Best Light Options for a 4x4x4 space

Thankfully the outdoor plants are doing well. I ended up with four nice clones of Sour Diesel a spice that I have NO familiarity with so I'm hoping it's not a bad one to get stuck with.
My question concerns lighting for another indoor grow to occupy my time over the cold New England winter. I've been surprisingly successful growing four plants under an army of CFL's in 2.5 gallon buckets. Space has been tight as I'm growing in a box made simply of 4x2 pieces of plywood plus a 2x2 top and bottom. It ends up that each plant is under 4 of the highest lumen standard daylight bulbs I can find for vegging and four 2700 lumen bulbs for flowering.
Each plant generally provides 1 to 1.5 zips of tight trimmed bud that I'm quite proud of. For me, outdoor growing is my bread and butter but it's a long winter so indoors becomes a hobby.
Well... I want to upgrade to a 4x4x4 ft box and I know I could get away with just using more CFL'S but I'm really out of touch with what's out there that would be my best option. I know nothing of LED's and have never even gone the MH/HPS route. I'm fishing for a practical relatively inexpensive ideas for my box. I know 4x4 is still a pretty small space but I'd like to get 6 plants in 2.5 gallon buckets in the space and a trip to the hydro store confirmed that I could spend more money than I want to. This is just an example of 2.5 bucket with a Bubba Kush produced under CFL's im ok with the quality but improved quantity would be welcomed. Any imput, advise or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

I used two 600w hps air cooled fixtures in my 4 x 4 closet. Worked great for the 5 plants I grew.

In a 4x4, you'd do well to have 2, 250 watt COB arrays. 500 watts of quality LED in there would be perfect.
Check out timbergrowlights.com they're pretty good value for your money and very good quality.

http://getnextlight.com/nextlight/index.php?route=product/product&path=62_69&product_id=42

That would kick ass, but majorly expensive. You could probably get something as good, or almost as good, a lot cheaper by building your own cob LED as people suggest.

mo841 said:

I used two 600w hps air cooled fixtures in my 4 x 4 closet. Worked great for the 5 plants I grew.

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Curious did you use a carbon filter and Extract?

A single 600 watt HPS is more than enough for a 4 x 4.

2Beachbum said:

Curious did you use a carbon filter and Extract?

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No I just vented to a roof vent. My plants didn't smell that bad

Cob led cost so much compare to 600w hps

RolllingStone said:

Cob led cost so much compare to 600w hps

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Yes they do. And they're completely not worth it. There are some guys that have built pretty good units for less, but it's still 4 times the cost of a 600 watt HPS.

LED right now is a growers best friend for one reason only: it's made the cost of HPS lighting drop by 70% over the last 10 years. I can remember not long ago when a decent 600 watt HPS light would cost you $600.00. Now you can get one for less than $200.00.

Eventually though, the cost on the LED's is going to get better, the science of it is going to get better, and the cost will gradually start coming down.

I imagine about 20 years from now you wont find any HPS systems anywhere. They'll go the way of leaded gasoline and asbestos insulation.

TacoMac said:

Yes they do. And they're completely not worth it. There are some guys that have built pretty good units for less, but it's still 4 times the cost of a 600 watt HPS.

LED right now is a growers best friend for one reason only: it's made the cost of HPS lighting drop by 70% over the last 10 years. I can remember not long ago when a decent 600 watt HPS light would cost you $600.00. Now you can get one for less than $200.00.

Eventually though, the cost on the LED's is going to get better, the science of it is going to get better, and the cost will gradually start coming down.

I imagine about 20 years from now you wont find any HPS systems anywhere. They'll go the way of leaded gasoline and asbestos insulation.

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It's really not that expensive to go led just don't buy the newest best chips you can pay $1 per watt if you use some cheap citizen chips and cheap drivers. And after a year of not replacing hps bulbs it pays for itself.

So basically you can build a budget 400w cob led for $400 that would match or beat a 600w hps.

Ryante55 said:

So basically you can build a budget 400w cob led for $400 that would match or beat a 600w hps.

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How much area can he cover

He can cover his 4x4 an it will have over 40 watts per square foot that's plenty for led. Also in the title it says he only has 4 feet of height which would make it really difficult to grow with 600w hps.

Ryante55 said:

So basically you can build a budget 400w cob led for $400 that would match or beat a 600w hps.

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It would match it, but it would cost more than double the amount of money to build. Hence my previous argument.

Wait my math was off sorry I'm stoned haha over 16sq feet that would be 25w per square foot from 400w. 480w would be better so you can hit 30w sq ft higher initial cost but lower cost over 1 year

TacoMac said:

It would match it, but it would cost more than double the amount of money to build. Hence my previous argument.

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What does a top of the line double ended 600 cost? And what do bulbs cost? If you air-cool the light what does the fan for that cost? There are way more hidden costs with hps but yes it's a cheaper initial investment

I don't know anybody that runs double ended lights anymore.

You can get the good old fashioned Mogul end bulbs (which 99% of people with HPS use) for 15 bucks all day long. They last around 25,000 hours. By the time you spend 45 bucks on bulbs for your HPS light, you'd have to completely replace your entire 400 dollar LED more times than not.

TacoMac said:

Yes they do. And they're completely not worth it. There are some guys that have built pretty good units for less, but it's still 4 times the cost of a 600 watt HPS.

LED right now is a growers best friend for one reason only: it's made the cost of HPS lighting drop by 70% over the last 10 years. I can remember not long ago when a decent 600 watt HPS light would cost you $600.00. Now you can get one for less than $200.00.

Eventually though, the cost on the LED's is going to get better, the science of it is going to get better, and the cost will gradually start coming down.

I imagine about 20 years from now you wont find any HPS systems anywhere. They'll go the way of leaded gasoline and asbestos insulation.

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Quite agree with you!

TacoMac said:

I don't know anybody that runs double ended lights anymore.

You can get the good old fashioned Mogul end bulbs (which 99% of people with HPS use) for 15 bucks all day long. They last around 25,000 hours. By the time you spend 45 bucks on bulbs for your HPS light, you'd have to completely replace your entire 400 dollar LED more times than not.

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Most people I know run gavitas

TacoMac said:

I don't know anybody that runs double ended lights anymore.

You can get the good old fashioned Mogul end bulbs (which 99% of people with HPS use) for 15 bucks all day long. They last around 25,000 hours. By the time you spend 45 bucks on bulbs for your HPS light, you'd have to completely replace your entire 400 dollar LED more times than not.

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Idk why you would replace an led that outperforms hps before it dies which is years after you have replaced your whole hps setup. I guess if getting dirt cheap lights is all that matters hps wins.

Build an 8 cob Led. Should give you some insane yields in 4x4.