Sizing Grow Area

This ? might not make sense please bare with me to understand. What exactly is my grow area. The distance from 1 wall to another, or the area I am using to put the plants in. For instance, if I have a 10 x 10 room and I arrange 6 plant under my 1000 W HPS in a 4 x 4 area am I using 10 x 10 or 4 x 4. So pretty much my ? is when they say a light is good for 4 x 4 ft and my walls are 10 ft away from each other but I'm only using 4 x 4 ft directly under my light, am I growin in a 4 x 4 area? See to clarify more, I have a 1000 w and it's in a corner where I have no ventilation. Heat is starting to build up. I would like to place the lamp in the middle of the room and place the plants directly under the bulb. I only have 3 plants flowering so I'm not goin to be using more than the required 4 x 4 or whatever it might be for a 1000 W. and the A/C vent is directly shooting air at the direction of my lamp. Plus it's not a boxed in corner where air can't really move around. I want to know if I'll be alright if there's no wall around my plants to reflect the light.

Several hundred of those 1000 watts are just going to go shooting off into the corners of the room instead of reflecting back onto the plants where they belong. I don't have a link to verify it, but my understanding is that as much as 30% of your light will be lost if the sides are open. That's a large percentage of your light, and the foliage on the lower portions of the plant won't be getting any light at all if your only source is above the plant. Can you use plywood sheets to make temporary walls?

If your getting a heat problem, and it gets bad enough to damage the health of your plants, it won't matter at all. If you have no ventilation, and can't get the bucks together, go with what you got. Move everything to the center of the room under the a/c. A/c? Why is there a heat problem? Is there a return out of the room? Give us some more info on the room LxWxH, sealed room? Is the hood to the light, got vents? What is the RH, What are your temps through the day? Night? soil, hydro, size of the plants. Takes some pics. Everyone has issues, if you were ever to meet me there would be no doubt. What I'm getting @, is everyone here has overcome and learned from issues in a grow. someone here can help you out.

Seems like building some temp walls with some flat white paint or mylar on them would be the best fix....(maybe do it in the corner of the room so you only need to build two walls)

thefeast said:

Seems like building some temp walls with some flat white paint or mylar on them would be the best fix....(maybe do it in the corner of the room so you only need to build two walls)

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I already did that, using a 400 w. i switched to a 1000 w and it's too hot for that corner. I had a 3 way wall going with the 400 watter

What i'm trying to figure out is a 1000 w is good enough for a 10 x 10. Though it's optimal for a 4 x 4 - 6 x 6 area. So if It's good for a 10 x 10 room. And my room is 10 x 10 and I'm only using 2 x 2 area directly under my light. And my bulb is really long. So I'm sure if a 400 watt made it to bottom of my 6 foot girl. I'm sure a 1000 watter also will.

HappySack said:

If your getting a heat problem, and it gets bad enough to damage the health of your plants, it won't matter at all. If you have no ventilation, and can't get the bucks together, go with what you got.Tight on money
Move everything to the center of the room under the a/c. A/c?
Why is there a heat problem? Because the the A/C is shooting air away from the bulb the way my room is set up. the vent is over my door so I couldn't that corner. So I used the only corner available. Now that I'm using that 1000w, am trying to figure out if I can do wat I plan to do. And that way the vent will shoot air right towards the lamp.
Is there a return out of the room? No. I air out the room when the lights are on. I've got 1 big fan at the door to suck some air out while A/C pumps air.
Give us some more info on the room LxWxH, sealed room? Yes the room is sealed
Is the hood to the light, got vents? Yes there is a hood on the light. Its just a regular boxed hood w/ no ventilation
What is the RH Between 45% - 55%
What are your temps through the day? With the 400W 77 degrees f. With the 1000w 80 degrees f
Night?About 69-74 degrees F
soil, hydro, size of the plants. Hydro. 1 plant is almost 6 feet tall and the other 2 are 20 inches. They are raised up though to be closer to the light. As of now they're only 18" away from the 1000 w and the 6 foot is about 10" away
Takes some pics. Everyone has issues, if you were ever to meet me there would be no doubt. What I'm getting @, is everyone here has overcome and learned from issues in a grow. someone here can help you out.

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Thanks for all the quick responses

Move everything to the center. Is there a way to cut an exhaust vent out of the room? Up high, Same size or slightly larger than coming in? That way you could at least have equal or slight neg static pressure in the room. It just takes a little tweaking. What about odor control? Where is the room located? top floor, basement?