Whats better? One 1000 watt or two 600 watt?

I have a crop thats 10 plants and currently I am running one 600 watt MH for vegitation.

However, I am thinking about adding wattage.

I have another 600 watt ballast and bulb that I am not using.

My question is would it be better to get a bigger ballast to light the 1000w or could I go with two 600s?

I have heard that one 1000w is better than two 600w MH's.

I'm not worried about my electric bill so thats not what I mean. I am concerned about yield primarily.

Can anyone share their experiences on this?

I'm growing 6 kush plants and 3 bubble gum.

Any opinions on experiences with this is appreciated greatly. I live in a 2 bdr apartment and my friend says that I would have to rewire some stuff with him needing to go up in the crawl space to do stuff and it seems sketchy to me as I dont want to do that if adding another 600w would do the same thing without the hassle wont effect me.

What other issues are relevant to this move?

How does this effect yield and quality?

Or does it matter?

Thanks......

Edited by Da Swami, 05 June 2009 - 10:00 PM.

Wel I don't know how much $$$ you want to spend??? its sort of a hard ? to answer since you are currently using a 600MH light

your best bet is to get as many watts as possible in the HPS variety. you already have MH so that sorta sux...you really want HPS light for flowering and MH for vegging, but if you have to have only one you want to use HPS for everything.

also...how spaced out are your plants going to be? 600w light only covers about a 4ft x 4ft area. so if your using a grow table where all plants are close together it should be good, but if there all in single buckets, you'd be better off having 2 600w hps or even 2 1000w hps.

But BOTTOM LINE in your situation..I'd get a 1000W HPS make sure you get one with an air coolable hood(reflector) cuz that thing will put of a ton of heat, and if you can afford the extra $100-$200 get one with a digital ballast. then partition your grow room in half (if it's big enough) or else get a hyrohut or find another room/space to grow in. put your 1000w hps in the bigger space, and the 600w MH in the smaller spot and use the small 600w MH room for veg, and the big 1000W HPS for flower. then you will also get more harvests in same amount of time, cuz wile one crop is flowering one will be vegging, then when you harvest...you're ready to flower again right away.

You'd have to do a lumen comparison, but the extra 200 watts coupled with more coverage area AND dual spectrum would be the way I'd go. Plus, you won't have to shell out money on another ballast.

two 600's , one you get more lumen spread over your crop, two it would be total 1200 watts.

my vote is for two 600s.
they are the most efficient lights (lumens per watt), and you can put them closer to the plants

my vote is for two 600s.
they are the most efficient lights (lumens per watt), and you can put them closer to the plants

Agreed. Hopefully price won't be a factor though. 2 600w systems can be pricey, at least for me lol.

two 600's , one you get more lumen spread over your crop, two it would be total 1200 watts.

I guess it wasn't really made clear but i assumed that if he bought a 1000w then he would use the 1000w and the 600 he already has.. so that would be 1600w more than 1200

my vote is for two 600s.
they are the most efficient lights (lumens per watt), and you can put them closer to the plants

if you have an air coolable reflector, then you can still put a 1000w 1ft above the plants, but then again...raising it a little more will distribute the light more evenly over the spread.
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but whatever you decide to do...make sure you get some HPS light in there for flowering because it will increase your yield compared to using only MH

^Good point, the thread title and the first post don't exactly reconcile.

To the OP:

2x600w is better then 1x1000w.

1x1000w plus 1x600w is getter than 2x600w.

The 600's are the "sweet spot" for HID, most efficient at converting watts to lumens.

2x 600 watts hands down (depending on your grow space). In simple terms the 600 watt HPS are the best bang for your buck, and by having two not only will you produce more lumens than a 1000, they will allow you to be much more versitile in positioning youre lights as all plants do not grow at the same rate. You may have one side closer or farther than the other and you can slide them form left to right easier :-p

This is trickier than just lumens.

A 1000 watt hps will ALWAYS put out more light than a 600, two six hundreds is no different, except in that you have a larger spread. Also you have to consider that you are considering running two 600 watt MH. MH is great veging light, and will even give you good yields flowering with them( i use only a 400 watt MH with a agrosun gold bulb mh for all stages).

More information is needed really if you are going to get the best answer here.

Do you run seperate Veg and Flower chambers?

If so how big is your flowering room?

If not how big is the room you are growing in?

Do you have the means to cool a 1000 watt lamp? or a second 600 watt mh for that matter?

Two 600 watt lamps is not going to provide you with more light in a smaller area. Unless you stack them rediculously close to each other. A 1000 watt light will provide more light and more "penetration" to the lower branches budsites than two 600 watt lamps. Therefore, more questions arise.

Are you growing SOG? Scrog? Are your plants large or small?

Another note, is that if you had a 600 watt mh and a 600 watt hps your buds would be killer, the mh would give them a shit ton of resin, and the hps would make them large. however your space would have to be large enough to handle two lights and the heat they make, as two 600 watt lamps would surely generate more heat than one 1000 watt hps.

Whats the average increase in electricity bills with a two 1000 watt hps setup?

"
I'm not worried about my electric bill so thats not what I mean"

Haha, we all say that once we power up over 1000 watts for first time. Then the at least $200 electric bill comes in and makes you choke,which is cheap i guess for most states

like someone said earlier, get a 1000 hps. Then you could use it with the 600 mh together if you wanted for a great mixed spectrum