I am on a limited budget and I simply can’t afford lights that require financing and therefore am stuck with budget Amazon/eBay lights. I have had some success with the box type 1500 watt veg/bloom lights.
First question is this: Is a 1000 watt light that contains 5 200 watt LED’s equal or better than a 1000 watt light that contains 100 10 watt LED’s?
Next question: I am growing auto’s… trying ten this time. I have two of the 150 light 1500 watt lights. I know I need to add lights. Would it be better to group these lights and plants in a box formation and add a few more 1500 watt lights and saturate the area, or put them in say a 20 foot long row with each plant having a 300 or 600 watt light to itself? Basically a few more 1500 watter’s or twice as many smaller watt lights?
I am growing in a empty spare bedroom with heat, a/c and it is vented. I also run a ceiling fan at all times. The humidity runs about 55-60 % and I keep the temp at about 78 degrees. I use 5 gallon cloth pots and Nature’s Living Soil super soil topped with Diatomaceous earth. This is what I have for now and I need more lights. Perhaps I should I get a tent?
A tent is lined with reflective material. It helps maximize the lights one uses. In an open room the photons scatter everywhere. It also helps keep the plants in the dark during lights out, regulate temp/smell/humidity. It will also contain minor liquid spills.
Don’t throw good money at poor lighting. When you have money spend it on a better light. Build as you see fit.
My intention next month is to build Mylar panels to place around the plants. I can customize where it is placed that way. Thought about buying a large tent to fill the room, but the vented ceiling keeps the smell down fine. I kind of thought having a dedicated room was better than a tent and that tents where better for people with neighbors or growing in apartments. Anyway, what is a decent light and what wattage do I realistically need per plant?
A watt is a unit of energy consumption, it doesn’t have any linear relationship to light output. Some lights can turn a watt into more lights than others.
Neither of those scenarios is definitive. Both speak in voltage and current ratings of the particular leds, and no manufacturers run the leds at their maximum ratings. If drive current is 700ma on both, both leds use the same amount of power. So if one light has 5 leds and the other has 10 leds the fixture with 10 leds is bigger. But, if the fixture with 5 leds uses 700ma driver and fixture with 10 leds uses 350ma driver both fixtures use the same amounts of power.
Long story short, look for light output and disregard most of that other jargon. They have to put some bs like that up there to get people to buy their fixtures. If they put sphere data up everyone would clearly see why some fixtures cost 2-3 times as much, and nobody would buy the inexpensive fixtures.