Light mover

Hi,
I have a 7x12ft room that I'm about to build and I'm gonna start by sticking one 1000w on a mover in, then in the next 30 or so days I'll buy one more 1000w. My question is when I start to run two 1000s what would be better? Running them both on the mover in like a T shape or just put one on each side of the room? I'm kinda wondering about having one fixed on each side of the room... I'm not interested in running 600s because buying more than two fixtures is just too much money and I am exhausting the AC reflectors into my living area for heat.

If you leave one 1000 stationary, are you confident it would cover the whole room, or would you place it over higher value plants? If not, and your whole room is valuable to you, I'd say place both lights on movers.

ChemisTree said:

If you leave one 1000 stationary, are you confident it would cover the whole room, or would you place it over higher value plants? If not, and your whole room is valuable to you, I'd say place both lights on movers.

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Actually while I only have one I'll for sure keep it on the mover. Its just when I get two I'm not sure what I should do. Do one on each side of the room (4 or so ft apart) so that one 1000w covers a 7ftx6ft area or put them both on one mover (same mover 2 lights).... I've never had a room this large though. The entire room is important, I'm shooting for the most uniform light I guess.

ekacpuc said:

Actually while I only have one I'll for sure keep it on the mover. Its just when I get two I'm not sure what I should do. Do one on each side of the room (4 or so ft apart) so that one 1000w covers a 7ftx6ft area or put them both on one mover (same mover 2 lights).... I've never had a room this large though. The entire room is important, I'm shooting for the most uniform light I guess.

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Well, first of all, let's just back off and take a look at the problem at hand. One 7x12 foot room. Will that all be growing space? Will your plants be tall and large or are you going for a Sea of Green (SOG) type grow?

1 1000 watt HPS can cover an area of about 6x6 feet. 2 of those puppies can cover two squares of 6x6 feet. If you treat your garden as two squares of 6x6 feet and keep a small path around the perimeter, you wouldn't even need light movers (although there would be dead spots). Especially so if you got your hands on some Adjust-a-wing reflectors.

Otherwise, one 12 foot long light mover with the two lights arranged ~3 feet from each other could do the job, although I'm not sure how fast the light mover is or if it can keep the whole garden happy.

Just my thoughts, I'm not experienced in the use of light movers and can only share what I've read.

ChemisTree said:

Well, first of all, let's just back off and take a look at the problem at hand. One 7x12 foot room. Will that all be growing space? Will your plants be tall and large or are you going for a Sea of Green (SOG) type grow?

1 1000 watt HPS can cover an area of about 6x6 feet. 2 of those puppies can cover two squares of 6x6 feet. If you treat your garden as two squares of 6x6 feet and keep a small path around the perimeter, you wouldn't even need light movers (although there would be dead spots). Especially so if you got your hands on some Adjust-a-wing reflectors.

Otherwise, one 12 foot long light mover with the two lights arranged ~3 feet from each other could do the job, although I'm not sure how fast the light mover is or if it can keep the whole garden happy.

Just my thoughts, I'm not experienced in the use of light movers and can only share what I've read.

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It's a constant harvest SOG. I'll have Three batches in hydro with 3wks veg (bout 12 inches tall when go in) with walking room around the front and sides of each (off walls and each other) That's what I was worried about is when both lights are on a mover only part of the room is bright.


Do you think that with 2 1000s placed on each end of room would have any dark spots? If so why? Just in the middle? If i HAD to I could do one 600 over each grow but I dunno if it'll do a 6x2 spot very well...

Well, there's something I want to stress that you probably already know. Light movers are not a substitute for using less lights. They allow you to place the lights closer to the garden, and likewise destroy any dark spots that happen when you use a stationary light. So, yes, for a more uniform grow stick with the light movers.

So, I guess you're kind of stretching your lights a bit for a 12X7 growing space. But not by much. On one hand if you used two light movers and placed them so they moved across the short way (7 feet) you would still have a dead spot in the middle. If you placed them on the same mover the long way, one end of your garden would be missing light, which is also bad.

Your T-method may work, but I don't know how to set it up. Now, if I were in your shoes, I would do the following ( see my expert MS paint picture)


2 600 watts on one light mover and your already purchased 1000 watt on the other.

And if you were feeling particularly naughty and had the cash, I would do the following:



(forgot to label those as 1000 watt HPS each)

Both images are to scale. I think the 1 1000 W HPS and 2 600 W HPS and two light mover idea would provide the best coverage for the money, lumens, and electricity, although if you're feeling particularly naughty you could go with 3 light movers and 3 1000 W HPS bulbs. Let us know what you decide.


Edit: Well, if you wanted to go the 3 1000 W HPS route you could still do it with 2 light movers. Have a cross beam on one mover and just the light on the other. Again, it's up to you and your budget.

Actually I havn't bought any new lights. Right now I have a small closet grow with a 400w and a light mover. Moving into a bedroom soon though. I'm a little worried about how to plug in 3 1000s. I've seen 110v splitters with 2 outlets that will do 2 1000s and 240v with 4-6 but I don't have a 240 I can use. I'm half tempted to run 3 600s and do two on one breaker as thats 1200w and they can take 1675w then run the other one alone on a seperate breaker. Though I'm not sure if one 600w will do 18 plants (3 sections of 18 plants)...

ekacpuc said:

Actually I havn't bought any new lights. Right now I have a small closet grow with a 400w and a light mover. Moving into a bedroom soon though. I'm a little worried about how to plug in 3 1000s. I've seen 110v splitters with 2 outlets that will do 2 1000s and 240v with 4-6 but I don't have a 240 I can use. I'm half tempted to run 3 600s and do two on one breaker as thats 1200w and they can take 1675w then run the other one alone on a seperate breaker. Though I'm not sure if one 600w will do 18 plants (3 sections of 18 plants)...

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Yeah, that's definitely an electricity problem...so three sections of roughly 4x7 area each. That's sort of on the edge of what a 600 can handle I guess.

Could you wire up 3 breakers to handle 3 1000 watts?

ChemisTree said:

Yeah, that's definitely an electricity problem...so three sections of roughly 4x7 area each. That's sort of on the edge of what a 600 can handle I guess.

Could you wire up 3 breakers to handle 3 1000 watts?

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That's why I was worried about the 600s is because 4x7 is big.

I luckly have a friend who is a electrician (not sure how good) I'm thinking that I might have to ask him. I was thinking a 240 in the room (run a 240v expander 4 plug). I'll have to ask him what's easier I guess, didn't think about 3 seperate breakers.

Well good luck, as my father always said about the 7 Ps - Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

Keep us updated

*double post*