Enough light?

Hey i was just wondering is one 600whps good enough for 4x4 these straw banana gettin tall wanna make sure they getting adequate light without running up electric too high but if u think i need 2 lights it be nice to know. Thanks
 

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trambles

Well-Known Member
It is, however, u will have big buds in the middle and small buds on the sides. U would be better with 2x400watt lights
 

TerrapinBlazin

Well-Known Member
Those plants look good and you should get some nice nugs. 600w HPS is a good starter light and you’ll get a decent yield. It’s a much better option than the cheap LED lights you’d find on amazon for the same price. A 600 watt HPS is better for a 3x3. Like the other guy said two 400s (or a single 1000w) would be better for a tent that size.

Since you said the electric bill is a concern for you, once you get a few decent harvests with the HPS you should look at building a nice LED strip rig for that tent. Like 6 4 foot strips evenly spaced and wall to wall. If you built a light with, say, 6 Samsung FB24b strips (or comparable 4 foot strips that run at ~100 watts each), you’d get a much better yield with the same power consumption. My flowering rig is two boards in the middle and strips around the sides. It covers the entire canopy and I only run it at about 400 watts in a 3x3 tent and it produces some fat nugs. All of my lights and fans put together uses under 800 watts. Even in the middle of the summer with the AC blasting my electric bill is about $150 at the worst. Just something to consider down the road. Building a high quality LED light will cost you about a buck a watt all said and done, but will pay for itself in energy savings and increased yields fairly quick.
 
Those plants look good and you should get some nice nugs. 600w HPS is a good starter light and you’ll get a decent yield. It’s a much better option than the cheap LED lights you’d find on amazon for the same price. A 600 watt HPS is better for a 3x3. Like the other guy said two 400s (or a single 1000w) would be better for a tent that size.

Since you said the electric bill is a concern for you, once you get a few decent harvests with the HPS you should look at building a nice LED strip rig for that tent. Like 6 4 foot strips evenly spaced and wall to wall. If you built a light with, say, 6 Samsung FB24b strips (or comparable 4 foot strips that run at ~100 watts each), you’d get a much better yield with the same power consumption. My flowering rig is two boards in the middle and strips around the sides. It covers the entire canopy and I only run it at about 400 watts in a 3x3 tent and it produces some fat nugs. All of my lights and fans put together uses under 800 watts. Even in the middle of the summer with the AC blasting my electric bill is about $150 at the worst. Just something to consider down the road. Building a high quality LED light will cost you about a buck a watt all said and done, but will pay for itself in energy savings and increased yields fairly quick.
Sweet bro thanks ill try that how do u build one.
 

TerrapinBlazin

Well-Known Member
Sweet bro thanks ill try that how do u build one.
It’s not that difficult and there’s a lot of info on here and other sites to help you, so I’m just going to give you the very basics. You’ll need your lights (either strips or boards), drivers (power supplies that convert AC into DC), and heatsinks, and of course some good wire. I like 18 gauge stranded commercial fire alarm wire. Don’t use stranded wire unless you know how to solder or are willing to learn. Stranded wire doesn’t like solderless connectors. If you don’t have much electrical experience you’ll have to do a fair amount of research and become familiar with a little bit of math.

You can either wire everything in series or parallel configuration. If you go with boards those usually have to be wired in parallel. Strips can be done both ways but you need to get the right driver. With meanwell drivers, the ones that are meant to be used in series have the letter “c” before the final milliamp number (like c1200) and drivers for parallel will have the voltage for the final number and a letter (like 48a). What I recommend for your 4x4 tent is something made of strips or boards in the 500-600 watt range, or a combination of both.

http://www.ledgardner.com is an awesome site with a ton of info on what’s available and how to build, but there are some super knowledgeable and helpful people over here too, and they’ll usually answer your questions pretty quickly. If you’re a complete novice to LED lighting, you should probably seriously consider getting a kit from HLG or Atreum. They’re both solid companies based in the USA (a lot of people use Chinese boards from alibaba but I’m not down with the tariffs and long shipping time). I know it seems like a big expense up front, but it does pay for itself, in the form of lower utility bills and buds like this.
2665D232-B6FD-44F3-A94C-CB328CC65BDA.jpeg
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
A 600 is under powered for flowering out a 4x4. You can do it but yields suffer greatly, on the order of about a pound of potential yield left on the table.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
In a 4x4 that woudn't be my approach, a single 1000 watter is the way to go in there. A 1000 watt SE HPS is perfect for a 4x4. Two lights presents issues with even lighting over that space. Two 600's is ideal for a 3x6 foot area, each light over a 3x3. Two 1000's is perfect for a 4x8 area, each over a 4x4.
 
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