the Sun vs my hps

so....
where i live the sun currently doesnt shine often without clouds in the way, what i wana know is would it still be better for my plants to be outside in a greenhouse even though summer hasnt started or to leave them inside under my 600w hps?
which would be more beneficial?

They grow greenhouses in europe with not much bright sun. I think think the sun during its less bright points still way outshines any hid

The sun outside will always give more lights no matter if its cloudy. A 600 watt HPS produces barely a fraction of the amount lumens (the stuffs that makes plants grow big) compared to what is produced by the sun.

Yeah, It's pretty damn hard to do better than nature.

you cant compare the two!!! sun will always win lol

monkz said:

so....
where i live the sun currently doesnt shine often without clouds in the way, what i wana know is would it still be better for my plants to be outside in a greenhouse even though summer hasnt started or to leave them inside under my 600w hps?
which would be more beneficial?

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if you consernd with light hours the gun your light to make up the light hours. i did this, worked great till the freeze gotme. goodluck

ultra violet light still makes it through the clouds

so the sun is like 11000 lumens psf at its peak with no clouds in the sky and deminishes once it reaches its peak so its not always that bright and sum ppl around here run 1000w lights in 4x4 rooms so that comes out to like 9800 lum psf and the sun is only 11000 at its peake so chances are your light is brighter since it stays 9800 and the sun gets dimmer with clouds smog rain and just in general after it peaks so over 12 or 18 hrs your light is giving your plant more than the sun
get a light meter and chk it ,there is a post i belive from fdd where he chked the sun vs hps and chkd reflectivity of diffrnt matireals
its the penetration you will never match

your question would it be better in or out at this time.... how many hours of light do you get....

so then we are all in agreement that the greenhouse would be better? its not made of glass btw its one of these cheap greenhouses from my local garden centre about 3x2 metres

monkz said:

so then we are all in agreement that the greenhouse would be better? its not made of glass btw its one of these cheap greenhouses from my local garden centre about 3x2 metres

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i disagree.

but lets say that even with clouds etc the sun puts out 4000lumens, isnt that still more than what my hps would give every plant? im growing 10

rite now im still vegging 24/0 so id have them 12 outside from 6am-6pm then inside for the next 12hrs, but when i start flowering ill prob leave them in for 3hrs and put them outside for 9

monkz said:

but lets say that even with clouds etc the sun puts out 4000lumens, isnt that still more than what my hps would give every plant? im growing 10

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it depends on your room size i keep a 400w in a 3x3 room so thats like 6000 lumens with my 55000 lumen bulb and really its like 2x3 so that bumps it up to like 9000.. thats 3437 in a 4x4 which is the limit for a 400w

Yeah, this idea that sun light is always better than anything man made is incorrect. Like tusseltussel mentioned, with the sun there are many factors which determine how many lumens the plant(s) receive. The number you most often hear is that the sun outputs approx. 10000 lumens per sq. foot, but you must take into account that this number is based on peak afternoon daylight in June/July on a cloudless day. The suns output is reduced to 1000 LUX or 1000 lumens/sq. foot on an overcast day. So if you factor in that this is March, and that this guy is in a cloudy area, he's probably receiving less than 1000 lumens/sq. foot on average and this is only during peak hours (3 or 4 hours maybe). Now, let's take the 600w HPS scenario. Say you've got a 600w HPS that outputs 86000 total lumens, and your room is 16 sq. ft (4ft.x4ft.). That would work out to 86000/16 = 5375 lumens/sq.ft. The beauty of artificial lighting is that, in this case, the plant will be receiving 5375 lumens for a full 18 hours. No doubt, an HPS doesn't have the spectrum, nor the penetrating factor that sunlight has, but unless you're growing 4+ ft. tall trees, then an HPS will have sufficient penetration.

So in summary, it would make more sense to leave the plants under the HPS until summer.