115 watts per square foot

Here is what I use. I have no overheating problems.

4x3 closet with 1000 watt cooltube, pulled by a 200cfm squirrel cage and room is fed with a 150 cfm squirrel cage. Light spread is great. I get a very even canopy. 12 plants in 3 gallons

4x7x4 box with 2 x 1000 watt aircooled lights, fed by a 6" 500cfm inline fan and exhausted (through the hoods) by a 750cfm inline fan. 50 plants (30 in planter box, 20 in 3 gallon pots).

5x5 closet with 2 x 600 Digital HPS aircooled lights. Fed by oscilatting fan and passive intake (plenty for now, it doesnt get above 75 degrees in there), pulled by a 700cfm 8" Vortex fan through both hoods. 30 plants in 3 gallon pots.

5x7x5 box with 1 600 Digital HPS for flowering, 25 plants in 3 gallon pots, and 400 watt MH + T5 Flurescents for 6 mother plants in 3 gallon pots on the other side. Exhausted with 500cfm 6" fan, intake with a fresh air 4" 250cfm fan near window.

Ra Do you use any type of transformer or regulators for electric? What is the biggest headache with your set up? What kind of Oder control are you using?
Adieu

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Originally Posted by BlueBear

Ra Do you use any type of transformer or regulators for electric? What is the biggest headache with your set up? What kind of Oder control are you using?
Adieu

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For everything but the 600 digitals I use standard 110v connections and I split them on the circuits so theres never more then 1500 watts on one circuit. I use nice surge protectors. For the 600 watt digitals, I run an electrical box that splits a single 240v connection into 6 240 volt connections. It uses a fairly standard 2 pole connector inside, the cool feature is that the connector is turned on and off via a normal 110v connection so you can hook a standard timer up to the box and not worry about running 40 amps through the timer or getting an expensive 220 volt timer. Running a 240v connection allows a ton of amperage through one circuit. More peaceof mind.

I dont use any odor control in the cooltube closet except a little homemmade carbon filter that I dont think does much. For the larger areas, we use carbon filter scrubbers. So essentially its a standalone filter with its own fan, pulling air through the filter and then blowing it back into the air. It "scrubs" the air. A 6" filter about 3 feet tall can easily clean a 20x20 foot room if its pretty sealed. However I dont use any odor control until the last few weeks of flowering. Just never smells that much. I scrub the air where the exhaust is blown, not in the actual grow rooms. This reduces noise and increases space. There is so much air being sucked out of the room that it doesnt smell anywhere unless your inside the actual room.

Biggest headaches is with the boxes and their height. Even with my 5 foot tall box, the largest the plants can ever get is 3 feet tall and lately my plants have been tripling in size easily during flowering. Our 4 foot tall box can only reach 2 feet tall (one foot for the hood, one foot between the canopy and hood). The boxes are more likely to get warm, but they are easier to control. Its been cold around here lately so my intake charges are nice and cool. If you have big overheating problems, sealing the lights and giving them their own fresh air intake will greatly reduce temps, but it requires more fans and more ducting. Otherwise, not really any big headaches. Humidity seems to be under control but I have a portable dehumidifier in case. I am a big fan of the cooltubes. They really work.

A pal that ran a sog garden using hps did some experimenting with the lite intensity. He ran the same strain of clones in the same system for several crops. Lumens were 1-50w psq, 2-75 w psq, 3-110w psf. He said he didnt notice any difference in yield or growth beyond 50w psf, but managing the extra heat and elec usage were a chore.

you should shoot for atleast 50 watts per sq ft dont really consider it overkill until you get over 80 but even then it could still be of benefit if your suppling side lighting to large plants even a 1000 watts over 1 7 footer isnt going to have well developed lower buds the light just cant penetrate that far, so would consider over 80 overkill unless you are doing it for large plants or a verticle scrog or someway of growing that you are using alot of the height of the room as per efficiency a grow room utilizing smaller plants and more of them is going to be more efficient as you will use less wattage for both veg and flower and have more harvest per year.

Hey OregonsDank
how is everything doing with your grow?
Adieu

Good so far :D

Using 1000 watt MH in a 4x4 room with 6 clones in 3 gallon pots :)

Pots are full of roots, but still havnt used up the initial water from when I transplanted, and plant height really hasnt budged , growing slow but strong - looks super healthy :)

I think I shocked them a bit when transplanted due to lighting changes and other issues I got worked out, hoping they grow soon so I have somthing new to look at /tap foot :P

do anybody know a good spot for clones?

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Originally Posted by SANDMAN187

do anybody know a good spot for clones?

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Making your own is the best way. You'll need two weeks, a bottle of rooting solution (I got it for $6 at the local Home Depot), and finally a tray with dirt or something to root it in. There are many good threads with informative cloning techiques on this site.

Anyhow, if you insist on buying ur clones then go to Hypropronic Shops and ask them, who knows, they might even have some in there.

as stated earlier, after you reach 40-watts per square foot, the results diminish, supposedly holds true, ... but those 'equivalent wattage' figures on CFLs are hogwash, in my opinion ... I have a 500-watt equivalent CFL that isn't even close ... hope that helps some ... :smokin: