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lighting...need some help

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by timberland, Sep 26, 2007.

  1. #1 timberland, Sep 26, 2007
    hey guys im building a spot indoors for my first time. I need to choose some lights but im a little confused. The room is going to be about 5ft high...5ft long...2-3ft deep. I plan on growing about 10 plants approx. Now for lighting how many watts should i aim for...would like 200watts be enough for 10 plants to get some good bud. I don't wanna buy shitty low powered lights but i dont want my moms hydro bill increasing to much. also how much should the bill go up? and another question for flourescent lights that are 40watts but they say they have output of 80 watts does that mean it would be rated at 80? sorry if the questions r dumb but thanks if you can help
     
  2. #2 jcj77d, Sep 26, 2007
    the rule of thumb is 50-100watts per plant, or a minimum of 3500-5000lumen per plant, & the actuall watts of a cfl or flouro is 40w, but = 80w of a regular light bulb, & to figure your cost u need to know how many watts ul be running & cost of your kilowatt/hr
     
  3. #3 timberland, Sep 27, 2007

    let me get this straight flouros r twice as strong as regular light bulbs? 40 w = 80w reg light...so does that mean i only need 25-50watts per plant? bcuz that turns into 50-100watts per plannt of regular light, please clarify for me haha sorry
     
  4. #4 DJ420Chillin, Sep 27, 2007
    The 40 watt bulb is still only 40 watts even though it is rated for 80. When it comes to growing plants it is only 40 watts. To grow 10 plants you probably need at least 800 watts of light. I am growing 8 plants currently under two High Pressure Sodium bulbs (one is a 400 watt and one is a 250 watt) and I still don't think I have enough watts for my grow. My electric bill has increased about $45 a month with those two lights running 18 hours on and 6 hours off. Good luck with your grow and remember that light and soil are the most important ingredients in any grow.
     
  5. #5 DJ420Chillin, Sep 27, 2007
    200 watts is enough for 3 plants max!! You are better off going with less plants and more lights. it will get you way better quality bud and probably close to the same yield as 10 scrawny plants would. If you try and grow 10 plants off 200 watts of light the bud will not be even close to as potent as if you grew 3 off of the same wattage.
     
  6. #6 science, Sep 28, 2007
    Hey Bro, jane plants are light craving plants. The more light you can get to them the better. If you choose to go with less wattage your not going to get very big buds. My brother grows with 250w flouros and his plants are very small in bud size. I use nothing but 1000w bulbs for my grow but I have a very large grow area and expect alot. Plus if you only have about 5ft tall grow area make sure your growing an indica plant because thier shorter plants with big buds. But your talking 10 plants so your going to need to get some wattage in thier to see some decent results, at least 2/400w lights is what I would recommed and nothing less.:wave:
     

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