Morning GC. Excuse the huge title. As you can tell i'm rather new here, stumbled across GC while I was researching and now i'm hooked. Awesome community with a huge wealth of knowledge. So far every question i've had has been answered with a little use of the search function, however there is one I can't seem to get a definitive answer. I'm looking to do a stealth grown and i've found myself a perfect cab for my situation/space. its: 47cm (18") wide 50cm (20") deep 90cm (36") tall (considering lost space due, interior height is probably more like 75cm (30")) I've found a good deal on a second hand 600w HPS system with a cooltube and've been trying to work out if it'd work in my space. There seem to be two main problems: Too much heat, and to a lesser extent too much light. I know the trick with your hand, but that's not much good finding out after i've bought the 600watt lamp. I've got the light distance chart and i'm assuming that that's for a non-cooled HPS? With a cooltube will I be able to go less than 8"? Assuming of course that I don't loose light coverage. Secondly i'm concerned about too much light. There seems to be overall agreement that you can have too much light, but mainly it's all anecdotal evidence. From a general gist of what people are saying, 600 watts in my size grow area isn't going to work. However I found this interesting article which basically says that: "The sun gives some 50 000 lm/m2 = 50 000 lux at the earth surface on a clear summerday" 1000 - 5000 lux Min. necessary for life 10000 - 15000 lux Min. necessary for consistent but sparse growth 20000 - 25000 lux Min. necessary for robust growth Assuming that this is working with a 2D transection of your grow area and assuming that a 600w bulb puts out 90,000 lumens. 90000/(.47*.50)= Perhaps i'm too stoned, but i'm getting some crazy figures here. I must be doing something wrong. Silly mistake? So in a nutshell: Can 600 watts be worked 75-80cm of vertical space? ^Note: The deal i've got on the second hand kit is great, if it's not this one, I can't really afford to buy a new 250/400 watt kit. Will have to go fluros. With a 150-200 CFM inline fan venting outside the cab, will I be able to control my temps? ^ Note: I'll be attaching either a homemade or comercial carbon scrubber to the end of the cooltube (appreciate it's not the best solution, but I need to control both temps and odour with one fan) Peace Orient
You better measure the cool tube (or air-cooled hood) you are considering first, including room on both ends for vent tubing to attach to the flanges. I have a 6" cool tube and with the ducting on both ends it takes about 28 inches of width. You might be able to hang it diagonally to make it fit. I think your starting point needs to be a different light, not calculating whether that light will work or not. 30 inches total vertical height is very restrictive. I almost think that whether you can get the 600w to work in there or not is besides the point -- even if you can, it begs the question of why. You will never get the growth out of 2.5 sq feet to justify the electrical consumption -- you are looking at 432 kilowatt hours per month for a 24/0 schedule, that's more than half of the average household usage in the US, and for just maybe two plants? 90000/(.47*.50) -- I don't know what this is supposed to be calculating. Where do 0.47 and 0.5 come from? Just because you can get a good price on a 600w doesn't make it a good value unless you can use it, and I don't think you can in that small space.
:: Rubs chin :: Yea everything you've posted is ringing pretty true. I think I just got caught up in the idea of getting a good deal on alot of light. I really hadn't appreciated quite how much juice that lamp uses... shit I could've had a suprise when my bill came through. I wasn't too concerned about the width of the cooltube as the inlet end I was going to hook up to a carbon scrubber, which could have sat beside or ontop of the tube to save alot of width. The calculation was for lumens per square meter. Thanks for the helpful reply buddy, the auction ends real soon and I almost ended up with it! Lol.. oh dear. That's abit of a wake up call. Back to CFLs for me. Orient
theres not even enough room for 2, 5 gallon buckets, and the plants will be much wider than the buckets,,or are you cloning? also with that limited amount of space and 600watts,it will cause huge heat issues. and you are going to lose a lot more than 6 inches for your light,because you dont want it close to the top. you will want to have a cool air flow around it at all times.. i hate to burst anybody's bubble,but ive been down the road and have had to alter my area many times before i got things figured out. and as of right now,im using about 2ftx3ftx7ft for 2 plants from seed and it fills out every inch except vertical,where it fills about half being about 3 and a half feet,also i have an oscalating fan drilled into the ceiling,my ballast are outside of the room,i use a/c to cool,and i use no hoods leaving my lights hang vertical and im pushing 650 watts. hope this helps.. check out my latest here. http://forum.grasscity.com/showthread.php?p=8864931#post8864931
Urgh no Seeds to start. Was planning on DWC. With either 1 plant in a 5 gal bucket system. Or 1-2 plants in a rubbermaid system. Nah seriously buddy, I'm really glad you and Toasty have said what you've said. It'd have been an expensive mistake otherwise. Only thing better than learning from your mistakes, is learning from other people. Heading over to your journal now, thoes are some crazy buds On a side note: Any help would be appreciated. I've pretty much decided on this for my stealth cab. In light of my.. urm... lighting changes ideally i'd love to go for something like the powerplant sun mate or the Maxibright mk3. But unfortunately both are too long for the cab i'm thinking of using. Any one have a burning desire to recommend a cfl reflector they use that's a little smaller than thoes? Or even someone in the UK who knows of a similar (but slightly bigger) cab I could use. Thankies Orient