Too much light? Is there such a thing? And other lighting ??s Newbie needs help.

Hi. First post here. Never grown a thing in my life. Been reading a lot....but hope I don't get laughed/yelled at for dumb questions. Great resource here. Anywho....


Is there such a thing as going overboard on lights? I don't want the cost or complexity of light capacity I don't need. I'm only interested in growing with 4 or 5 (maybe 6 max) square feet of space. I've got 5 and 1/2 feet of height to work with. Maybe I could arrange for more height if there's a compelling reason to do so. I'm thinking 2 or 3 plants?

Going the CFL route attracted me at first--low heat, seemingly lower startup cost, seemingly lower energy cost. Just seems easier. Now I'm not so sure. Seems like by the time you've got 2 or 3 150 watt'ers in a setup like this:



...you might as well just go with a sodium/halide convertible setup.



I saw these "kits" and began to wonder about them being a better choice than CFLs.

ORGANIC GROW KIT 400 watt 400w HPS+MH w LIGHT NO SOIL - eBay (item 180117968627 end time May-09-08 12:29:43 PDT)

But do I need 400w of HID light to meet my goals (hobby grower that could loose interest after a while)? And do I need/want all that extra stuff? Any reason to piece together the ancillary equipment separately? Here's the same light without the extras--just the light:

400 watt SWITCHABLE GROW LIGHT w HPS Sodium + MH Halide - eBay (item 160226253586 end time Apr-22-08 12:00:00 PDT)

Is 400w of HID more than I need? Is there any reason a 250w HID light would be better for me than 400w? It doesn't cost any less from this source so more is better, right?

250 watt GROW LIGHT Both SODIUM HPS + HALIDE MH 250w w - eBay (item 180121775189 end time May-17-08 09:03:21 PDT)

Is a convertible sodium/halide system smart? Should I just go for a straight-up halide light and use it for the whole life-cycle?


Help me figure out what the hell I'm doing before I make a decision I'll soon regret. I don't want to spend money on a setup that doesn't work well and leads me to cut my losses and walk away from the whole idea.

Thanks!

if you can vent well I would just go for the 400w hps, less work than installing and constantly moving many cfl's, and you will get better results. Don't worry the sun is pretty powerful, it can outperform an hps on most days. lol

Yes your plants can get to much light, especially when they are young seedlings. But with CFLs that would be very hard to make happen. The CFL vs HPS/MH light debate has been a long one. I use a t-5 single bulb, with {6} 43 watt cfls for my vegging, then i switch over to the 1,000 watt HPS. I also think it is not any cheapper watts wise to run the cfls then the same amount of light from HPS. I really think the cfls will eat up more watts for the same light. For heat, yes, cfls are better. But with a 1,000 watt hps light that has cooling ducting hooked up to it, and vented outside, with a nice VORTEX fan, makes this much less of a factor. ALWAYS SCRUB YOUR VENTED AIR. Unless you have no neighbors or pissy family around.

Thanks for replying.

Yes, heat. I think I want HID but I've got to figure out how to get rid of the heat. I'm considering an air-coolable enclosed reflector exhausted (and likely scrubbed) to an attic. I'm not sure about how I'll exhaust the general grow space though.

My setup will be in a 6" x 2" x 9" closet (light height limited to 5.5" because of a shelf unless I tear it out which I don't want to do) with a sliding/overlaping type door. I suppose I could just exhaust the entire space through the same port I'd create for exhausting the reflector. I'd have to be real careful about scrubbing that air though. Any chance of odor escaping the building (or permeating the building) is not an option.

Ambient room temps are about 75f.

Am I on the right track?

6 Inch Vortex fan sitting on air scrubber, then 6 inch ducting that leads to the light, then Ducting that exits the light and is ducted out of the room.

LDB,
I have four plants with two dual spectrum 65 lights on either side and one 1000 w hps overhead. How close can i put the hps?

ya what he said

IheartKeif said:

LDB,
I have four plants with two dual spectrum 65 lights on either side and one 1000 w hps overhead. How close can i put the hps?

Click to expand...

If the 1,000 watt light does not have air cooled ducting hooked up to it, about 18 inches. If you have a good ventalation system hooked up to the light,, well.. I have gotten mine so close they touched by accident and it did not hurt them. But another time, I left the buds about 5" from the glass for like a week. It was not hot at all. But the Buds Bleached in color. I mean pure white. They looked healthy and felt healthy other then that, But I know they were not. So I would keep it back at least 12" away even when air cooled.

I would say with the small space I would try the 250 watt HPS, unless of course you can have good venting.