Light wattage

[Thebanktella]

My vipaspectra 450watt shows 250watt from the wall does that mean I will use the same amount of electricity as a 250watt metal halide ? Wana do a auto flower run and wana do from start to finish under hid as it would def be better than that vipaspectra light

 

[Gorillaglue4u]

Yes 250 watts is 250 watts no matter what it is.

 

[Renfro]

Just remember that 250 watts of MH will cover less area than 250 watts of LED.

The MH good for about 4.2 sqft and the LED more like 7.1 sqft

 

[chronnie49]

My vipaspectra 450watt shows 250watt from the wall does that mean I will use the same amount of electricity as a 250watt metal halide ? Wana do a auto flower run and wana do from start to finish under hid as it would def be better than that vipaspectra light

What size space do you have?

You're right, HID would be better than that light. I wouldn't want to flower more than a 2.5x2.5 with the MH, 2x2 would be even better if you can handle the heat.

 

[CannaOnerStar]

You're right, HID would be better than that light. I wouldn't want to flower more than a 2.5x2.5 with the MH, 2x2 would be even better if you can handle the heat.

Why would you want to flower to MH at all? CMH sure, but regular MH is only good for vegging

 

[coreywebster]

Why would you want to flower to MH at all? CMH sure, but regular MH is only good for vegging

MH produces really frosty flowers, its just less efficient so need higher wattage.
Its not the common route though.

 

[chronnie49]

I flowered with MH once and it was definitely more frosty than HPS but I lost some yield.

 

[CannaOnerStar]

MH produces really frosty flowers, its just less efficient so need higher wattage.
Its not the common route though.

Yea, but it doesent make good yields, so its pretty pointless. I would rather use LED than MH for flowering. CMH on the other hand will give you the frostiness, but also good flowering. Maybe not as fat as HPS, but at least almost.

MH ballast can take HPS and HPS bulbs are cheap, so why use MH bulb? Switch to HPS and you get so much better yields that you save the money multiple times easy

 

[chronnie49]

Yea, but it doesent make good yields, so its pretty pointless. I would rather use LED than MH for flowering. CMH on the other hand will give you the frostiness, but also good flowering. Maybe not as fat as HPS, but at least almost.

MH ballast can take HPS and HPS bulbs are cheap, so why use MH bulb? Switch to HPS and you get so much better yields that you save the money multiple times easy

I agree, CMH with the 942 or 930 bulb both work great for flowering. I wouldn't flower with regular MH again but theres nothing wrong with if someone is more concerned with quality over quantity.

 

[Thebanktella]

So my tent is a 3X3 I could just bump it up to 400watt but thinking of electricity if I’m running it for 20hours day on the auto I could maybe drop it to 18-6

 

[CannaOnerStar]

So my tent is a 3X3 I could just bump it up to 400watt but thinking of electricity if I’m running it for 20hours day on the auto I could maybe drop it to 18-6

I was growing autos with 600w HPS with 20/4 cycle and figured that my electricity bill wouldnt be effected much at all if i instead used the HPS for flowering photos only(so always 12/12) and a separate tent with 150w LED for vegging thats on 20/4. Its not super good LED(mars hydro 2), but i paid 80 bucks for it, so definitely good for the price and works good enough for vegging it seems.

Your 250w LED would be good for vegging. some 400w HPS would not be too expensive. You could barely put 600w in that 3x3 also and they dont cost too much either. But you would need a cooltube most likely.

Something to consider. Small tents dont cost much either( for example https://www.secretjardin.com/product/hydro-shoot-40/ ) and you might be able to hook the vegging tent to same inline fan/filter setup if exit air goes from veg tent to flowering tent. Worked for me, but it depends on the size of tents and your inline fan.

You could veg and keep some autoflowers in veg tent while the flowering tent is flowering photos all the time for bigger yields