HPS or CFL?

[CloudN9ne]

i've been building this cab for a couple of weeks now and i'm finally getting my flowering light.

I have 2 chamber and im doing a perpetual SOG style cab, i have a 125 wat 6500k CFL in my Veg Area its dimensions are 2.5ft Tall 4 Ft Wide and 2 ft Deep. Flower Area is 3.5 Tall Same with and depth.

In your opinions, Should I go CFL for my Flower Room Or HPS? this is my first indoor grow I was think CFL cause its les heat... less work on venting I can probably get away with just one fan and no ducting, just a DIY Carbon Filter. Was probably going to use 2700k 125 Watt

I heard i'd get alot more with a 400 watt HPS but I don't know what alot would be am i looking at an ounce differnce or What?

I know its all personal Opinion but i'd really like some feed back

Hit me back
thanks in Advance

-C9

 

[sneaky101]

Imagine a grape tomato compared to one that could be sliced and cover a whole hamburger, before you slice it. I used a 125w flo for flowering once, ended up being used for supplemental lighting. I now using flos for about 1/2 my veg cycle, hopefully not too much longer though, but when I switch it to my 400 or 600 watters, the growth is undeniable in showing how much better the hps is. 600 even more so than the 400, but you can only grow in the environment you have. So without proper ventilation for cooling the hps, heat would be a major concern with those dimensions. Good luck.

 

[Hammerhead]

HPS will yield more but the heat issue will need to be addressed...If you can keep our cab below 80f your good to go...2-4 oz from a 400 is acceptable IMO.. I use 600 and get 6-8oz per plant..Passive intakes at the bottom and a few fans sucking the heat out at the top..There are some fantasitc CFL growers on here...

 

[Scottish Research]

I would look at a 5000K CFL for veg.

You can get a 400 watt electronic ballast that will allow you to run it at 250 watts (plenty of power for your space) then when you build a bigger box you can bump it to 400 watts.

Also, you can snag the lamps at home improvement big boxes.

I hope that this helps. Good luck!

R.Fortune

 

[The Hummus Monk]

Blynx.

 

[The Hummus Monk]

By that I mean go cfl for your first one and check out Blynx's thread. I grow in a cab with 3 x 105cfl bulbs...2 warm 1 cool. They do pump out heat...so if I was to do it again I'd probably go for 6x 45 watters.

I get some nice buds from it.

 

[CloudN9ne]

Alright awsome do you think the one 125w will be enough for my dimensions?

 

[tube dude]

You have 8 square feet so you will need at least 400 Watts for flower.

 

[señorsloth]

hps

 

[Warped1]

I'm a cfl grower..but with your cab I would really try a 400. Seriously, if you can cool that cab you'll be more than happy. Hell I wish I had your space

 

[LifeLess]

Ive done a few grows with cfls and they did a good job. They were really all i could afford at the time so that was it. With the height limit you have in the flower side you might run into some heat issue. I run a 600 Hps and even with the actual temps perfect in the grow if the light is to close the intensity of the bulb burns the tops. With pots your looking at 3 ft max and thats with the hood sitting on the top. Maybe consider some 4ft T5s? Maybe someone with some T5 experence could chime in. Ive never ran them so i wouldnt know. GL LL

 

[tube dude]

I used to grow with t-8 tubes. My cab was about the same size as yours. I was pulling between an oz to an oz and a half every week. I have pictures in my profile if you want to chech them out. I dont't have any pics of my current cab. It is much smaller andI'm using cfls in it.

 

[Hammerhead]

I use T5 but only for Veg... I have not used them to flower..... T5 are the most expensive fixtures in this type of lighting...They are the most efficient as well

 

[spunion]

I have heard you don't need to worry about heat with 250w HPS, from someone that was growing vertically without a tube or anything. His area wasn't as tight though. I'm thinking with proper ventilation, heat won't be an issue, if anything it might bring temps up to a more suitable 80-85 depending on what kind of room temp you have.

If you decide not to go the HPS route, it seems like T5 HO would be easier to setup and get you better coverage if you do topping to get as many main colas as possible to cover up the area, and trim off all the lower branches since they won't be getting any light.

 

[t33to]

i've been building this cab for a couple of weeks now and i'm finally getting my flowering light.

I have 2 chamber and im doing a perpetual SOG style cab, i have a 125 wat 6500k CFL in my Veg Area its dimensions are 2.5ft Tall 4 Ft Wide and 2 ft Deep. Flower Area is 3.5 Tall Same with and depth.

In your opinions, Should I go CFL for my Flower Room Or HPS? this is my first indoor grow I was think CFL cause its les heat... less work on venting I can probably get away with just one fan and no ducting, just a DIY Carbon Filter. Was probably going to use 2700k 125 Watt

I heard i'd get alot more with a 400 watt HPS but I don't know what alot would be am i looking at an ounce differnce or What?

I know its all personal Opinion but i'd really like some feed back

Hit me back
thanks in Advance

-C9

My two cents on the matter.

If money is no issue at all go with the least amount of equipment because it's the easiest to manage and has the least breakable parts. You know that whole keeping it simple concept.

The least amount of equipment is of course an HID light system, just one ballast, one plug, one bulb, and a fan and it will easily out lumen any single CFL bulb of equivalent wattage.

However if money is an issue and you can't afford enough equipment to cool an HID correctly and you must do CFL I've found the secret is lots of bulbs in small wattages very close to the plant. CFL's will not throw light the same way an HID does, but the advantage is that you can pretty much hang a CFL right inside of a plant which is great for lower node flower power.

I have also seen some unbelievably impressive t5 and t8 floro tube flower cabinets that should not be underestimated. The only issue with going for CFL and Floro tube grows is that your plant can't be very tall. It's gotta be really wide which usually means you need to grow it with some Low Stress Training to widen it to better match the shape of the light emitting from the bulb.

The other issue with CFL's is quite often half of their light power is actually inside of the bulb. That's right... The spiral bulbs emit light inside of the spiral, that light goes nowhere, just produces heat. The tubes unless you hang them vertically always emit light away from the plant as well as towards the plant. You can always use reflectors but then you are reflecting light which also adds to heat and diminishes the lumen output.

Hands down the most effective light system I have ever seen is in a rotogrow or similar circular systems. If you can use ALL of the available light from any specific light source that immediately translates into more energy for the plant.

So just keep in mind, more light = more plant and the shape of your plant and the shape of your bulb play a tremendous role in your plants capability to photosynthesize.

Hope it works out for ya mang.

 

[CloudN9ne]

just bought a 400w hps and mh dont see using the mh yet it just came with the set up along with a ballast cool tube type reflector (also came with a free timer!) so well see how it runs

 

[LifeLess]

Hope that works out for ya. Like to see some pics once yer up and running.

 

[rives]

Many good points were made here. Take a look at the PL-L thread (link attached), it has all of the benefits of the CFL's and few of the detriments. Your height is limited enough that it will make good coverage from a single HID lamp difficult, but would be perfect for multiple PL-L's and either LST or scrog.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=132787

*edit* whoops, just saw the second page of the thread. Good luck!

 

[LifeLess]

Just curious what size pots you gonna go with? LL

 

[h^2 O]

I used to grow with t-8 tubes. My cab was about the same size as yours. I was pulling between an oz to an oz and a half every week. I have pictures in my profile if you want to chech them out. I dont't have any pics of my current cab. It is much smaller andI'm using cfls in it.

that would be perfect for me...just enough for a perpetual supply