Quote Originally Posted by inutero11
like i said,im mainly looking for the BIGGEST YEILD possible form these 4-8 plants...and trying to determine how big of a differnce my light is going to be...thanks for anyone that replys!!!!



And for reference,,setup is DWC in 5 gallon buckets
If you're looking at 8 plants max (which will use around a 3x3 area) a 400 or 600 watt hps will be about right. A 400 will give you 44 watts per sq ft (a little on the low side) and a 600 will give you 66 watts per sq ft. (just right imo) A 1000 watt would give you 111 watts per sq ft (for me this is a waste, i'm sure i've read somewhere that anything over 80 watts per sq foot give very small increases in yield and is basically a waste of electricity) Not to mention the increased heat that you will have to deal with.

For me it's an easy choice, get a 600 watter and should you want to grow more plants in the future you can add another 600w and double your area from 3x3 for 9 plants to 6x3 for 18. 600w lights scale up better than 1000watters from what i've read.