A customer has a question and I hope we can get some opinions on it, thanks.
“Hello I’m having a hard time choosing between LED and HPS lighting. Read many articles on LED and HPS and I’m leaning towards LED but I live in a state where it gets really cold in the winter and I’m worried that the LED light since it doesn’t create a lot of heat so im worred that it won’t be able to keep my grow tent at the right temperature when winter comes around. Any suggestions?”
Not enough info. Is it in a basement? Garage? If it is indoor, those are the places I can see the cold being a problem.
i want to put it in the garage, thats seems like the best option. I know my basement is warmer in the winter but I’m concerned about the quality of the air for the plants down there because it is an unfinished basement dark and dirty
I would get the basement air as clean as possible first. Clean it, cover it, and ventilate properly. As for the lighting, my opinion is that LED is the better decision. I wouldn’t depend on lights to keep all your plants warm. Maybe try to insulate the basement the best you can. LED doesn’t draw as much power, lasts longer, and in my opinion, the lack of heat from LEDs is a good thing.
You know your house. Is there a way to “wall off” part of the garage so you can control the climate in there with a heater? Same size as a commercial tent or use a commercial tent.
There is a middle section where both meet into a room, that is where i
would put it. the only thing forcing me to put it there is the noise im
using a dwc. first time growing so i don’t know how much noise it produces.
i just found an ideal room which is clean ect. its just close to where i
sleep, can you hear a dwc through the floor?
thanks
So in my opinion the cold issue during the day isn’t the problem it’s the temps at night, so now you need a heater at night and if it’s in there at night leave it in during the day and run what ever light you want . I my self use both in my flower tent 200w hps and 600w led both are great. You should get both if you can use them separately and see what you like them try them together and watch the bud flow. Good luck 
Hid lighting does create more heat, and can be used as such to keep a room warm. The problem is, there’s no getting rid of it in the summer months. Using hid you will be considerably warmer than ambient, and it can be a real pain in the ass to cool. Yet much easier/cheaper to add heat in the winter. That’s the way I would look at it anyway.
Use an exhaust fan to get ride of heat a 6" centrifugal force exhaust fan is more than enough for 400 W HPS . It’s what I use and temps at 77-82 day
@Wishingilivedina420state - What’s the inlet temp to your tent? My inlet temp at the bottom of the tent is 70-72, but the temp in the middle of the tent on the floor is consistently 84. I can’t seem to get it any lower.
What size fan do you have? I use a 8" and 6" inline fans for intake and a 6" centrifugal inline for exhaust. Tent in walkin colset house temp is 68-70 f .
Temps on top of sog 77-82 f
3- 6" desk fans on the floor
Temps a little high but my kids adjusted the thermostat in the house so I set it back.
I guess our temperatures are in line with our inlet temps. I have a 6" exhaust and one 6" inlet fan, one 6" circulating fan on the floor in the tent. I guess if I want to lower the tent temp, I’ll have to lower the grow room/inlet temp…
I was able to maintain under 80 with a 150cfm 4 inch fan running at about 70% drawing 36 watts from the wall with 300 watts of led in a 3’x4. House temp usually kept around 71-72.
Perhaps my verbiage wasn’t correct, but managing temps under led has been much easier in my experience. If you get into a situation where you want to add heat, heaters are cheap and easy put in place. If you get into a situation where your temps are too high, it’s usually more difficult and expensive to correct.
In order to thrive and grow, your weed needs…
Light (brightness has a huge effect on yields)
1.) CFL Grow Lights
CFL grow lights are the twisty-looking bulbs you can find anywhere you normally buy light bulbs. They produce a great spectrum for growing cannabis and can be used in tiny spaces where no other grow light would fit such as the inside of a cabinet.
Keeping CFLs close results in the best yields and growth
2.) T5 Grow Lights
T5 grow lights are one of the most easily available types of grow lights and are used to grow many different types of plants. As a result, they’re available in many garden and home improvement stores.
T5s are much bigger/wider than CFLs and usually come as part of a panel, but they can still be kept mere inches away from your plants without worrying about burning them.
These cannabis plants are thriving under T5 grow lights
3.) High Intensity Discharge (HID) Grow Lights
HID grow lights are much more efficient than fluorescent lights and are powered by large, oddly-shaped bulbs. They are usually screwed into a reflector or hood to reflect more light down onto the plants. HIDs are great at growing cannabis, but they also get very hot and are usually hooked up to an exhaust to help vent out heat
4.) Metal Halide (MH) Grow Lights
Metal Halide grow lights are generally used for the vegetative stage because they produce a bluish light that vegetative plants love, though this type of light can also be used all the way to harvest.
The light from a Metal Halide appears a little bluish, and is well suited to growing cannabis plants in the vegetative stage
5.) High Pressure Sodium (HPS) Grow Lights
High Pressure Sodium grow lights are often used during the flowering stage because they are very efficient and their yellow light stimulates bud production. HPS grow lights in the flowering stage get better yields per watt of electricity than any other type of grow light available today, which is a big part of why they are so popular.
The light from an HPS appears yellow, and is great for flowering plants because the light spectrum stimulates bud production
6.) Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) & Light Emitting Ceramic (LEC) Grow Lights
These are actually just two names for the same thing. This type of metal halide bulb uses ceramic as part of the lamp just like an HPS. As a result, CMH bulbs are more efficient than regular MH lights (though still not as efficient as HPS bulbs).
Lately I’ve been seeing CMH grow lights these labeled as “LEC” lights, which stands for “Light Emitting Ceramics.” Since LECs are the same thing as CMH lights, personally I think the term “LEC” is used to make this seem like some new type of light, and in order to ride on the popularity of LEDs…
“LEC” and “CMH” both refer to Ceramic Metal Halide grow lights, which is a type of HID light that is a bit more efficient than a regular Metal Halide light
High Pressure Sodium grow lights are often used during the flowering stage because they are very efficient and their yellow light stimulates bud production. HPS grow lights in the flowering stage get better yields per watt of electricity than any other type of grow light available today, which is a big part of why they are so popular.
The light from an HPS appears yellow, and is great for flowering plants because the light spectrum stimulates bud production
7.) LED Grow Lights
LED grow lights are very popular among cannabis growers as an alternative to HPS grow lights. They tend to run cooler and also usually come with built-in cooling. They can often be plugged into a wall and simply hung over plants which is definitely easier than setting up an HID grow light. LEDs also have great penetration so they don’t need to be moved frequently like fluorescents.
Simply hang an LED light over your plants and start growing!
Example of MH/HPS Setups That Yield 1-5 Ounces/Month
250W HID
1-2 oz per month
Electricity: $69/month (including electricity for fans)
Initial Setup Cost: $605.00
400W HID
1.5 - 3.5 oz per month
Electricity: $96/month (including electricity for fans)
Initial Setup Cost: $744.00
600W HID
2.5 - 5 oz per month
Electricity: $128/month (including electricity for fans)
Initial Setup Cost: $780.00
There is a larger size MH/HPS grow light available (1000W), but at that size it starts going outside the scope of a “hobbyist” grower as far as ease and yields. In addition to needing a lot of extra cooling which costs electricity, a 1000W HPS grow light is less efficient compared to a 600W grow light (as far as how much light is put out for electricity used). I think most hobbyist growers would be happier with a 600W, or even two 600W lights, over a 1000W 
HIDs are very well suited to growing cannabis and very easy to use once they’re set up. If your main goal is to get the highest yields possible, then HIDs are the way to go! However, they do require extra setup compared to the other grow lights because chances are you will need a fan to vent out heat from your grow space
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Air (fresh air with a slight breeze is best)
a Grow Medium (place to grow, soil isn't your only choice)
the right Temperature (room temperature or a little warmer is perfect during the day, cannot stand freezing at night)
Nutrients (start at half as much as what's recommended on the package)
Water (maintain pH for best results, soil likes 6 - 7 pH & hydro likes 5.5 - 6.5 pH)
Whether growing marijuana plants indoors or outdoors, you will need to ensure that it gets the proper amount of these six resources. You will be rewarded with big colas!
Big cannabis cola in hand
Will
If you get where you temps are to high Ether raise your light or get a bigger exhaust fan, two ezest and cheapest ways to re move heat.
When you raise lights you sacrifice par, and buying unecessarily large fans increases initial cost and power consumption cost. And, if ambient air is too warm neither help much at all. Which is going to lead to even more cost and power consumption by adding more climate control. But yes, it can be done. Definitely not my style though. I’m trying to get the most out of as little as possible. Which goes back to my original statement, adding a small heater to combat being too cold is usually cheaper than throwing money at fixing high temp issues. But that’s limited to my experiences, and could be wrong.
There’s definitely a time and place for hid lighting, it’s just my opinion that this situation isn’t necessarily either. Buying quality leds can be expensive, but I also don’t think there’s a single argument to whether the investment pays off down the road. Whether you look at it from a yield/power consumption, or initial cost vs buying additional equipment and upkeep. Either way, I just gave my opinion on whether it was easier to compensate for the heat of hid or the potential lack of heat from led.
I’m just saying if you think a 6" fan is gonna draw more watts then a 120v heater do you.
I have a small personal heater that’s thermostat controlled, draws 150 watts when running. I don’t usually need it, but the few times I’ve used it hasn’t run much. Over the course of a week it pulled it pulled 1700 watts from killawat. The typical 6 inch fan pulls 1.5 -2 amps. Being generous at the 1.5, that’s 180 watts/hour. Well over 2000 watts per 12 hour light cycle.
So yes, I’ll happily keep my leds and heater. And stand by my statement.
Sweet , good information 
Where did you get you’r 200w hps lamp?