MH or T5???

Just finished a T5 grow from veg to harvest. The T5's (4ft, 8 bulb) definitely run cooler than the HPS setups. The only problem is that they just can't penetrate the canopy of a good batch of indicas. I had to constantly move fan leaves around so the buds could be exposed. I even had to turn the plants each day. I also added 2 additional single T5 4ft fixtures on the sides. Overall, I yielded 7.5 oz for 5 plants that did 1 month veg, 2 months flower. Not bad but nothing to compare it to.

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Originally Posted by hanayama

yea.....im leaning towards straight HID.
dont you need more lumens in your flower room than in your veg room tho? i think i read somewhere about that.( i.e. 20,000 lumens for veg. and 50,000 for flower)
maybe it has to do with simulating nature more...higher sun intensity in summer and early fall when a plant would start flowering...

i have a 400 watt HPS with a switchable ballast already. so i could make that a MH and could get a 600 watt HPS for flower.

but then im back to the energy usage.
im definatley not trying to have a crazy electric bill...

hmmm...must smoke....more on this later im sure

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If you use two 400 watts you'll only be using 800 watts at any given time and use a total of 12Kwh a day if you use the 18/6 and 12/12 schedules. Thats 360Kwh a month. Not bad I say :thumbsup:

Not too shabby if you ask me

edit: Also it's worth noting that your flower room will be more intense than your veg room even if your wattages are the same in both rooms. Remember HPS puts out more lumens than MH per watt. :thumbsup:

thanks for the testimonial turk!

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Originally Posted by daihashi

If you use two 400 watts you'll only be using 800 watts at any given time and use a total of 12Kwh a day if you use the 18/6 and 12/12 schedules. Thats 360Kwh a month. Not bad I say :thumbsup:

Not too shabby if you ask me

edit: Also it's worth noting that your flower room will be more intense than your veg room even if your wattages are the same in both rooms. Remember HPS puts out more lumens than MH per watt. :thumbsup:

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good point daihashi. i forgot about the lumen difference btwn. the HPS's and the MH's.
im going to stew over all this for a while and see what comes of it all.

i wont be growing again for a couple months so there's no rush

thank you to everyone who chimed in.