Okay I'm working with a 9 foot long by 5 foot wide and 7 foot tall tent and am getting ready to get some new lights. This room is the flower box only. What would be best? 6 400 watt hps 4 600 watt hps 2 1000 watt hps I'm trying to cover an area the size of 9x5. I have different reasonings for why I would do each setup so please include why you would choose what lighting (for perpetual, scrog, sog, soil/dwc/coco/nft etc etc) Assume you can use either seed or clone in this. Assume heat, vent and smell is not an issue. If I steal your idea and find it to work out, rep + (not just plus rep but rep PLUS) will be in karma's mix for you
If money is no object, then obviously use the four 600's. But money is always an object for me, so I would do the double 1000's. More lights means more bulbs (you ARE using Hortilux bulbs right?), more reflectors, more heat, more money.
So I'm assuming you would divide the tent space 4 ways with this and have everything run at the same time then? Or perhaps 4 different heights and then run a perpetual moving them around the room? Thanks for the response too. I like that it was an obvious choice to go 4 600's, I wonder if other people feel the same?
oh, oh! i got an idea. this link goes to a 1000w ballast splitter. you can run 2x600w lights with ONE 1000w ballast. that way you can have 4x600w lights and only use 2x1000w ballasts. SunPulse Splitter USE 1000w HPS Ballast for 2 600W Bulb - eBay (item 290492452262 end time Feb-22-11 14:14:51 PST) or take off the splitter and use only 2x1000w lights.
Well the 600's are known to be the most efficient bulbs out there. Couple that with the fact that you are using more watts (2400w vs 2000w) there really is no comparison. With four lights, you can experiment with what works best for you. Since money isn't a object, I would just buy clones to fill up the flower room first, somewhere to the tune of about 25 plants per light. Pick a quick flowering strain(s). From there you'll have ~2 months to work on your veg room, which should be plenty of time to make another 100 clones if you choose to continue with the SOG. Otherwise, those 2 months can be spent growing out some tall trees, scroggin, w/e.