Hey guys I have finally decided to become a member after browsing the forums for months. I have a 3'x8' closet with about a 6 foot ceiling. this needs to be an energy efficient grow so I was thinking about using a 4 foot t5 high output fluorescent light but im not really sure how well that would work as I have never used this before. my question is would this be a good light and what to use for a fan for the size of the room? I haven't started the setup for this room yet so any advice or tips would be much appreciated. Thanks everyone!
i do not know much about the T5's BUT I DO KNOW THEY PRODUCE 60% LESS HEAT. YOU WILL WANT A OSCILATING FAN TO CIRCULATE AIR IN ROOM, AS FAR AS A FAN FOR INTAKE YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH CRACKING DOOR TO CLOSET (I DID). HOW MANY PLANTS U PLAN? CO2, HUMIDITY WILL HELP TEMPS. WALMART HAS 10-20 FANS THAT WILL WORK PERFECT. GET THE VOLUME OF THE ROOM... L*W*H...3*6*8=144 CUBIC AIR SPACE. YOU WANT A FAN THAT CAN CLEAR THAT SPACE IN 5 MIN OR LESS. JUST A FEW WORDS MORE QUESTIONS POST EM
I am planning on 4 plants. if I did leave the door open a crack for intake im worried about the smell stinking up the whole place. did you run into that problem as well? if that's the case I could setup an exhaust blower and run ducting to the dryer duct. this is a later option due to a fairly tight budget (holidays break the bank everytime). as far as the c02 goes Im going to use a hanging organic c02 bag The T5 light comes with 2 mh and 2 hps bulbs what would be the best way to use the lights and get maximum efficiency from it?
T5s are fluorescents, and MH, and HPS are HIDs, completely different lights. T5's are good for vegging, but not great for flowering and not great for plants that are larger than about a foot and a half because the light doesn't penetrate. Don't use bathroom fans, use a 4" inline fan. You need a small carbon filter too to remove the odor from the air in the room and the exhausted air. You don't want to mess with co2 in a small closet grow. And you need fresh air into the room.
yes I understand the difference between them but with the T5 it comes with 2 6500k bulbs and 2 2700k bulbs but cant you get 2 more and run 4 of the same bulbs for flowering? do you gave any other suggestions for lights to use that wont jack the light bill? that was my reason for looking at the T5 light in the first place
The most efficient lighting and therefore the cheapest to operate for the amount of usable light they produce is either MH or HPS. The problem with this type of lighting is always going to be heat. The T5s will work fine but they will be more expensive to run for the same amount of light.
If you are going budget then don't even bother with a CO2 bag. If you don't have an air tight area then it won't do anything for you. If you can run ventilation then a MH/HPS with cooled hood + fan + carbon filter will be the absolute best thing for you to do. Why spend money twice if you plan on doing this for awhile. Just save the extra bit an do it the right way!
if I used a 250w hps light in the room would it be enough to cover the grow space? i don't want to have to run 2 of them in order to get max light coverage. also I am curious if that would be cheaper to run rather than the t5 with four 4' tubes that are 54w ea? I can most definitely run ventilation cause the bathroom and dryer duct run right next to the closet
Fact of the matter is heat. Yea it would be similar coastwise to run the 250hps.... But u will need more venting and possible ac due to heat so it's more in the end.. I run t5 as well and they are cheaper. To help with yield and light placement. Build a screen to the dimensions of your light and scrog the plants right under it, therefore light pen doesn't matter. It's true you can get better yields and slightly more dense flowers with hid, but I have still seen great, top shelf flowers come from a t5 so dont get discouraged.
How many plants do you intend to grow? This information is really more relevant than the dimensions of your grow space. If your trying to keep wattage and thus power bills down then I am thinking you would probably be best served going with the 250W HPS and running a single plant SCROG as this would probably provide a better yield than more than one plant under what is 216W of flouros. Ventilation is necessary regardless of the type of lighting that you are using. The plants need fresh air unless you are running an air tight room with CO2 which would be cost prohibitive if your trying to maintain a budget. The temperature increases from a 250W light would be fairly negligible in a room where the air is replaced every five minutes. From my experience I'd say you will definitely want to have a carbon filter on your exhaust especially if your air is exhausted right outside the house. As far as your energy bills are concerned there's a calculator that can be used to estimate the cost of running your grow for a period of time. It requires some input from you but I find that most are surprised to learn just how little a spike their grow creates in their power bills. If your power bill does not include a kilowatt/hr rate then your provider's website likely will. Grow Light Operating Cost - Greentrees Hydroponics
