quick lighting question..

[farside12]

I'm headed off to work ,but I'll give ya a quick rundown of my question. I just recently went from "box growing" to actually commandeering a closet for this purpose. It is about 5' by 8' or so (walk-in closet). As soon as you walk in and turn to the left (along one of the 8' sections of wall) there are two shelves running the length of the 8' section. one shelf is about a foot and a half from the ceiling..the other is about 3 (or so) feet below the top one. Now on this bootom shelf I am curently germinating 4 plants. I have a pretty nice setup for germinating with the flouros that are in there ( two four-foot flouros on a horizontal and 2 two foot flouros hung vertically). So far my plantys are indeed "growing like weeds". However I would like to use the back portion of the closet for flowering (A space of about 3' long by 4' wide by about 4-6ft tall or slightly over one square meter of space for you metric folk ).

I have cats so I usually need to keep the door closed so they don't eat the plants and with the 4 flouros I have in there now, the room gets pretty warm. I wouldn't say "hot", but definitely quite warm. I am looking to get an HPS for flowering to put in the designated space mentioned above. I only plan to have no more than six plants at any given time in the aforementioned flowering space in the back. My question is what size HPS would be adequate for the small space and as I've heard these things get quite hot, this worries me as I've said, the flouros create a nice bit o heat themselves? And also, does anyone have any idea how I could ventilate the room while keeping my cats out (drilling through the wall is not an option as I live in an apartment complex and the landlady is a real beasty in her best mood ) )?

Any Ideas will be gladly recieved.

PS- I will post pictures of the areas I am speaking of very soon (as I need to get the cord for my digital camera back from someone) so you can better visualize the area. I may also post pics when I get home from work..gotta run! Thanks to all who reply.

[Panhead]

High

Yes HPS will get quite hot, no matter what size..I did this a few years back in a apartment..
I went to a builders mart an bought the cheapest inside door I could find that would fit my closet..Then I cut a hole at the top an a hole at the bottom an put control vents in it..You can even incorporate fans into your vents..This way when you move you still got the original door still in good shape..Hope this helps ya out..

[farside12]

Wow! That's an awesome idea. I never would've thought of that! I will give it a shot.

Thanx!

(Who says pot smokers aren't creative? I bet there are some rocket scientists who wish they had it this good )

Thanks again, will give it a shot,

Farside12

[stinkbud]

your gonna need at least 400 watt hps but 600 would be better

[farside12]

Originally posted by stinkbud
your gonna need at least 400 watt hps but 600 would be better

Will the increased wattage really make that much of a difference? I was considering the 400W to kinda elimintate a little bit of heat from the room and because I probably won't be having too many plants in that flowering area (4-6 max at any given time).

Farside12

[SuiJuris]

From my understanding a HPS light is based on a 112.5 lumen per watt base (400 w HPS = 45,000 lumens).

2500 lumens per square foot is optimal.

you have 12 sq. feet to work with (3 x 4 = 12) and so a 400 watt hps light will provide you with 3750 lumens per sq.

this is plenty.

although its just another opinion.

I understand how 600 was come up with under the 50w per sq. guide (600 divided by 12 = 50w per sq.) but its the lumens your looking for. hope this has helped

By the way, I like the door idea, very clever. It would be neat to incorporate a filter with a fan into the vents also... to take care of a few things at once.


take care... good chaos to you :-)

[stinkbud]

SUN AGRO PUTS OUT A 430 WATT HPS ITS MADE TO PUT OUT AN EXTRA 30 WATTS OF THE BLUE SPECTRUM HYDRO MAGAZINE IS RAVING ABOUT THEM HAVENT TRIED ONE MYSELF YET HAS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE

[SuiJuris]

Whataya reccomend for a flowering light using fluorescents? just a reg. warm white? or have you heard of a red spec. tube?


T C.

[SuiJuris]

Originally posted by arseface
Well, I've got a few 'Gro-Lux' tubes. They're relatively common in the UK, and they're mainland Europe made, but I'm not sure of you can get them in the US easily.

If you can then they're great. They have a spectrum designed for plant growth, and are very high in the reds (very noticably 'pink' light). Mine have been flowering under these for about 2 weeks now. Apparently they're doing pretty well, but I'm interested to see the final results. So far I've felt that my plants under flourescents have been doing just as well as the ones under the HPS I have. I'm growing them under roughly the same Watts/square foot as the ones under the HPS, costing about the same to set up. It'll be interesting to see which perform best.

I think flourescents might be under-rated...

err... sorry, went off on one then. What was this about?

oh yeah. See if you can get gro-lux tubes, since you want lots of red in your spectrum for flowering. Flowering under cool whites is like flowering under Metal Halide lights - not too efficient. Warm whites would be better for slowering, but more red=better.

damn Im pretty stoned...

I dunno man,
my cw's have been pretty efficient from the looks of it! lol... thanks for the links I shall check them out... go lay down before you hurt yourself..lol

take care.

[SuiJuris]

you gotta get some pics up here to show us just how good of a result youve been getting.

Perhaps if I used the reds my top would be twice as big...i dont know, but I know it was fun watching it get to the point its at now... :-)


t.c.
ave.