Hey All Happy 420! My question is I have 4 pre-wired light sockets & each socket will have 5 - 26W bulbs totaling 520W. I'm wondering how far should I space the lights? I will be constructing a reflective hood so I'm wondering how big should I make the dimensions & space the lights under it basically. If someone could please help me with this or has any ideas on what the dimensions should be I'd appreciate it greatly been racking my brain for a few days now on this lol thanks in advance!
My Idea for the reflective hood was to get a 3ft x 2ft display board & line the inside with emergency blankets and mount the lights through the top of the display board will that work? And is that enough lighting to cover those dimensions, or should I go bigger or smaller with the hood?
I'm curious about how you will get 5 bulbs in each socket. You can get two in each with a Y splitter, and four if you double up, but I'm curious about the 5th. Maybe I'm missing something? For your reflector, even cardboard with mylar or emergency blanket material would be fine. You just want to be able to focus the light down onto the plants and not let it escape outwards.
Thanks Tim, it's kinda hard to explain but I'll do my best. At Lowes i found a socket that adds 2 outlets to the socket I was going to plug-in a outlet to socket adapter to each side then allowing me to screw a Y spiltter into each side giving me 4 bulbs the 5th bulb at the top of the adapter that adds 2 outlets to the socket you can screw in another bulb. I'll post pics of the setup when completed. About how many plants could I grow under that amount of light I was thinking around 4.
Alright I've been thinking now & am trying to figure out what my best bet is for a decent yield. Going with the 20 - 26W CFLs 6500k & 2700k for veg/flowering or this MH/HPS http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=47981 could anyone tell me if I'd get a decent yield from 520W of 2700k CFLs compared to 400W HPS bulb for flowering? Also what's the # of plants I can fit under MH/HPS compared to 520W of CFL lighting? Sorry for all these ?'s guys but I really just don't want to screw the pooch on this 1st grow & I'd like to yield about a O per plant. Thanks in advance I really appreciate the help.
well rule of thumb is 100w per plant 50w each additional.... so u could probably fit a good 5-8 plants in there
Thanks Phillie for the reply I thought that was the case from what I've read but wasn't 100% sure. I took the 520W of CFL lighting and divided it by 4 plants giving me 130W per plant so I was figuring around 4-5, but you think I could go as many as 8? But 4-5 would probably give better results right? Thanks again brotha!
well lets see.. 100w- 1 plants 150w- 2 plants 200w- 3 plants 250w- 4 plants etc so if u have over 500w u should be able to fit as much as 8 plants but ur yeild may suffer a little plus i dont know what kind of box ur using so i dont know if u could fit that much... id say go for 4-6 plants if this is ur first time, but u can definitely handle 8 plants with 500+w