Wattage for the first 2 weeks of 12-hr lighting.

During veg, I run 480 watts in an 8' x 6' space. In flower, I bump it up to 1200 watts. But during the first 2 weeks of 12-hr light, does it matter whether the wattage is 480 or 1200 watts?

The way the electricity was set up in the garage, the power would blow if I had the drying area ACs running while 1200 watts are in flower and, separately, two 480 watt areas continue in veg. Although there are currently 3 portable ACs in one small panda paper-wrapped compartment (they're off now), amp limitations will likely require me to move at least the most powerful AC into the house for curing in a room.

By the time the 2 weeks of flowering is finished on the next set of plants, I'd want to bump it up to 1200 watts. And the first plants would be done drying by then, so the timing should work out. The 1200 watts can run after the ACs are turned off. It's not too hot because there are several fans mounted from the ~7' ceiling (20 " box fans, 9" round fans) and a couple (20" round fans) on the floor. Obviously, I don't want to negatively affect the yield with too few watts. So, if I have to run 1200 watts from Day 1 of 12-hr lighting, I'd just wait up to 2 weeks for drying before I start the next round of flowering. The difference would be whether I'd be run 4 or 5 flowering cycles.

I would try to have the lights at full intensity over the course of a few days, i think 2 weeks is too long and youd be missing out on some yield

Balls to wall

hillbill said:

Balls to wall

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Eventually, I'll have to figure out this amps issue. In the meantime, running veg and flower simultaneously is not a good idea. So, I'll have to reduce their overlap. Perhaps I could run flower from 7:30am to 7:30pm, and veg from 6:30pm to 10:30am. They've both been running overnight and it pains me to wake up and see the circuit's tripped. I don't know why the previous owner split the power the way he did, I don't use nearly as much power in the house as I do in the garage. Super frustrating.

It's going to be a real pita when it comes to drying. I can't have six hours of summer heat go by without power. My initial thought is to not run flower while plants are hang-drying. Two portable ACs will be on in a designated area, and only veg lighting will be powered on. I was trying to avoid having anything in the house ... but I'll have one portable AC in a room for curing. It would be too awful to ruin buds at the end of the process.

I think I need a sub-feed on the 200 amp box that's currently divided in half (100 to the house, 100 to the garage), but I don't know anything about how to do that. So, I'll just improvise until I can get my electrician friend to come out here....