Need lighting advice

So, I'm an old school outdoor guerilla grower with the worst crop ever this year. Septoria, spider mites, termites and drought followed by hail. Sigh. I convinced my husband (okay, I told him) I was going to start growing indoors. Just ordered a 4x8 tent that should be here by mid September. Now I'm shopping for lights. Unfortunately, we have an electric furnace (even though we've repeatedly tried to get the local hillbilly propane company to sell us a tank) and he's concerned about the electric bill in the winter. Any guesses as to how much three 600W LEDs would up the monthly electric bill? Should I buy a higher wattage for that size tent? Thanks for any advice you can offer!

where are you(state) and what is your light budget?

If you want to raise the heat in the house use HPS, CMH or MH. Direct the air out of the tent into the room and use a fan to move it along further into the house.

If you have a 4x8 tent then you will want between 1200w and 2000w per 4x8 space of traditional HID lighting which may benefit you by recycling the heat to your house as farmingfisherman said.

If you go with LED you want around 960-1120w of quality white LEDs and that will be expensive.

Don't fall for these blurple lights called 600w that pull 120w because they wont serve your purpose, you would need a lot of them just to get sub par results.

For electricity cost look at your paper bill and look for the price per kilowatt hour. Add up your lighting wattage and multiply it by your kilowatt hour per hour the lights are on.

EG. 1000w x 19cents per hour x 18 hours per day (in veg) = cost per day for the lighting.

Gorillabilly said:

where are you(state) and what is your light budget?

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WV & 2K

My geeklight was 800 shipped from chy-na. 2 of those and you'd be all set. I do t ha e much issue with temps and it's got a really great dispersement of light within the tent.

Thank you all for your advice. Did some research today and the husband seems to be on board now. Thank you!

Good deal. Well worth the money for sure. WiFi controller and dimmer. Bluetooth built in as well. Smart light and has great consistency.

@hybridway2 you haven’t shilled here yet

step up your game slacker

bk78 said:

@hybridway2 you haven’t shilled here yet

step up your game slacker

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Naw, ill leave this one to you & your unproven SpYders.

2 of these is a little less than 2 grand shipped after code "RIU10".