Qs on lighting a new grow space from KB (split from light info sticky)

i plan to grow approximately 5-10 females in my next grow and want to swap the cfl setup for a more efficient HPS one.

would a 400watt be a good choice, and how much would the bulb, reflector, and ballast cost approx?

Ever get the feeling your caught in the middle of an episode of "He said, She said" where nobody's completely wrong and nobody's absolutely more right? It's better that talking about politics I guess. And klondike, I think it all depends on the dimensions of your grow room, but more light=better, like maybe 1000W hps for a big grow like that. But I'll leave that to the techies. For 5 cool, for 10, bigger, I think.

i was thinking 400-600 depending on opinions here. from what ive seen, the ballasts alone are gonna be almost 100$ for the sucker.

the 5-10 approximation is based on me planting 15 seeds in janruary and expecting up to 5 seeds to do squat and for about 1/3 of remainings to become males.

Yeah, I'd say go for the 600. Your kinda caught between a rock and a hard place on that though. I think a 400'd be okay for 5 plants. But out of 10 you might get 5 girls, but you'll have to veg the 10 to find out. So IMHO, the 600's the way to go.

Depends on how big your plants are gonna be and how much room you have. I usually figure on at least 1.5 square feet per plant....about 15" by 15." More room is better, but I think you can get 6 plants into a 3' x 3' space. For that area, a 400 will be fine. HPS lights, unlike cfls, get more efficient as they get larger. A 400w bulb will put out 50,000 lumens, which is 125 lumens per watt, and about 5500 lumens/sq. ft. in a 3' by 3' grow area. You'll do fine with that, no doubt.

But if you're going to have bigger plants (over 4') or more than six plants, definitely go for more light. A 600w plant can handle a 4' x 4' area, and that's enough for 8-10 plants.

ok...looks like 600 it is.

upon looking around, it appears that most ballast, batwing, and bulb combos are gonna cost me 200-300$ or more.

does this sound appropriate? i understand the payoff from such an investment, but still.....thats a lot

First...Ventilation, man. Don't forget that.

$200-$300 sounds pretty good... but you might want to try craigslist too. Sometimes you can get really good deals on equipment there. Good luck!

my venting will be no problem

im using an entire basement room for it (20X10 approx, maybe a bit more) and will put a circulating fan in there somewher.

i then plan to use my current 6-cfl light board in another room or its own gro zone for a mother/cloning

300$ is a lot of money for a lightbulb and transformer tho. surely theres other sources?
(this is probably stupid: what about a computer PSU?)

If space and venting aren't an issue, I'd definitely go with the 600. But I wouldn't use any computer power sources. I'm not an expert, but I think the main issue is that PSUs don't provide as much of a constant electrical flow. You need a negative resistance to the regulated positive flow, and I don't think a PSU does that.

$300 is pretty reasonable for that much light. I like Discount Hydroponics, and they've got a 600w for $189.95 that comes with a standard HPS bulb.

Discount Hydroponics - ValuLine Lighting

It's not a switchable ballast, though, if that's important to you. And shipping will be a lot. It seems like a couple of the places on ebay are Canadian-based companies...you might get a break on shipping there. Or, like I said, you can try Craig's List...my friend got a 400w light with an aircooled reflector for $100 on there. Just my .02.

ive check kiji and craiglist. sent a few emails regarding 600 and 1000watters. (1000 is out of range i think, but if i get it 100$ less than id get 600w in a store, itll be a savingas and allow a few extra plants if i so choose to supply my whole block :p