First off, I'm new here. First post cheers! I'm not a complete noob to growing, I've had 2 successful outdoor grows, but I'm going to make the change to a more controlled, & safer indoor cabinet grow. So I'm in the planning stage of creating a stealth indoor grow cabinet. My working space, in feet, is 2x2x3 cabinet. I have a good plan of everything I need to do, in terms of retrofitting the cabinet and make It a successful grow chamber, however I'm undecided on the particular grow light I want to use. I know I want an LED system, in order to keep temps low and efficiency high. So my question is, which choice should I go with? Roughly $300 budget. In my mind I have like 3 options, one of which is over my budget. With strong reasoning, I could reconsider that budget. Links to my front runners below. Advanced Platinum Series P150 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NTBVEGQ/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_abcevb0Y202NG G8LED 240 Watt LED Grow Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MWHI56/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_0fcevb1Q0NPCA Advanced Platinum Series P300 300w https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NTBS91Y/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_xhcevb1RHB4V0 My top choice is the Advanced Platinum P150 LED system. Priced under budget at $229. Is this a big enough light for a 2 or 3 plant grow in the space that I have provided? Do I need the P300? Or the G8LED 240w? I don't plan to ever change setup or increase my grow room in the future. Can I get away with the P150? Or should I get something with more wattage? Thanks in advance for your advice. . Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
More wattage is always best as long as you can keep the temps down. Have you considered checking out the mars hydro lights? Sara is their rep on here and she can get you a pretty decent deal on a light. You want at the minimum 50watts per square foot for flowering. So you want at least 200 draw watts ideally. Usually LEDS draw 60% as advertised so in theory again, that 300W is probably your best choice. A mars400 may work very well too, hit sara up with a message or go onto their thread and she'll let you know how much! Lots of people use em here on the city with great results
Hey thanks DazedandStoned for your comments, I appreciate them. I have looked into the Mars II hydro lights and heard that the fans are quite noisy. Read somewhere that they are 68 dB noisy! I mean, I'm sure I have the technical ability to remove them and swap with quieter ones, but not sure I really want to have to deal with that. Do you have first hand knowledge of those lights and can you comment on the noise emitted? I'm going for a stealth setup and plan to buy a super quiet exhaust fan. I definitely didn't count on my LED system to be the noisiest thing in my cabinet.
Sorry my notifications were not working so I didn't see you replied back. I personally have not used them myself, I bought some UFOs from Bysen a few years ago and they are pretty killer but the fans are very loud. Bysen is the company who makes the Black star LEDs. I simply went out to my local PC store and bought a bunch of fans to replace them. I will see if I can find a picture of how i did it, very easy to splice new fans in, mine had a selector switch to change the speed, I have mine on the lowest and you can barely hear it Unfortunately still my LEDs and fan are very loud in my micro cabs, and those are hard to reduce, but you could always use a Styrofoam or 3/4" plywood to help dampen the noise. its the only giveaway for me, luckily not many people go into that room. Feel free to stop by my thread in the micro section to get an idea of what my cabs look like. They sound a bit louder than the average room fan but temps are not an issue and that's my main concern
G'Day Dazed and Stoned. Based on the formula for wattage and what you have just said to Green Team35 would the Mars 98 reflector be worth a go in the same set up? I am in Australia so forgive the bastard imperial conversion. I am also using a 4.4ft H x 2.5ft W x 1.5ft D cabinet which I think I worked out to 187.5 watts for 3.75 sq ft. We can get the Mars reflector range in 5w diodes here. Would this model compensate for 60% less draw factor?
Thanks for the reply Goombamario, it turned up on my email but doesn't seem to appear here. I have the Mars 96 Reflector in the mail and will post some pics of the cabinet soon. Using a DWC top fed set up with two air stones and two baskets. Wanted to try a Scrog or Monster grow technique.