1000 Watt System Good or Bad Idea

I've been growing for just about a year now and I am curious if the 1000 watt set up is even worth the trouble... My plants are all six feet tall, i'm just concerned about the final yield.

What kind of yields have you been getting with whatever lighting ur using? What's the size of your grow area? Is heat an issue or ventilation? If you're growing one 6 ft plant in a broom closet I'd say 1000w might be too much.

Using an entire room ventilated with proper heating.. Had two plants with small yields because a friend gave em' to me stressed out growing out of red party cups so i only ended up with an ounce between the two of them. However, the ones I have been running so far all look healthy and are about as tall as me. About 25 of them, I'm just curious if anybody else has used the same setup and what to expect for final yields on average.

An ounce out of two six footers?

If you compare the output to power consumption a 600 watt light is more efficient. Also a 600 is good for a 6x6 1k for 7x7 area. 1000 puts off more heat uses more juice but will get better yields if you feel like spending the extra dough on all ends. IMO 2 600's is better and you get more of a foot print. I know of plenty of co-op growers that run multiple 600's instead of 1ks. But for true monsters that are TALL a 1k is better for a deeper penetration of light. They also have a couple different hoods that can hold two bulbs. One is a gorilla grow or something like that and the other is hydro farms new raptor. The raptor is the way to go for sure but just hang it right & tight cuz its 50lbs. It measures 2.5' x 3.5' and since its so large it doesn't get overwhelmingly hot. Two 600's would be just a little more juice but way more lumens and then you can mix up the bulbs w/ hps&mh same time during flower to get the optimum spectrum.

Go for 1000's. OR, you could get a 1000W magnetic ballast and buy the splitter which allows you to run two 600W lights off of one 1000W mag ballast.

Yeah the 1000 Watt Ballast I am using right just holds one, I'm paying 100 a month for electric (everything) so I am definitely in favor of getting two 600 watt systems set up because two light spectrums have to be better than one.. The two plants that yieled an ounce total were given to me in party cups in which my friend was growing them for the fuck of it, both had stunted growths but the plants I am growing right now with this 1000 watt apollo system got me about 6 six foot plants and they just started flowering.. I cant wait to see the final yields

With the help of jungle juice and other nutrients of course

Teamloud, I am going to the place where I saw the splitter in a few minutes. I will take a picture for you and post it for ya buddy!

I got 1k in a 4x4 tent 16" over canopy and plants look amazing compaired to the same setup but a 600w.

Krondizzel said:

Go for 1000's. OR, you could get a 1000W magnetic ballast and buy the splitter which allows you to run two 600W lights off of one 1000W mag ballast.

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So im just a little confused though...A 1000watt ballast it 1000watt MAX output so I dont see where that extra 200 watts comes from. I would bet that 2 normal 600 watt lights are brighter then one 1k ballast split. Which imo would only give you 500 watts to each bulb. I dunno...

mr. green thumb 01 said:

So im just a little confused though...A 1000watt ballast it 1000watt MAX output so I dont see where that extra 200 watts comes from. I would bet that 2 normal 600 watt lights are brighter then one 1k ballast split. Which imo would only give you 500 watts to each bulb. I dunno...

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It is indeed 500w per light. Just like running a 600w bulb with a 600w lumatek dimmable ballast set to a lower wattage, like 400w or 300w. Except it's 500w (per light). I believe you would do it to get the different spectrums. Or possibly because of height restrictions, you can get two 500w's closer to the canopy without getting light bleaching than a 1000w.

mr. green thumb 01 said:

So im just a little confused though...A 1000watt ballast it 1000watt MAX output so I dont see where that extra 200 watts comes from. I would bet that 2 normal 600 watt lights are brighter then one 1k ballast split. Which imo would only give you 500 watts to each bulb. I dunno...

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They actually draw 1180w or something close to that.

blacksun said:

It is indeed 500w per light. Just like running a 600w bulb with a 600w lumatek dimmable ballast set to a lower wattage, like 400w or 300w. Except it's 500w (per light). I believe you would do it to get the different spectrums. Or possibly because of height restrictions, you can get two 500w's closer to the canopy without getting light bleaching than a 1000w.

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And no, I'm talking about splitting taking a 1000w magnetic ballast, putting the splitter on it, and hooking up two 600w lights. I don't think its available for the digitals. Not positive, I run mags myself.

Krondizzel said:

And no, I'm talking about splitting taking a 1000w magnetic ballast, putting the splitter on it, and hooking up two 600w lights. I don't think its available for the digitals. Not positive, I run mags myself.

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do you have any experance with the splitter? They sound interesting.

Not first hand, but someone I highly trust in the field recommended them to me. I wouldn't be one to argue with his experience that's for sure. I prefer the 1000's myself, but hopefully this helps the 600 guys I'm not sure what kind of amperage your 600's run, but the 1000w mag ballast consumes 9.5A @ 120, 4.7 @ 240.

9.5/4.7 amps to run 2 600W lights? Sounds like a killer deal to me

I was wrong, I don't know what the hell I was thinking of...I must have been really high. Just had a harvest.

Anyways, found this:

"[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]The grid is not a constant source of streaming energy. Growers using a 1000w magnetic ballast aren't getting 1000 watts now. Using the Splitter, for about 1000 watts, you get around 1200 watts."[/FONT]

Here:

http://sunpulselamps.com/Splitter.html

There you have it fellas. I would +rep myself but I cant ha ha

Thanks for the link blacksun!

I thought the ballast runs 100w by it self?