Grow Room Max coverage Vs. Max watts

[Tyler_Durden88]

Im trying to get a debate going on weather you should go for say one 600W LED or a Pair of 300W LED for your grow space. I recently came upon this dilema myself and went for 3 300W LED full spectrum lights instead of say one high powered light to try and use as much of my grow tent as possible. Anybody else have exsperience with this and if so what was your results and preference?

 

[KonopCh]

That's good. It's always better to spread lights across canopy.
PCB boards are better for this than COBs.

 

[Wildcat]

I have used 600w hps and just ordered 2 150 autocobs ... hoping to reduce my power draw. any experience with this ?

 

[Olde School Player]

@Tyler_Durden88 , the science pretty much nails this one for you, no doubt, absolutely 100% certain, two lights (or any greater multiple than two) are better than one.
I'm not a lighting engineer, but I do have a little experience growing. And the science of lighting sez, everytime you double the distance light has to travel, you lose intensity by the square of the light strength. I may not be presenting that 100% correctly, but that should make the point. If you want the full technical explanation, take a look at my light intensity thread (link at bottom of this post). A knowledgable lighting person explained the science.
But the science proves, the further distance light has to travel, the weaker it gets. Two light sources will approximately half the distance traveled. And assuming each light is 1/2 the strength of a single source light, that also means you can position each light much closer to the plant canopy, even further reducing the distance the light travels.
So using your example of a single 600W LED, you would be much better served with FOUR 150W LED's.
Then there's all kinds of other points to consider - a 600W LED is a monster and would cover a much larger area than HID... but compounded by the distance thing.
And how much LESS wattage can you get by with by using LED instead of HID? That remains to be seen & proven, but there's a ton of subjective experience out here in varied growers' threads. Best examples, look at @BigSm0 's COB product & grower threads. These are 50Watts each (at the wall draw, not some bullshit HID equivalency crap that's about as useless as tits on a boar hog), and his recommendation is one 50W COB per plant.
With my side note, that if you reduce light intensity, you can / may need to reduce nutrient strength as well. With less lighting, plants can't use (& don't need) as much nutes.

If you want a bit more data, take a read through my light intensity thread. As yet unproven, research continuing, on the effects intensity has on plant stretch. But there's some good data there on your topic.

And shit, I just looked at the date on your thread & I'm responding to an old thread. @Wildcat made me do it.
Well, hope this helps anyway.

 

[Wildcat]

@Olde School Player thanks for the info. I will checkout your light intensity link

 

[Tyler_Durden88]

@Tyler_Durden88 , the science pretty much nails this one for you, no doubt, absolutely 100% certain, two lights (or any greater multiple than two) are better than one.
I'm not a lighting engineer, but I do have a little experience growing. And the science of lighting sez, everytime you double the distance light has to travel, you lose intensity by the square of the light strength. I may not be presenting that 100% correctly, but that should make the point. If you want the full technical explanation, take a look at my light intensity thread (link at bottom of this post). A knowledgable lighting person explained the science.
But the science proves, the further distance light has to travel, the weaker it gets. Two light sources will approximately half the distance traveled. And assuming each light is 1/2 the strength of a single source light, that also means you can position each light much closer to the plant canopy, even further reducing the distance the light travels.
So using your example of a single 600W LED, you would be much better served with FOUR 150W LED's.
Then there's all kinds of other points to consider - a 600W LED is a monster and would cover a much larger area than HID... but compounded by the distance thing.
And how much LESS wattage can you get by with by using LED instead of HID? That remains to be seen & proven, but there's a ton of subjective experience out here in varied growers' threads. Best examples, look at @BigSm0 's COB product & grower threads. These are 50Watts each (at the wall draw, not some bullshit HID equivalency crap that's about as useless as tits on a boar hog), and his recommendation is one 50W COB per plant.
With my side note, that if you reduce light intensity, you can / may need to reduce nutrient strength as well. With less lighting, plants can't use (& don't need) as much nutes.

If you want a bit more data, take a read through my light intensity thread. As yet unproven, research continuing, on the effects intensity has on plant stretch. But there's some good data there on your topic.

And shit, I just looked at the date on your thread & I'm responding to an old thread. @Wildcat made me do it.
Well, hope this helps anyway.

Date on the thread dont matter to me any grow advise or spreading of knowledge is exactly why i joined this network. And your comment is exactly the reponse i was looking for when i made the post. I was debating this same thing with somone on a diffrent thread and i was the only one stating that coverage is more important than intensity to a point. Some things are just common sense. And nowdays the less energy and electrical draw you have the better with the energy companies keeping all your records and average draw thats the easiest way to get caught other than having loose lips. I put a.c units in the windows just for added security. And i agree with the nutes and light intensity coalition as that was one of my begineer mistakes. Ive since added suplimental lighting in the form of UV-B during flowering to increase bud density and the ability to give them more nutes. My 300w LED's seem to be the perfect medium for my size grow witch is 4x4area and the LED's ability to run Cool also helps to control the temp inside the tent.

 

[Tyler_Durden88]

Also i put my whole grow on its own 15 amp breaker to make sure i dont exceed that amount of amps.

 

[Olde School Player]

A 300W LED in a 4X4 area is probably going to do a good job for you, but I would watch the intensity by not dropping the light too low / closer to the plant canopy. LED's do run much cooler than HID so the old "back of the hand" trick doesn't work to establish a good light height. You'll need to watch for signs of light stress (new-growth clumps of bright white pistils at the top of the buds, most likely directly under the center of the LED. But with that coverage area, if you maintain a 15-18" distance I think you should be fine.
I run a 325W (actual pulled wattage-at-wall) in a 5 sq. ft. tent, and I do get signs of light stress directly under the light's center unless I raise it up higher. Frankly, that's overkill but I can manage it. For example, my current grow has run at 20" high since early bloom. A smaller wattage light could run closer. But, I bought two 3265W LED's when I started transitioning from HID to LED, so I'll use them because that's what I have.
But with LED I noticed the plants would not stretch, and thought it was intensity causing that. After a couple of months with that intensity thread, and perusing other growers' threads, I'm beginning to think it's as much light spectrum (maybe even more) as intensity that keeps plants from stretching. I've just bought a couple of BigSm0's COB's & I'm looking forward to adding those to the grow equation this fall. It's going to be interesting seeing how two 50W COB's will grow compared to my "small monster" 325's. I'll probably hang the COB's in my old 4 sq.ft. tent for the first grow just to make comparisons a little closer.
Ennyways' glad you got some good out of the post, stop by & say howdy whenever you get bored!!!

 

[Tyler_Durden88]

@OldSchoolPlayer putting the lights too close was my first mistake with growing with LED lights. As you said the back of the hand method dosent work well with LED bc of the UV-b and infrared you can develop light burn/stress. Mine are never lower than 18" plus my lights have dimmers as well. I try to find the perfect distance where they stretch just a little to encourage growth then i either scrog or just LST. My problem in the past was always strechy stems now its not even a issue. What brand light you use?

 

[Tyler_Durden88]

Since this post ive upgraded to 3 COB leds and 3 300w panels and 1 600w led panel and I have a couple spares of each. Im still convinced that coverage matters more than the intensity at this point though I do try to get the best ballence of both. Im a big fan of the COB leds they give off way more light per watt.