Hey everyone, a mate n myself have just begun our first grow, and are running into a bit of a problem. A bit of background: Were in the southern hemisphere (Australia), it is now the end of summer (autumnish), we are moving into winter, temps are from 20C to mid 20's. We were planning to run a single 600W HPS on 24/24 or 18/6 and then drop to 12/12 for flowering, but a problem has come up. The person who's keeping the plant is worried about electricity spikes on his usage due to running this light for these times, he doesnt want to raise any suspicion. So he suggested leaving the plant outside during the day (from about 8AM till about 5PM), then taking it inside till about 9 or 10PM, and then putting the light on from 9PM till about 6AM. Doing this it will be receiving about 8hrs SUNLIGHT a day, then no light for about 4 hrs, then about 8 hrs of 600W HPS lighting, followed by being put outside at about 6 or 7 every morning and repeating the cycle. The problems bothering me are the shock of going from indoors under HPS to outdoors on cold winter mornings, and also the fact that this will be irregular lighting, instead of a constant source and also constant "blocks" of light and dark. This is my first time doing this, and im in the dark, anyone care to let us know if this would suffice, or whether we should try sort sumthing else out. Any help or suggestions appreciated. blame hofmann
Wel we are heading off to get the light tomorrow, if anyone has any info please share asap so we can make sure were making the right decision.
Why not run the lights at night when you are sleeping? You will use less watts than in the daytime when you have other things running....at night the light will be about the only thing running...just my 2 cents Ps: this is how i do it to keep the bill down
I would, except the plant is being kept at a mates brother in laws house, and hes the one whos a bit worried about leaving it on for too long incase it is suspicious on his electricity account. Would a single 600W HPS on 18/6 even make a difference? If i can get some solid evidence that it will go unnoticed regarding electricity usage then he might be willing to do it, but at the moment he is decided that its too risky, anything i could compare the usage too?? Like a common appliance people buy regularly for their homes that uses as much if not more than a 600W HPS?
thx guys ima be sure to put my 400 watt on at night when I go to 12/12 from 9 at night to 9 in the morning
why in gods name are you growing ONE plant under a 600 watt hps... and yes, from what ive heard a 400 watt hps will put a 20 dollar spike in ur elec bill
Cos only one of our bagseeds germinated, getting some more going soon, but at the moment only got one. Anyone else have any advice on this kind of lighting and moving from indoors to outdoors? Going to buy the lighting gear in an hr or 2.
The cost of the electricity is real, write your friend a check or treat him to a nice dinner for his efforts. A single 600w light should not make the electric bill look suspicious, it's not that much extra in the scheme of things. There are a million reasons why the consumption could have gone up -- he just got a new girlfriend who leaves the lights on in every room and does a lot of cooking at home, he bought a new kiln for his pottery hobby, he hasn't been traveling as much so has stayed at home a lot more lately, he took his poor sick mother into his house and her oxygen machine is on full time, and so on. The power company won't pay attention to it.
I agree with toasty. That 600W will probably cost your mate about $45 a month - so make sure he gets to smoke some.
lol, dont worry hel be getting a shitload to smoke, not just some. We ended up getting a 400W instead, we got the prices mixed up at first so had to settle for a 400. Weve decided to run it on an 18/6 typa cycle, with 9 hrs HPS from 10 at night till 7 in the morning, the light will be turned off for about an hour so the grow area can drop to room temp, then itl be put outised from 8am till about 5 pm when itl be taken inside and left in the dark till 10pm. Im sure this will work out fine. Were getting a grow log going soon so wel keep everyone updated. Btw, how many plants can grow under a 400W HPS??
i think if u do it from early stage the plant will adapt to conditions but you said you planning on getting more plants growing thats gonna be nightmare having to shift them about all the time in it