More room to grow 600 or 1000W?

My old grow was (2) 5' x 5' rooms running a 600W HPS in one and a 250W MH with a 4' 6 bulb T5 unit for mothers and clones. I now have a 10' X 12" room. Given the space (I have another space for Veg). How should I set up? My grow is medical and I have legal room for 72 plants (adult flowering). My ceiling is a normal height whatever that is (8 feet?). I didn't used to have that much vertical height. Currently I own 1 600 HPS but need to expand to accomodate the space and sheer numbers of plants. I can increase my grow legally by 72 plants as I have 3 more people to grow for. Will that room take that many plants? I also have a 1200 square foot basement. I chose the upstairs room becaus I can get several hours of sun into the room and because of the extra foot of vertical space. Maybe I should split the grow up? Also should I wire this room 240W 50 amp and run a flip box to my ballast? Or just run 20 amp to each of the lights? I think the 1000W lights draw just 5 amps each? All of my exhaust/vents will be wired in 120's. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!

i would go with more 600's more lights = more adjustability but thats just me not everything goes in at the same time for me so i have things at dif stages and like to have more lights to be able to move up and down

If you have the 1200FT downstairs, do it all down there man. For a million reasons... The "free light" isnt worth it...

2 600 watts would do fine

Congrats on the extra room and more permits! There is a ton of decisions for you to make with your new setup, so I'll just provide a really brief recommendation from personal experience. Without question I'd make your move to the basement. Having the larger space, extra insulation from the earth, cooler temps, and privacy is a huge plus compared to the upstairs room. As for the lights, you can't go wrong with either. Most people agree that 600's cover a 3x3 area well, and that 1000w lights cover a 4x4 area. Whatever fits your space better should be your main concern. The 1000w bulbs will run hotter, and cost a bit more per unit, but their main advantage is light penetration. They'll work much better when dealing with taller plants. If you plan on running more of a SOG setup, then it really won't matter much. I'd consider running a semi-SOG with maybe 1 week of veg, 18-24 plants per light (3-4 lights). Keep it short and simple. Take note of yield, the increased cost and time in a bigger operation, and begin to tweak things from there. Since there are so many directions you can go here, what direction are you leaning? Perhaps I can offer better advice if you narrow down some of the options. Either way, it sounds like you have the potential and space to produce a very respectable operation, best wishes in your new grow room!

Wow this post was so long ago, before my rooms got set up. I am up and running fine (as long as you don't count fungus gnats). I have just introduced GoGnats this morning for the first time. The last 9 months has been a learning curve, especially where PH is concerned. I faithfully check everything that goes into the room. Problem was my PH meter was off the friggin charts. I didn't know the thing needed calibration. My last G13 Haze grow sucked out of this world. After calibrating my PH meter I realized that I had been feeding and watering at somewhere around 4.8 or 4.9ish. I should have known when my tap water (from a well) read over 9.0, when I first got the meter it was reading 7.1ish. I am lucky the plants didn't outright die! After 10 weeks of flowering I had long wispy buds you could read a newspaper through. My leaf sets had only a single leaf (was funny looking). Once I calibrated the meter, the yellow leaves turned green (or at least the new growth) and the leaf sets returned to normal during the last couple of weeks. The buds actually picked up weight too. Of the the resulting harvest was disappointing to say the least, but quality of smoke was better than I would have thought. Huge drawback was I continued to feed without flushing up till a couple of days before harvest. I planned on flushing, but after a close inspection of the buds, I realized they were "overdone". The taste is a schwaggy, but only smoke 1/2 a bowl a a time... I have since taken new clones & tied the mother down and moved her into the flower room (after a good cleaning and area sprayed the room with GoGnats). Now I calibrate PH meter before each feeding...Hopefully that will dial in this next grow.

On the gnats, if you are in soil, put about a inch of sand from Home Depot on top of the soil. It won't hurt the plants and the gnat larvae will die trying to get through the sand. I got that tip from Zandor of The Grow Report podcast.