Advice for lighting a small grow area

[johan123]

Hey there,

 

Just looking for some advice for a grow room. Wardrobe is W50cm x D55cm x H150cm. Went to a grow shop and got some advice from the dude, he thought 400w Lucagrow would be OK. He rigged up a quick test in a tent he had, about the same size as my area with a computer fan. Temperture sat at around 32C after about 15 minutes running (read 28C is about optimum), said he'd swap it for a 250w if it wasn't any good, but he's got none in stock.

 

Found him really helpful although I've checked the grow calulator on cannversity and it came back with the below stats. I've also read lumens per square foot is min 3000 to 10000 average, which would put it in the 250W (30,000 Lumens) range, 400w (56,500 Lumens). Anyone with any advice I'd like to hear your thoughts. He also recommended canna terra as a grow medium as it's just one pot. Read good reviews on this stuff.

 

The other thing I thought of was using a fluro setup either 80 or 130 but he didn't recommend this due to yield.

 

 

Minimum Lighting 25 watts Per Square Foot

Lighting

The minimum recommended lighting for your area is 75 watts

Ventilation

The minimum flow rating of your fan should be 11.3 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM)

Power Requirements

This setup will require 0.4 amps to be available at all times for safest operation*

Optimum Lighting 40 watts Per Square Foot

Lighting

The optimum reccomended lighting for your area is 120 watts

Ventilation

For optimum ventilation the flow rating of your fan should be around 12.5 Cubic Feet per Minute

Power Requirements

This setup will require 0.7 amps to be available at all times for safest operation*

Maximum Lighting 60 watts Per Square Foot

Lighting

The maximum reccomended lighting for your area is 180 watts

Ventilation

Going this way you will require a fan with a flow rating of at least 14.7 Cubic Feet per Minute

Power Requirements

This setup will require 1.0 amps to be available at all times for safest operation*

Additional Comments

Getting to these points and or over it is highly reccomended the grower use Co2 in their room as your plants will only be able to photosythesise a certain amount of light before needing a Co2 boost to benifit

[Cactus Jack]

If your 'drobe is only 150cm high, and you're using a 400W Luca, chances are you're not going to have a lot of usable growing room between the top of your pot and the light.

 

I'd be thinking about up sizing to another 'drobe.

[Devilspine]

Hey there johan, 400 with just a computer fan in that space and ul be cookin plants. Take a look at a 250 with air cooled reflector. Terra is an easy system to use with decent results..good luck...devil..

[Brimstond]

I grew in a cupboard roughly the same size as the one you are using ....just to do a seed crop ....I used a 250 watt hps and heat was a little problem ...

I left my girls to veg a week or two to long so that made the room way to small for them to head out properly....in the end I had some burnt girls ...with some tying down and bending over they finished out alright with ony a few burns here and there

 

I imagine if you use a cool tube it will let you put your plants closer to the light and may reduce the burn ....but that may be a little be of over kill for a small room

Probly a better idea to do a 250 watt hps with some good intake and exhaust fans moving enough air so your room doesnt cook

 

little tip though ...dont veg for to long in a small cupboard unless your doing a scrog or something ........youll run outa space and the light doesnt realy penertrate the canopy resulting in limey green below par buds that arnt worth shit which wastes all that growing space ....I use the rule that your plant will triple in height from switching from veg to the end of bud eg a plant veged to 30 cm then change to 12 hrs turns into a 90 cm plant at the end of budding

 

So if you work out how far away you have to keep your light from you plants then minus that along with the room your light takes up and then minus to pot height then get that number and devide by 3 to get the height at which you should flip your plants from 18hr to 12 hr's light

 

anyways good luck

 

Cheers Brimstond

[johan123]

Hey there johan, 400 with just a computer fan in that space and ul be cookin plants. Take a look at a 250 with air cooled reflector. Terra is an easy system to use with decent results..good luck...devil..

 

Yeah, i pretty much thought that which is why I was looking at the fluros. The 250 with cooler sounds like a possibility. Was reading it suits 2.5 square foot, mine is 3. thanks for the info

 

I grew in a cupboard roughly the same size as the one you are using ....just to do a seed crop ....I used a 250 watt hps and heat was a little problem ...

I left my girls to veg a week or two to long so that made the room way to small for them to head out properly....in the end I had some burnt girls ...with some tying down and bending over they finished out alright with ony a few burns here and there

 

I imagine if you use a cool tube it will let you put your plants closer to the light and may reduce the burn ....but that may be a little be of over kill for a small room

Probly a better idea to do a 250 watt hps with some good intake and exhaust fans moving enough air so your room doesnt cook

 

little tip though ...dont veg for to long in a small cupboard unless your doing a scrog or something ........youll run outa space and the light doesnt realy penertrate the canopy resulting in limey green below par buds that arnt worth shit which wastes all that growing space ....I use the rule that your plant will triple in height from switching from veg to the end of bud eg a plant veged to 30 cm then change to 12 hrs turns into a 90 cm plant at the end of budding

 

So if you work out how far away you have to keep your light from you plants then minus that along with the room your light takes up and then minus to pot height then get that number and devide by 3 to get the height at which you should flip your plants from 18hr to 12 hr's light

 

anyways good luck

 

Cheers Brimstond

 

Thanks for the advice, more airflow maybe the go, that chart from Cannversity maybe right about maximum watts etc. Maybe I should go for 130 Fluros to reduce the heat and burn?I've seen some decent results on the forums. Cheers for the grow tips too.

[Brimstond]

Fluro's arnt that good for flowering in my opinion ...... they are fine for veging , mother rooms and cloning but they definatly arnt as good as hid's ..........maybe fluros are better for cloning but

 

Even for veging and things the growth seems slow compared with hid ...... I wouldnt recommend cfl's for budding unless its just for supplementary lighting like side or underlighting ...you should have a look at peoples 250watt hps grow compared with the 2x130watt cfl grows .....there should be a few around on the pages to compare to each other and then make your mind up

 

I still use fluros because they burn cooler and can put them realy close to the plants early in their life so it gets alot of branches closer together

 

Cheers Brimstond

Edited May 9, 2012 by Brimstond

[Joddy23]

a Edited May 9, 2012 by Joddy23

[johan123]

250W with fans sounds like the go, were you talking about 2 x 150mm fans? I did a search and found a 250W, scrog with something my size and it looked good.

[Brimstond]

Yeah johan , probly want fans strong enough to refresh the air inside your room every 5-10minutes or so .....when you buy fans they usually tell you how much air they can move .

 

Yeah you will be better off with the hps ....if you look up how many lumens a 250w hps can throw out compared with the 2 130w CFL's youll probly find youll miss out on a fair few lumens ...I think its around 29000 lumens for the 250 hps compared with 16000 lumens for the two CFL's which chew 10 more watts an hour ......and more lumens mean better plants .

 

Plus with better ventilation means more CO2 for the girls to...and plants like that

 

Cheers Brimstond

[Cerberus]

Even for veging and things the growth seems slow compared with hid

 

I still use fluros because they burn cooler and can put them realy close to the plants early in their life so it gets alot of branches closer together

 

I've noticed that too when I had to veg with them. I do the same as you, seedling and clones get the CFL really close until they've got a few leaves, then BAM! it's under the HID for really quick growing (in comparison)