tall. The light I was looking at is 24" long and 21.5" wide, so if I used that light I would have 1.5" of play. Thats why I asked if the reflector could touch the tent because chances are that it would every now and then. There is another unit that has my interest that is 17" wide so it would work but it is only $25 cheaper and doesn't come with HPS/MH bulbs, yo-yo hangers and the timer.

..But as far as heat 2 blackstars equal 1 400w in the temp raise bro...

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For one... that's impossible, the power output on 2 units would be 260w - 270w and then take into account that LED's generate less heat then CFL's. There are grow journals where people have to add supplemental lighting in the cold months because the LED's don't generate enough. There are also grows where the tent or space is being cooled by 80-100 cfm inlines which we should both know wouldn't work in a grow tent with a 400w hps. I am confident that my 100 cfm muffin fan will be more then enough for LED.