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blueberry D said:
Cfl is  def a no, no. Hps very nice.
(Cfl equals light airy buds)(hps equals big dense buds)

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Paradigm Shift said:
Thanks,
what about LED buds what are they like?

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Depends on the setup. Cheap generic fixtures tend to grow fluffier bud but good fixtures can grow dense bud.



HPS is cheapest to get into and shines a lot of light but takes the most electricity to counter the effects of the bulb, air conditioning, cooling fans, etc.

Fluorescent is good for veg and supplemental flower lighting. T5's are great because the 4' fixture covers a wide area.  They seem to fit best in side-lighting situations.

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TrueHerbCrystal said:
just found a decent looking LED 300 watt light for $90 http://www.ebay.com/itm/VIPARSPECTRA-Reflector-Series-300W-LED-Grow-Light-Full-Spectrum-For-Indoor-Plant-/191838783521?nav=SEARCH

Not sure if thats too cheap.

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TrueHerbCrystal said:
Is there a HPS wattage that doesnt need active cooling like A/C?

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This is more of a case-by-case situation, because it has more to do with the way the room gets rid of heat than it does the light. The light will always input heat into the room at an almost constant rate. If the room transfers heat really well (i.e. little or no insulation, surrounded by cold outside air, or has a good source of cool air to pull into the room after the fans have pumped out the hot air), the the room will accommodate a higher wattage light without overheating.

Adding active cooling (HVAC) will artificially increase the wattage capacity of the room, but may lead to worries over the safety of the plants in the event that the AC fails.

For small amateur grows, it appears that in order achieve similar bud quality, there actually isn't a drastic difference in heat output between equivalent lighting systems (except for higher quality LEDS, but a good one is typically too expensive for the hobby grower). The slight differences between the other lighting systems only becomes significant on a larger scale, but then initial/operating cost differences between lighting systems also becomes more significant, hence the use of HIDS in most large grow operations.

Having said all of this, I've always used  high flow inline fans and a smaller growspace  (typically 4x4 or less) for my amateur grows, properly isolated the growspace's air intake and exhaust to prevent immediate recirculation of hot air into the grow space, and relied on good air exchange and my house/apartments HVAC system to keep the air around the grow space cool. This has worked well for me, and I've managed to support a single 1000W HPS in a 4x4 space without a supplemental AC, and maintained the grow space within comfortable temperature ranges.

For contrast, my first grow was a stealthy grow that couldn't make much noise, so I shoved it in a small closet, with an LED light and very little ventilation, and that closet and the surrounding room shot up to 85 degrees during the day

It's all about the complementary design of the room and the light. Hope this helps.

The reason you need more cooling in an HPS garden vs LED is that it shines/radiates all its useless energy(infra-red) on everything--the walls, equipment, the plants. Heat then needs to be transferred from that surface to the air, then out the garden from there.  In order to drive this reaction and keep your plant leaf in the optimal range (low-mid 80's) you need to cool the air to less than that (low-mid 70's).

With LED you shine less wasted light on everything, including the plants, and none off to the sides and top. The excess heat it generates is trapped in a heat sink and and exhausted directly to the air. You eliminate the need to cool the plant to counter the effects of the bulb.

Some people will tell you a watt is a watt, but its not true. It depends on how you spread those watts out that determines how much work(watts) you need to do to round them back up.

This illustration shows what I'm talking about.

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Data said:
It's all about the complementary design of the room and the light.

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