I think the number u want is over 2.5? There’s no super quick guide. And honestly i forget stuff daily and its drilled constantly. DB has a DIY thread around here somewhere with TONS of info on it. And @Painfree is doing a realtime test on a thread somewhere else. Ill tag u on it
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Better roll a couple of doobies for this one haha.
@St.0n3r, the reason you are not ‘getting’ the whole 1,000 watts is equal to 600 but only puts out 180 is because the numbers don’t add up and they are flat out lying to you.
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It’s done more on size of space that light is put than plant count. Ar the end of day you are targeting daily light integral. In layman’s terms, how much light energy your plants are receiving per day. When light schedule is 18 hours per day a ppfd average of around 400 umols per second should put you in efficient range on ambient co2. When light schedule is 12 hours a ppfd average of 600-800 umols per second should put you in efficient range on ambient co2.
Ppfd average can be found by taking ppf (photosynthetic photon flux)/area in m².
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Out if the corner of my eye, the #s look like his eyes, & the t back looks like a grin. The butt cheeks look like his smiling cheeks
Thank you, I’m starting to see the light, pun intended. Ok, more powerful lights it is! They need to put out 400 ppm per second, now is that per plant?
No. You need average light density of 400 umols per second to veg on 18 hour schedule. Doesn’t matter if it’s one plant or 100 plants. Total amount of light over area.
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Ok, so let me see if I got this right. I need the average, throughout the area, and is this at the height of the tops of the plants?
It won’t matter where it’s at if you use the proper formula.
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I just wrote this exact thing on another thread. Great minds on this site.
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Thanks again for putting me on the blurple thread. I went with the 600 kit. Hgl has a link to an assembly video of the product, which in turn has a link to their store & it’s a whole $7 cheaper, lol. I took that cash and ordered a potentiometer from Amazon as well as the “cheapest” par meter. $133 ain’t cheap, but neither is the thought of blurple screwing up my yield.
Going to use said blurple for sprouts and vegging.
I’d also like to thank @dbrn32, @Myfriendis410, @elheffe702, @ron330,@Painfree,& @Killadruid
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Id send the par meter back 
$133 u can use elsewhere in the grow
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Obvious question, why? Also, what & where?
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I could not agree more. Ditch the meter and spend it on dehumidifier or a/c or even cool seeds.
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I agree. The bottom line there is that it doesn’t matter what your light intensity levels are. You will have what you have, and can just watch how your plants behave and adjust light height accordingly.
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I’ve got to disagree. Thanks though, but the lights are rated for a larger tent, and the potentiometer and the par meter will assist dialing in the proper intensity without the need to second guess. I already have an ac/dehumidifier, and live in a very dry climate. I was reading one of the posters about their experience with their par meter and feel that exactitude is more desirable than guess work, which is what I’d be doing without it. My research taught me that there’s such a thing as too much light, and with the rated intensity my lights have, that will occur. Especially with my inexperience. If I have to use guess work, then I’ll use the tools at my disposal with as much information available to minimize the chances of failure. Which, at this point, are significant. I’m not going to fool myself with thoughts of being able to eyeball the proper distance, when I have no personal standard to rely on. All I have is the information that plants need x umoles at x distance, and the meter will be able to help me there until I get an idea what I’m doing with whatever strain I’m raising.
I’m going to go through these forums and try to learn all I can, I’ll be asking after what I need help with. Thank you for your sincere desire to assist me in this journey. I’m going to need all the help I can get.
Same goes to @Myfriendis410 for correcting my profanity, wasn’t aware we were "gentleman botanists"
.
& @PurpNGold74 for your thoughtfulness to lead me to here.
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Nothing to worry about; we would like ‘G’ but ‘PG’ will do. We’re all adults here so an occasional vulgarity is no problem at all haha.
You can achieve data from nothing more than a good graph of your lights and a $20 kill-a-watt meter. BUT! It’s your grow, your style, your plants and your journey. I hope we can help you so we can see some bud porn!
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Here’s hoping to make you drool & drop some profanity over envy! 
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You certainly have the right to disagree. It’s your money, spend it however you would like. The rest of us just speaking from real world experience. There is no “proper intensity” that you will be able to maintain on every plant during every grow. Things like the rest of your environmentals and health of plants will have a fairly large impact on that too.
The light has total flux of 1525 umols per second. In a 4x4 at full power that puts you at a ppfd average just over 1000 umols/s. That’s more light than you need, but it’s not so much that typical healthy plants can’t handle it. The lack of spacing on the boards is always going to have you adjusting to whatever is going on in center of tent too. All we were saying is that you can pretty easily look at your plants and tell when they are reacting to too much light or they can take more.
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Every plant responds in a different way to light, even siblings from the same strain, if your in a dry area and already have an AC and Dehumidifier, i suggest a Humidifier to add to your growing collection 
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