4x4 light for $1,000

[JonCreighton]

I do that with my lights. I’m using at least 2500watts less in the room by lowering and dimming the lights and raising them as the plants grow. I start at about 24 inches 400ppfd once I place them in the buckets day 1, week 2 I lower the lights and dim them but I try to hit 600ppfd, I check the PPFD daily and raise the lights as the plants grow. When I flip to flower I gradually raise the intensity upwards 1100 PPFD. At week 7 I start to dim them again. My electricity bill is half of what it was on my older grows because I’m using less electricity for light, AC and my water chiller doesn’t have to work as hard.

great setup... the build is so important w the hydro cuz u cant move the plants... i really like it

can i ask about the ur logic behind lowering the lights... i know a lot of people do it around week 7... id just like to pick ur brain a little about that... also curious about how much lower u go down? the logic i got from most people is that is wehn the plant is going into the reprocudtive phase where it would normally be procuding seeds at that point... however were not looking for seeds so the plants should not need the extra nuitrents and energy they would need to produce seeds. therefore the xtra light wouldnt nessesarily hurt the plant.. but if were looking to be efficenct growers the lights should be turned down as continueing at noral intensity would be just be excess... am i kinda on the right track there?
thanks creighton

 

[JonCreighton]

I know this thread is off track but... I bought a phlizon 640 watt 8 bars bar style led. They have multiple options for leds and drivers too choose from and also make a 1000watt model also. Mine has lm301b and osram leds with a meanwell driver. Price is about half the $1000 budget of the OP. The 1000 watt one even comes in below the budget price. I bought 2 cheaper models with smd 2385 leds and one samsung all with meanwell drivers for just above $1200 US shipped to me in canada

i think the thread and concseus on the community is u want to be around 1000ppfd for non co2 max if all condityions are tit. approx 1500 w co2 supplimentation..

you really dont want to concern yourself w wattage for growing... thats more of enginerring the grow room and cost ect.... from the presecive of a plant its all about photons recieved and that can have little yto do w wattage coing from the wall... as i posted above from the same light at the same wattage (150 watt led) u can get a spread of 7,000 ppfd at 1" cannopy to lights.. and 700 ppfd at 18" canopy to light... so same light and same wattage but from aplants perspective vastly different amount of photons... photons to canopy of ppfd is what u want to concern urself w not wattage...

check where u bought ur light they should have ppfd charts showing what the light does at maybe 12" away and another one for 18" away... this is how u should calculate the amount of lights the plants are getting. try to wokr ur way up to 1,000 ppfd at canopy if no co2 and 1500 ppfdw co2... as weve kinda been discussing theres different ways to do this... some people raise or lower their lights while some pople raise or lwoer their wattage and some people like myself try to do a combination of both... but i had to buy a expesive light meter for that.. if ur not adding co2 just use the charts and try to hit that 1,000 ppfd mark.. good luck

 

[berulakide]

i think the thread and concseus on the community is u want to be around 1000ppfd for non co2 max if all condityions are tit. approx 1500 w co2 supplimentation..

you really dont want to concern yourself w wattage for growing... thats more of enginerring the grow room and cost ect.... from the presecive of a plant its all about photons recieved and that can have little yto do w wattage coing from the wall... as i posted above from the same light at the same wattage (150 watt led) u can get a spread of 7,000 ppfd at 1" cannopy to lights.. and 700 ppfd at 18" canopy to light... so same light and same wattage but from aplants perspective vastly different amount of photons... photons to canopy of ppfd is what u want to concern urself w not wattage...

check where u bought ur light they should have ppfd charts showing what the light does at maybe 12" away and another one for 18" away... this is how u should calculate the amount of lights the plants are getting. try to wokr ur way up to 1,000 ppfd at canopy if no co2 and 1500 ppfdw co2... as weve kinda been discussing theres different ways to do this... some people raise or lower their lights while some pople raise or lwoer their wattage and some people like myself try to do a combination of both... but i had to buy a expesive light meter for that.. if ur not adding co2 just use the charts and try to hit that 1,000 ppfd mark.. good luck

I know about the ppfd and I made sure the par map is suitable for my needs. I am not concerning myself with watts but the amount of light and an even spread.ni was just saying they have a couple models which are 640w and 1000w and they are both plenty of light.

 

[Raquinotj]

great setup... the build is so important w the hydro cuz u cant move the plants... i really like it

can i ask about the ur logic behind lowering the lights... i know a lot of people do it around week 7... id just like to pick ur brain a little about that... also curious about how much lower u go down? the logic i got from most people is that is wehn the plant is going into the reprocudtive phase where it would normally be procuding seeds at that point... however were not looking for seeds so the plants should not need the extra nuitrents and energy they would need to produce seeds. therefore the xtra light wouldnt nessesarily hurt the plant.. but if were looking to be efficenct growers the lights should be turned down as continueing at noral intensity would be just be excess... am i kinda on the right track there?
thanks creighton

The logic behind lowering the lights is to save money on the electric bill. I usually check on light intensity so rather than use 600watts at 8 feet high to get my desired PPFD, I lower my light 12-24 inches from the canopy at half the wattage to get to my my desired PPFD. I do this from veg to flower. As far as lowering the intensity I usually shoot for 400 PPFD week 1 veg, 600 PPFD on week 2 of veg, 800 ppfd on week 3, 900 ppfd when I flip to 12/12 and from week 2 on I hit them hard until the end of stretch with 1000-1100 PPFD, then after the stretch I gradually start dimming my lights toward the latter part of flowering to avoid foxtailing and fluffy buds.

 

[volcanoOFhistory]

Light

I was looking at this. How has it preformed for you?

 

[Patriots781]

Good but honestly now about 6 months later there's a lot of lights that are putting out almost the same output only using about half the watts I've seen like 569 watt less that have a similar or better foot don't like the growcraft or even the new mars hydro so 6590 I would totally recommend blowing up a 3x5 with it if I had to chose another light there on walmart for around $799 which is almost $400 less then I paid which sucks but it's all good technology advances fast so think of how far leds have come in about 3 years honestly if you wanna save a lil money I just bought this light off Amazon for another of my tent is a new led with cmh spectrum for veg and hps and uv for
flower