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Light Question
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Light Question
I’m doing my first indoor grow, and I’m at the point of buying lights. I will be using a 4×4 in a cold house over the winter in the north of England. I have very little money to spend, but only want to buy once at the same time. My question at the moment is should I go for HPS over LED ? I attached a picture of my balcony weed.
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11 Replies
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If your growing in a cold space HPS could be beneficial to keep them girls warm. I run LED. A 1000 watt HPS will work in a 4×4 space, but there could be problems in the spring. Myself, I would stick with an LED and maybe a small ceramic heater. I don’t know what your budget is, but there are many lights out there. HLG is a pricy alternative, but highly recomended. Vipar spectra, has more budget friendly lights. I’m running two p1500s in my 2×4 and haven’t had any problems.
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thanks for the reply. I’m going with the HPS over this winter and switching to led next spring.
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One advantage it keeping the ambient temps in my flat higher in the winter, blowing out all the heat 🙂
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HPS can be cheap to buy up front but buying $100’s of dollars worth of bulbs every few months get’s old. An oil-filled radiant heater is a good option as they don’t produce light for cold nights.
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cheers. They have them on offer for 30GBP at work. Will pick one up.
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funny thing is I was sent 3 600w bulbs by mistake when I bought a ballast. So going to run with that for now and hopefully have money for a LED next year.
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I recommend a good LED for your tent. Much more efficient overall, saving you money every month. If you’re in a part of the country where home cultivation isn’t legal, that HPS will show up on a FLIR camera like a giant hurricane in a satellite image. The driver for the LED light will add enough heat along with the light itself to keep your tent most likely at 21 Celsius or around there if the tent is closed. Assuming you’re in a cottage or flat and the ambient home temp is near 17 celsius in the coldest winter months. Cheers!
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I’m stuck using the HPS for this winter, I just don’t have the money for LED right now. I bought a 600w ballast for 30GBP and was sent the ballast and 3 bulbs by mistake. Great advantage to using a LED though, and one I had no idea about, so thanks for that nugget of information. Yes, it’s illegal in the UK, but nobody is coming to knock your door down for a few plants, and my landlord knows I grow.
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LED and a radiant heater, you might be able to get away with using the led and it’s driver as daytime heat source and have the heater on opposite timer settings to only kick on at night or lights out hours. You can probably find a used led at your local hydro shop or online that still has good life. Just seen on offer up a guy has 4 chilled led growcraft x6 for sale for $180 each. I believe they are normally in the $700 + range.
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that’s sadly still more than I can afford right now 🙁 I still need to buy fans and filters.
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Use that you need 50 watts per sq foot. 4×4=16 sq foot. That would say to use 800 watts.
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