So im pissed today was a cut down day after 4 months of growing and i yielded about 10oz of airy leafy buds with some trim mixed in and some branches. Thats from 4 600w hps lights so 2400w of light. I think my failure was partially down to the fact that i was running green house seeds. But i dont think the seeds and poor genetics where the only problem i was having real temperature problems. My biggest problem is combating noise and heat as the setup is located in a terraced house right on the wall of someones bedroom next door. So someone is sleeping like less than 4 foot away from my set up and just a thin wall separating the rooms so yes they can really hear it if im not seriously careful with the noise. Upgraded and bought a 720m3h fan and installed it couldn't fucking believe the noise! it sounded like a jet engine spooling up and running no joke it was that loud like 60db. Ive got a big box i can put it in and cover with spray foam but man i dont think it will be quiet enough even with that. So im considering the big switch and swapping my 600w hps lights for 2 1200w chinese LED panels? Should i make this switch guys? could i achieve 1g a watt with 1200w led panels each diode is 6w? could i scale the fan down to like a 5 inch if i changed to led?
Check out goldgrowers grow journals. He's getting over 600g per plant using 1 600w light. Save electricity, and save on the cost of buying new lights. http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/1318078-goldgrowers-blue-cheese-600w-dwc-scrog-journal.html#entry20285175
Just checked it out thanks mate but i need alot more than 600g so a single 600w wouldn't cut it. Then it comes back to the noise issues of running the fans to cool 2400w of hps lights. Im seriously considering the switch to led of course i could just put the fan in a big box and fill it with spray foam but dont think it will be quiet enough. Dont even think a vortex would be quiet enough lol.
about 95 to 100f most the time sometimes a little higher up to about 110f i had a 150cfm fan cooling a 12 x 10 room with 4 600w hps lights in i didn't use the whole room for the plants i used a 8 x 8 square but the fan would have been pulling air from the whole room as it wasn't in a tent. Upgraded to a 420cfm fan but its so fucking loud it would wake my neighbours up from a mile away. The plants just never filled in loads of little pop corn buds and full of air literally.
Oh god man. THAT is the problem. Fix that and everything will be good. With that many watts you're gonna need an AC.
Now we have pin pointed the problem i need to workout how to fix the thing lol the main issue is that most air conditioning units emit what close to 50db? that would have the cops at my door in a hour with it being right on my neighbours bedroom wall. Seems all possible ways to cool the room make far to much noise to be used. That is why i was thinking maby my only option was to get rid of the 2400w of hps and swap it for 2400w of leds. Not something i want to do because it will add about another $1000 in cost but if its the only way forward then will go with it. Thanks for the help
Id spend a bit extra and buy well known brand led's. Some (not all) are so cheap they'll only be putting out like 75% actual light. he just said, 'I come from the land down under'
If I were you I'd try dropping down to 2/3 of your 600w lights and using Hydro and ScrOG see what results you get. You should be able to get 3/4 plants under 2/3 lights even if you only get 300-400g a plant with 3 you'll still have more than with and LED light plus you won't have spent $1000 on a test run. Also what canopy are you using for your lights? I recently changed mine to cooltubes and heat management is much better.
Can you grow during the day and let the plants sleep at night (no fans)? Also there's a new led develoed by a mj grower. Several guys here are using them, one also has a 1200, so you can see the difference, and his comments I was expecting mine yesterday, but USPS failed to deliver
I'm just saying, swapping out 2400W for 2400W is not going to solve your heat issue, as cool as the LEDs operate you are still going to have heat to deal with, they aren't as hot, bit if you are getting temps around 110F expect the LEDs to cut that down to maybe 95. Get a larger fan than what you need and a fan controller, and dim it down to 50%. Combined with a sound proofed box, mufflers, carbon filter and hanging with bungee cords you won't hear very much sound at all. Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
You could always get sound deadner like they use in car trunks for large stereos. Dynamat coat a temp wall or egg crates would be cheaper. Think of a music studio in a busy building they don't want sound leaks. Treat your grow in this manner, still probably be cheaper than buying leds, and u can have band practice in your crib after.
Put in a window a.c.. your neighbor calls the cops because of an air conditioner they'll be the ones in trouble
Tell me about it you know how many times i had the police right in the property literally under my 2400w grow room? 4 times in the whole 4 month cycle lol. Even once i had them in asking to search the property as a neighbour had reported a fake domestic because she wanted to get one back because of hearing the fans. And i had 14 2 foot high plants in the front room when they was knocking on the door real close call only reason i escaped the situation was because i gone out and basically asked to be arrested said i caused a domestic situation lol. Cant have that shit happening again for obvious reasons The LED panels im interested in each 1200w panel only draws 567w of electricity so am i wrong in thinking they will produce ALOT less heat than 2400w of hps? I got to say im getting very interested in leds this guy below yielded 1,7gpw with just 22w homemade led panel in a pc case. https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=146324 Still got the option of either buying 4 cool tubes some fans - filters and duct silencers or the leds mmm.
Why even ask q' s if you already have the answer than? Leds are fine in imo for veg grow, leds are fine for clone grow maybe a bit of a waste as t5 or for will do this. Leds are fine in flower if you sea of green grow, or if you mainline the plant. Leds simply do not penetrate a plan like your hps lights will. Maybe you should take cash you are going to spend on Leds and get a dif grow spot. One not locate right where you live with nosy neighbors. Somewhere with better stealth and less connection to you. However it just seems you are dead set on going all led. Which is fine as long as you realize commercial growers are still using hps for a reason. I myself use led to veg my plants. I think anybody saying they flower with led and get same result as hps is either full of it, works for somebody selling Leds or is a climate change believer. Hps is tried and true for a reason man. Another way to get around loud fans is to add co2 into your grow room. Allows plants to deal with hotter temps and less exhaust work. Also having plants out in living room in the open bad plan to start. Build a grow cabinet, stash it in back room. Most of all if you have cops poking around already shut that grow down, not tm today. Hope you didn't have seeds, grow lights and nutes sent by mail to your crib. If you don't have security and feel safe growing why even attempt it. Sorry for the rant just feel strong on the subject.
50dbs? That is just above whispering which is 35ish. get the hot air routed out. The fan should draw cool air in unless you are recirculating the hot air. Set up some sound deadening material along the wall between your apartments. Ensure the fan is located on the opposite wall. If ti is uncomfortable for you then your plants are in survival mode, not being very productive just trying to stay alive. Now, at those temps you could consider CO2 as a viable option. They would thrive in those temps and start to go towards a sativa, more apt to have hot genes.
All the replies have been most helpful ive made the decision to stick with HPS and not switch to LED - as said already in this thread there is a reason why nearly all commercial growers are using HID and its a far from small grow so not much point in switching to LED. Im going to buy a air conditioner but its going to have to be a portable one anyone think a 8,000btu portable air conditioner would handle the 8 x 8 room? would i need to run my extractor fan as well or could i remove it all and just run the AC? Also i think in my last grow CO2 was a real issue so im considering adding a intake from outside but im trying to keep the noise down so would a small say 4 inch 50cfm fan do the job? just need it to bring in fresh air not to reduce temps im hoping the AC will do that.