4x4 tent - 2 x SP-250 OR 1 x Epistar Pro II 320

[IndoorTropics]

I was planning to use a 600w HPS but am concerned about heat issues. It seems where I am located I only have access to these two models and am not willing to import due to insane duty rates.

My main concerns are heat and noise.

I see the Pro II Epistar 320 is 61db and the SP-250 is 0db, so there is a no brainer winner here.

Moving on to heat, it seems the SP-250 runs at 887BTU (x2 = 1774BTU) and the Epistar 320 runs at 1883BTU. So actually very similar in terms of heat.

My main concern here is that i am switching to lower the heat in my tent produced by HPS which again i believe runs at 2047 BTU.

So.. 2 x SP-250 should run about 13-14% cooler than a 600W HPS.
Or.. 1 x Epistar 320 should run about 8% cooler than a 600W HPS.

Considering that i planned to switch from HPS to LED to lower the heat in my tent i am surprised by how little cooling effect will actually be achieved, plus if i went with the epistar 320 it would be quite noisy at 61db for my liking.

Looking for opinions or experiences and thanks in advance!

 

[Bard420]

You can remove the driver on the sp250 and put it on the outside of the tent. It produces most of the heat on the unit

 

[Boognelson87]

Mars hydro now offeres extension cords free with every sp250 now to put driver on outside. Let me tag @MarshydroTina and see if she can get you lined up with some. This is the reason im choosing the 250s. Without being able to put driver on outside i prolly would have opted for somethijng else. Other than heat how do you like them?

 

[IndoorTropics]

Mars hydro now offeres extension cords free with every sp250 now to put driver on outside. Let me tag @MarshydroTina and see if she can get you lined up with some. This is the reason im choosing the 250s. Without being able to put driver on outside i prolly would have opted for somethijng else. Other than heat how do you like them?

It would still need to be wired by myself right? It is not simply plug and play with the extension cord that is thrown is it?

Wish I could get ahold of a TS3000 instead. That is only 413 BTU if my research is correct.

 

[IndoorTropics]

You can remove the driver on the sp250 and put it on the outside of the tent. It produces most of the heat on the unit

yeah but I have seen the video and dont fancy messing around with any wires lol. definitely not one of my stronger skills.

 

[Simplicio]

From looking at its spectrum, that Epistar seems to be an out of date blurple light, whose noise is caused by a fan needed to blow heat off the older less efficient LEDs.
The other light has a much better spectrum from more modern diodes, and is probably much more efficient.
But it's almost 4 feet long.

The BTU numbers are energy, not power, and it's power that determines amount of heating.
I suspect they are BTUs per hour, which is power.

The driver might get hot, but that doesn't mean it puts out a lot of heat. A tiny glowing cinder is very hot, but puts out little heat.
Drivers are typically more than 90% efficient, and at the lower 90% end, a 600 watt LED's driver puts out only 60 watts of heat.
Most good drivers are around 95%, so in spite of how hot they get, they can only put out 30 watts of heat, assuming the efficiency doesn't depend on temperature.
It's the LED itself that puts out 90-95% of the heat.

Also, it's total power that determines heating.
A 300 watt LED will cause almost exactly the same amount of heating as a 300 watt hps.
The only difference will be that more power from the more efficient light will convert to chemical energy in the plant mass, and that means less total waste heat.

 

[Boognelson87]

yeah but I have seen the video and dont fancy messing around with any wires lol. definitely not one of my stronger skills.

Im the same way. Why i got an hlg 100 instead of the 135. The video they made did seem to make it look pretty easy. Im sure shell get on here and comment about it. Like you i dont like messing with wires either. what height is light from plants and what temp is your tent?

 

[IndoorTropics]

Im the same way. Why i got an hlg 100 instead of the 135. The video they made did seem to make it look pretty easy. Im sure shell get on here and comment about it. Like you i dont like messing with wires either. what height is light from plants and what temp is your tent?

Not running a grow yet. This TS3000 power extension cord looks like you dont have to play with the wires or am i missing something? This looks more like plug and play and no need to play with wires? Is that correct?

 

[Boognelson87]

That looks like same connection type like mars offers for 250 dont hold me to that though. And thay does look easy enough

 

[Boognelson87]

Go under the marshydro section and tag marshydro tina..they do a great job getting back to people.