I guess what im askin is... is there something about the intensity of the 1000 watt bulb that cant be duplicated or does it not matter as long as the watts equal up the same? Im lookin for a lot of opinions, thanks GC for the help...
well, the 2x1000 vs 5x400 is a tough one. if youre most concerned with light intensity, the 1ks do have a little more efficiency on their side (lumen per watt ratio is better), but you could get the average distance from the light to be a lot less if you had 5 lights...so thats kinda moot. air cooling 5 lights would be a lot more to configure than cooling 2 hoods. how many cables and ballasts do you mind having set up? id almost be tempted to go with 3x600 watts. but thats just me
i'd go with 5 4oow if i could. Better able to adjust your lights for maximum coverage. Many lights.Few lights with equal wattage imho.
what you need to think about is the environment, are you going to be able to control it? are you going to be able to keep a handle on your heat/rh? can you keep a supply of fresh air available to your plants, or are you gonna run co2? air cooled hoods really help with heat problems. but to your question, i prefer 1000 watters myself.
First off, thanks for the help bro. I dont mind having seperate ballast for all five lights. I guess I should give a lil more info... The thing is that I have a 5 bedroom home waiting for me and I want to make the best use of the available space as well as lighting conditions. I will only occupy two of the rooms so I have three to grow in. I was thinking 200 watts per a plant as from experience the yield is greater on two plants rather three per a 400w hps. Not much experience but that has been the experience. I also dont want all the lights to be on the same schedule to keep elect. spikes down... well at least as much as I can lol. 3x600 is sounding good but still wit the added info what do u think the best set up would be?
Thanks for the input Gbot! I havent really given too much thought to enviro. control because Im not tryin to cut corners or save a few bucks. I just want the most efficient setup so im willin to purchase fans and etc. as needed. I know what you put in is what you get out.
I think more would be better vice 1 powerfull one simply for coverage. You could stagger then how you want so everything is immersed in light.
I would rather run the 5 400s just so that if one bulb/ ballast stopped working, I would only lose the light from the 400 watts rather than from the 1000 watts
I would say it comes down to the size and particularly the shape of the grow space. If it's more like a long skinny rectangle then 5x 400w will cover it better. If it's more squared (but OK if still rectangular) then I like the greater efficiency (lumens/watt) of the dual 1kw...
Yeah that would be horrible to lose a light if I only had two huh! lol. Yeah I will definately take that into consideration. Oh and yeah I havent exactly seen the rooms in person only pics so I guess room structure would play a part as far as which lights would be optimal... Thanks
600w's are the best lights IMO. I'd get 3 of those, 95,000 lumens out of 1 digital 600w. 285000 lumens, about 15000 less then 2 1000w but you get more area coverage. And 600w are about $100 less then a 1000w, and a 400w is only 10-20 less then 600. Why not just get the 600.