I just moved to a new appartment in CO where i can legaly grow a couple plants and im having a hard time deciding to go led or hps. Its a small closet 2x6 and 8 feet tall. Im thinking eithor 1 600w light or 2 300w lights because its longer than it is deep. And for heat led seems to be better but hps seems to get better yields. All my growing has been done outdoors so this is all new to me, i have done lots of research and know what i have to do just dont know what equipment to buy and every company says theirs works the best. All in all i want to spend about a grand decking out my closet. Any and all tips are greatly appreciated!
You are going to have to find a way to ventilate the hot air out either way if you want to use the full footprint of your closet. I would run 400w per side, either hps or led. We have tested a few leds and like California light works the best so far, but even they aren't making us want to replace hps for flowering. The are also pricey. The Mars lamps get a lot of mention, and are lower priced but they seem to get whored out a bit on various forums which makes me suspicious. Good luck whatever you choose.
I've first hand experience of both and I'd go for a HID. I used a mars 700w LED and found it to be great covering a 80x80cm tent for autos. But there has to be a reason for pro indoor growers sticking with HID. You have quite a good budget, so I'd suggest 2 600w dimmable digital ballasts. Make sure that you get the ballasts that dim to a set wattage: 600-400 not the cheaper ones that dim to a percentage, normally 100%-75%-50%. Ultimately the more light the better, if you want to save electricity you can run 400, still plenty of light to cover a larger space if the opportunity arises. I'd say the same for the fan, go bigger than you need and get a temp triggered speed controller. Some fans have this built in. If you can get an 8" fan, again more than you need. Remember the old saying "buy right, buy once". Are you sure that the closet is a suitable grow space? Have you figured out where the hot stale air is going? I've always felt that a grow tent is a far better option if you have a spare room or garage with space. You can place it next to a window or wall vent to conveniently dump the exhaust air outside. Best of luck bro.
Unfortunately the closet is my only space available but it is about 2 feet from a small window so it works out. And my thoughts exactly buy right once and i should be happily producing product for a good couple years.
If you go with hid it almost doesn't matter company you go with nowadays. Sure the more expensive ones have a ballast that lasts longer, you should replace the bulb every two or three grows no matter what bulb you use. The cheap bulbs have almost identical specs as expensive bulbs. Andygrow talks about getting the better ones that din down to watts really who gives a fuck? Why would you want to dim a light? Why run anything the most watts you can in a light. A lot of people run cheap hid setups with zero problems, and I am sure in your research you have Sen this. Hid lighting is not like led in this regard. Monster gardens has a whole youtube video comparing hid lights and basically the video says that all hid lighting is the same thing. Unless you get a double ended mixed spectrum type hid light. That's just apples to oranges, lonesome I do believe has posted that his $15 bulb out did $100 bulb. I really think with hid your just paying for the name if you go with pricey models. But to each their own you know. Hid is still better than led at making dense high number yields, I don't buy into led giving higher the content and better quality buds. That's an option that has very little facts to hold it up. Led is lower heat as you have stated but you still need to exchange air, 600w hid is where it is at. It is the most efficient light in terms of watts to yeild vs buy in cost. Two air cooled 600w hid light electronic ballast, two 6" inline fans with ducting kit one for lights one for smell that you hook to carbon filter. It's to bad all you have is the closet as it forces you into running autos or waiting 3-4 months between harvests. If you had two grow areas I would recommend using a led to veg as you don't need the higher wattage heat building mh to veg a good plant. It helps but not needed, really no matter what light choice you make it comes down to watts that your running. It's all about grams to watt yeild in the end. Run 600w to 1200w of either led or hid and you will be happy. 600w hid happens to be the most efficient hid lighting it's lumen to watt input ratio is higher than a 400w or 1000w light. I am not at all sold on running 400w lights as above poster recommended they are the worst of both worlds lower watts lower efficiency and still make heat. Mars 2 makes good led lights for a good price. Their par numbers aren't as good as the higher priced less but it's still better value. When looking at led look at power draw not diode max rating x bulbs. 100x3w doesn't really mean 300w it's more like 150w-175w depending on how hard they decide to drive the diode. Running led at full power leads to burning out the diodes early so to fix this companies use a driver to set power lower to each diode, there's no real industry standard. So to compete and to make people feel better about the wattage compared to price companies advertise the higher number.
I'd say be careful with the closet this is almost exactly what I am doing with my grow. My closet space is 7x7 and in doing 4 plants under a 600w hps and uncontrolled temperature in the room will reach 100 I tried venting out a near by window like you want and could only get it down to 90. Personally I just use a portable ac that has a built in timer and humidity control which keeps them at a comfortable 75. Best of luck to you. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum