Am I understanding this correctly? When looking for an led light, the power draw from the wall is more important than the advertised max wattage?
I’m gathering that from a prior topic on lighting. I have a small 32x32tent. I’m doing 2 autos in there now with a cheaper 600w led that only draws 150w from the wall. (When I bought it, I just saw 600w as 600w)
Do you guys think I need to add some more light, or should I get 2 good plants from the current light?
And, if I wanted to fill that tent up, does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably priced led light that would kick butt in that size area?
3 x 3 would be optimal wat 450 watts of something like hlg. 2x 260 kits would do you nice
U could probally run 2 more of those u have there probally much cheaper but hlg is quality light and not purple lol
It’s possible but you may get airy buds. I grew Six autos in a 2x4 tent with 2x 600watt led actual power draw 135 watts each. Did great on veg but could have used a little more light in flower. I have just upgraded to a quantum board so I’m hoping for better results.
QUANTUM BOARD is made by HLG (horticulture lighting group) i have the biggest ones they made at 640 each i have 4 of them 640 actusl watts they do a 5x5 with co2 potential. Upto 1545 ppfd thats excelent if your looking for above average because natural co 2 will limit how kuch might ur plants can processd befofe u get imballanced so many things to explain how important light is dont make multiple lighting decisions do oje thats gonna grow with you literally i can do a 10x10 at 1000ppm co2. And get benifit… Atmost pheric is 300 to 400 that only need 800ppfd to be maxed out im double that and the sun is only 2000 ppfs
Welcome to the forum @Joethehippie.
It is not about how many plants per light as much as it is about watts/square foot. Using led’s I target 35-50 watts/square foot. Right now I am growing 4 plants in a 4x4 tent, giving each plant 4 square feet for growth. This method suites me fine and keeps me in all the fresh herb I need.
Thanks man. So that’s 35-50 per sq ft (wall draw?) That’s good info.
So, since My tent is roughly 7sq, then I’d optimally need about 210w of led light (based on the wall draw of my particular model light)?
In my situation, My current 600w only pulls like 130w… so I should add light to try to get that number up to 210. If I put that extra 300w led I have, I’m thinking I’d be probably be close to that target number for now.
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What light exactly are you talking about? Watts is really a poor metric to base what light you want / need. You can use that watts per sq ft estimation to pick what size quality light you need. If your light is a blurple and your in the return window i would advise considering a return and reinvestment rather than addition. When I returned my two super blurples I only ended up spending another 150 or so for a much higher quality light. If your light has fans built into it they are eating some of that wall wattage as well.
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It’s a bloomspec, and yes it does have fans (another element I never thought of).
I see some nice non-purple LED’s out there that resemble the super high end boards ppl speak about.
Are they better than the purple ones? Like a Mars hydro or something, with ample wattage?
My small grow isn’t enough for me to invest a super lot of $$ on the professional equipment. Down the road, if I can get a larger setup, I’d consider it. For my small therapeutic grow, I’d love to keep a light within the few $100US range.
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You can blow the walls off that tent with a few hundred. I would recommend anything with samsung 301b/h whites and hopefully cree/osram/whatever other top quality reds are out there i’m no pro but I’ve done a bit of research in this area. A hlg 260 kit with the discount code would put you around 300, if you could put that bloomspect money towards the purchase even better. Sure you could also go with a lower cost light just be cognisant of the diodes being used and reputation if possible.
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That is true but his question was about watts front the wall and I wanted to answer that question for him trying not to muddy the waters off the get go. You are correct and i agree 2 inexpensive burples do not equal a quality light from another source but budgets dictate spends. I am of the mind set of buy once cry once.
What kind of budget do you have? Right now you can get a HLG-260 Rspec for $349. The kits save some $ and are a straight forward build. This light would do everything you want and more. It would supply the ppfd the plants like where the burples just can’t get there. I’m not saying the burples won’t work just the final quality will not be top notch. You could get through veg save some more $ and introduced the light during the flower stage.
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I hear you, and nothing wrong with your answer either I just wanted to throw that out there as a sort of rabbit hole for OP to go down if they wanted to. I once bought lights based on watts and thought I was set until everyone here showed me the light and even better while I was in the return window. Saved me massive $ and some closet space not having those blurples collecting dust
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