Ideas for starting seeds/light veging

I am about to start round two of indoor . I made a decent flower box 4dx6wx10h bangin 600w overhead hps, 400w horizontal hps. i want to know which kind of lights i can use to start seeds n hopefully get a foot of veg before transferring to flower box to raise to 3 foot before triggering flowering.

I am a diy guy all the way which lightt effective cost/effeciency. how many will i need to start up to ten? how tall should i expect to grow them under the cfls before hid lights are needed? just go nutts with all successes and failures. t5, cfls.. etc whats good?! working with 5 feminized chrystal seeds from nirvana seed bank n getting lots from local grow buddies.

I have pics of my flower box working my first round of 5 clones (big one is alien bubba) www.photobucket.com/checkumoutweek1

oopss photobkt password is bluealaskan

Go with some cfls/flouros for the first 2 weeks or so then switch to like a 600 MH until flowering then your 1k hps will do the rest, stay high bro

I would get your self another 600w for your bud room and use the 400w for veg

if i get another ballast its gna be a 1000w magnetic n its gna run as little as possible coupled wit the 600 horizontal. well is the bud growth constant or does it kick off more during the end? if its constant ill get a few oz, if theres a pop off i hope for 10zs total

Dont count our weight before it comes in haha, you will almost always be dissapointed

Think about it this way 2x 600 watt lights actually create more Lumens then 1 single 1000 watt while using virtually the same power draw, and with two 600s you can spread your light pattern more evenly over your canopy while getting more work done and use your 400 for veg that would be pretty cost effective provided your lights are running 240v instead of 120. Just food for thought

How do i figure out what im running? is a standard wall socket 120? how do i switch it?

Running ballasts on 240 verses 120 will cut your amp draw in half and you will see it significantly in your power bill, and yes standard wall socket is only 120v

switching to 220 will not save you any money. electricity is billed per kilowatt, not per amp.
cheapest/easiest way to start 10 seedling till they get to be a foot tall would be w/ cfls. start w/ 1-2 24 watt bulbs and add as they get taller.

DrManhattan77 said:

Running ballasts on 240 verses 120 will cut your amp draw in half and you will see it significantly in your power bill, and yes standard wall socket is only 120v

Click to expand...

It's guys like this that really shouldnt be givin advice ... if you knew anything you would know you pay per kilowatt hr not by amp .. poor advice leads to poor growing

Or you could experiment with LED's in the veg. But if you want something tried and tested, Dr.Manhattan is partially correct. Two 600's in the flowering room and the 400 in veg would be awesome.

DrManhattan77 said:

Running ballasts on 240 verses 120 will cut your amp draw in half and you will see it significantly in your power bill, and yes standard wall socket is only 120v

Click to expand...

Cuts amp draw in half, but you still have 2(220v)hot legs running half the amps of a single(120v)hot leg. 2x1/2=1. The power saving theory is a myth.

i have a few fixtures for the long bulb cfls. ive seen ones with "daylight spectrum" the highest power cfl with best color spectrum is my ball park?

tellno1 said:

It's guys like this that really shouldnt be givin advice ... if you knew anything you would know you pay per kilowatt hr not by amp .. poor advice leads to poor growing

Click to expand...

All right now tellno1 since you wanna bash 2 can play that game. you obviously got to talk shit instead of just simply disagreeing and presenting your side of what you know. So I will present my facts to how I think the way I do. so I will actually explain this for idiots like you. Plz dont be insulting I am an electrician and do this every day.
120 takes more windings of copper wire,thus more resistance, and this results in slightly greater losses in the iron core and copper windings. Because you have to provide a bigger electrical leverage or voltage, and due to facts of life with electricity, increased leverage comes with the cost of higher losses. Losses in copper/iron systems increase by the square of the current, so if we need twice the current, losses are 4 times as much, in proportion. That means that for instance a 400 watt ballast might lose 20 watts if using 240V as opposed to maybe 80 watts if using 120. Double current means 4 times the core loss, That might mean an extra 60 watts of loss, or 15% of the 400 watts. Its not allot but the more equipment you have the more it adds up 15% is 15% that adds up. And there are allot of added benefits to running things off of 240 vs 120 I would say run all that you can on 240 if you can. And no its not that hard to run 240 just have to know a little about electricity. These numbers were off my ballast and it is different with every ballast so cheek your specs.

The transformer runs cooler when powered by 240V because the primary current in the transformer is halved. So if the transformer were not cooled heat would build up more in 120v, heat increases resistance, which lessens efficiency.

Heat shortens transformer life, by melting the resins (causing the plates to vibrate, interfering with the electro-magnetic lines of force) and degrading coil wire insulation (creaing micro-shorts). Over time, the 120v transformer will consume ever more energy (because it tends to run hotter). The ratings given are just the initial ratings and not an average over the life of the transformer.

as i said you pay by the kilowatt hr not by the amps .. you use the same amount .. nothing more nothing less

Then you obviously dont understand electricity at all more resistance = more power it takes to get through so more resistance = more power draw do you get this now?

listen you said you could run at 220 and significantly drop your your bill because the amp draw is half .... 600w at 220 is the same cost as 600w 110 .. you pay buy the kwh not the amp .. so yes the degradation your talking about happens to ballast over time .. but its not what you said ... and yes i do understand electricity ..

DrManhattan77 said:

Then you obviously dont understand electricity at all more resistance = more power it takes to get through so more resistance = more power draw do you get this now?

Click to expand...

Not even 2 cents worth

Maybe go to the newbie section and do some reading.

golddog said:

Not even 2 cents worth

Maybe go to the newbie section and do some reading.

Click to expand...

he said he was one ...