So I am planning my first grow and I am on a budget. My plan was to use 2x 250w red spectrum CFL's for flowering because I couldn't have much heat. Somebody on the forum told me that a 250hps would produce the same amount of heat as 500w cfl and produce the same yield. How accurate is this information? I was planning growing 6 plants but I'll probably just grow 4 with the hps. Any thoughts? Thanks
These tents are all 120x80cm and 180cm high. They are all vented by a 4" systemair fan running through at least one carbon filter. The room the tents are in is usually about 21℃ 3x 125w CFLs, canopy temperature 30℃ 1x 250w HPS, canopy temperature 26℃ 2x 250w HPS, canopy temperature 30℃ The distance that the lamps are positioned makes the difference really. I like to bring the lamps down until the canopy reaches 30℃
You were the guy who told me about the heat the first time I'm pretty sure. That's pretty much everything I needed to see in that reply, I don't know if I can give reps coz I'm only knew? You've just saved me over 100 euro!
Yeah I'm the guy, but I thought I would add to my claims with some evidence. I'm glad I could help. Rep points have been scrapped now unfortunately. If I were you I would buy a dimmable 400w ballast. That way you can still run it on 250w, but if your temperatures allow you can switch up to 300w or even 400w and get a way bigger harvest This one http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=121147818146&alt=web is switchable between 200w, 300w, 400w, & 440w all with the same 400w bulb and just £60
Running at 110% (440 watts), never saw that before! How does that work? Sorry I can't add more, @[member="GoldGrower"] pretty much has it covered here.
It allows a little more current in to the bulb than what the bulb was designed for. The result is it will burn brighter, but the life of the bulb won't be as long. The idea is to use this feature when the bulb is old and not as bright as it was, so just before you throw it out anyway I have a dimmable 250 watt (125w, 175w, 250w, & 275w) because I didn't know how hot it was going to be and wanted an option to lower the wattage if I needed to, but they really don't put out much heat at all. I have never run it on the 275w setting
Shit you've turned this grow around, so I done a bit of research and I'm switching the ballast too, I'm going to get a 400w Lumatek dimmable ballast now. I'm getting that, a 400w MH bulb, a 400w HPS bulb and a reflector for 130 pound. 45 pound dearer than what I was going to buy but I'm getting a free MH bulb so I don't need to spend 40 pound on the cfl I was getting for veg. So 5 pound dearer but with a better ballast and the potential for up to 400 watts. Much respect!
You will love the dimmable 400w mate, especially if you're able to crank it up to 400 watts. I just finished a 500w HPS grow and pulled 14 ounces of top quality bud, and a further 6 ounces of lower quality bud
Well I'm just aiming for an ounce per plant, if I get more I'll be really happy, and if I do get more when the day comes that it's all grown I'll be coming back to thank you for the help you've given, cheers!