Lightning questions

East Coast Pro said:

Phillip hitting me with the truth!!!!!hahaha I like it!!! Would a 250w or 400w be able to handle that much room and avoid the heat problem? Would the 400w HPS be a lot better on the electric bill as well? Man, I hope I'm not killing you with the questions, but I greatly appreciate your help!!!

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No problem man, I like to help. If you are aying $0.15 per kilowatt hour (about the national average) then a 400w will cost you $22 a month and a $600 will be around $33. The problem comes in when you go to cool 600w lights. 400w lights aren't as hot as 600w lights. At 600w is where I find you need to start venting hoods, worrying about fan CFM, and worrying about cooling issues in your tent. A 400w light has a footprint of 40"x40" when 8" from the plant canopy. a 600w light has a footprint of 53"x54" at 12" from the canopy. 600w light needs to be kept farther away from your plants. In a tent that means smaller plants. If you have a way to get cold air in that tent then go for it. Just be careful when using lights like that in smaller tents because they usually lead to cooling problems. I don't know where you live, what temp your room is at, or what you are charged for electricity, so it is very hard to make statements on this.

Thanks again bro!!!

FAB wow, a microwave really uses the same amount of electricity as 2 600w HPS? So if I add a 4x4 600w HPS tent and run everything else that comes along with it, the light company won't think enough of it to report it or snoop around? It won't stand out to much from my "normal" monthly light bill?

Use two 150mh/hps HID instead of a 250w HID. 150's are standard outside lighting.

East Coast Pro said:

FAB wow, a microwave really uses the same amount of electricity as 2 600w HPS? So if I add a 4x4 600w HPS tent and run everything else that comes along with it, the light company won't think enough of it to report it or snoop around? It won't stand out to much from my "normal" monthly light bill?

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naw man power dont care anyways as long as u pay bill
u could be running a hot tub lots of things use lots of power
look at label on back of micro wave it will tell u anywhere from 600w to 1500


[h=2]Power Consumption Table[/h]
The figures in this table are approximate. The actual power consumption of your household appliances may vary significantly from the figures in this chart. Before you do a final load calculation for your household, we strongly recommend checking the tags and owners manuals for your appliances to get precise figures.
Each figure given for Watts used. This is converted to watt-hours by multiplying watts used by hours used. Many items, such as garage door openers, are used much less than 1 hour per day. Our PDF load calculation form will automatically calculate any appliance's Watt-hour consumption according the fraction of hours used per day, down to 0.1 hours. (0.1 hr = 1/10 of an hour = 6 minutes)
Items marked (n/a) would normally be replaced by non-electric equivalents in homes using alternative energy systems.

phillipchristian said:

Just remember, a 600w needs to be air cooled, is hotter (shorter plants), and uses more electricity. Also, check how much they charge you per kilowatt hour on your electric bill. Everywhere is different. That 600w could cost as much as $60 a month on 12/12

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A 600w is the most eficient size, more lumens per watt 3x600w has significant more output than 2x1000w. Also to work out how much it,s costing..... find out your unit price say aprox 12/20p per unit, a unit being 1000w so if i ran a 250w light it would cost me 12/20p per 4 hours or a 1000w light would be 12/20p an hour. hope this makes sense, also hid over cfl anyday imo atb TCD

trichomedome said:

A 600w is the most eficient size, more lumens per watt 3x600w has significant more output than 2x1000w. Also to work out how much it,s costing..... find out your unit price say aprox 12/20p per unit, a unit being 1000w so if i ran a 250w light it would cost me 12/20p per 4 hours or a 1000w light would be 12/20p an hour. hope this makes sense, also hid over cfl anyday imo atb TCD

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Sorry, you lost me me there. I just use a simple calculator to figure out what my electrical costs will be. All you need to know is how much your utility company charges per kilowatt hour. Simple as that.

I don't disagree with you about a 600w light being the most efficient when comparing lumes per watt output. But you also have to look at someones setup and concerns before telling them to get a light. If someone has a tent and cannot get a portable a/c and is concerned about electricity then maybe a 600w isn't the best choice for them. What light you use is dependent on a number of factors; not just which is more efficient. And honestly; the difference in lumens per watt on a 1000w light and a 600w light are sometimes as low as 1-2 lumens per watt. That is SO insignifant of a difference it doesn't even need to be mentioned.

FAB thanks for the chart!!!

TCD thanks to you too!! So running a 250w HPS wouldn't jack my bill up much at all!!

East Coast Pro said:

FAB thanks for the chart!!!

TCD thanks to you too!! So running a 250w HPS wouldn't jack my bill up much at all!!

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no problem bro

East Coast Pro said:

FAB thanks for the chart!!!

TCD thanks to you too!! So running a 250w HPS wouldn't jack my bill up much at all!!

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Don't you have an old electric bill you can look at? No one can really tell until you know what you are paying per kilowatt hour. It could be as low as $0.09 or as high as $0.24. Once you figure that out just use this calculator to add in all of your grow equipment and the hours you will be running it. This will give you the daily cost to run your grow.

http://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/electric.cgi?submit=Entry

Decided to go with 250w, no more lighting questions for a while, promise!!

richinweed said:

hes right but forget the rotate part.. Studies that have been done(found on net)proved less yield compared to proiritising(sp) the bud sights that get the best light..

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Have any links/sources for that? I can't find anything but I'm interested to see it if it's out there.

East Coast Pro said:

Decided to go with 250w, no more lighting questions for a while, promise!!

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Good choice. You can add CFL's to that in your next grows and see if they help with production.

richinweed said:

hes right but forget the rotate part.. Studies that have been done(found on net)proved less yield compared to proiritising(sp) the bud sights that get the best light..

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Me too. I'd like to see a study on this because everything I have ever seen says that plant rotation is key; especially when trying to maximize yield. This is the whole reason light movers exist.

phillipchristian said:

good choice. You can add cfl's to that in your next grows and see if they help with production.

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i like this