4' T5 or 600w HPS in Grow Tent? Heat, yield, $$ questions....

I have 4' x 2 'x 6.6' grow tent that I used once before with 1000watts and a big air cooled hood. Good results, but I had a 4 inch and 6 inch inline fan to keep temps down and vented to a separate room. The electricity cost bothered me. So I recently purchased a 4' 4 bulb T5 and wondered if I could veg and flower with that, growing fewer plants and still be satisfied with the result. I would no longer have massive heat issues to attend, and I would also save a ton of $ on the electric bill. I do, however, also have a 600w HPS and a cool tube that I'm willing to try out, but would run into the same problems of heat. I'm thinking with the 600w HPS I will only need one 6 inch fan because of the cool tube's efficiency. I'm looking for feedback on yield and quality vs. heat and $$. What would you suggest/do?

BTW please try not to get too basic I've grown drip, ebb & flow, organic soil, 2K watts, 1K watts, 400w before. I'm just dialing in a grow tent.

brownbusta said:

BTW please try not to get too basic I've grown drip, ebb & flow, organic soil, 2K watts, 1K watts, 400w before. I'm just dialing in a grow tent.

Click to expand...

but you are asking a basic question.

You will have some heat issues with a T5 but not nearly as bad as the 1K hps. I have a 8bulb T5 and the heat and cost has dropped to almost nothing compared to my 2-400HPS.
I veg and then switch to the HPS to flower but you can do everything under the T5 from veg to flower.
I run a 4" fan with my T5 just to get the air moving and its not really needed.

What size HPS are you using for flower? I know the question is basic, but I am not looking for a lecture on lumens and square footage etc. Just looking for honest experience/advice. Your answer is just the kind of input I'm looking for. Thanks

I have 2-400 watt HPS for flowering. I used one 400HPS on 7 OG Kush and I needed to use both to get the yield I was looking for. I wont make that mistake again. But I use them in the winter so the ambient air in the house is much lower and my grow room shares a outside wall so it stays around 60 in the winter, perfect for Cannabis.

I also have a 2x4 tent and I run a 6 bulb T5 with a 240 cfm 4" fan drwing through a filter with a small intake fan and my temps run 82 with the light 4" over the plants and here is what my grow loks like after week 5 of flowering.

I have an 8 bulb 2ft T5 HO, I only run the carbon filter for the odor heat is not an issue in the tent with only 192W of T5. Yeild will only be about 3.5 OZ for two plants for me, but that's all I need.

topspin said:

I have an 8 bulb 2ft T5 HO, I only run the carbon filter for the odor heat is not an issue in the tent with only 192W of T5. Yeild will only be about 3.5 OZ for two plants for me, but that's all I need.

Click to expand...

how about CFL's r they any good ??

the t5 is great for veging...ive never used it to flower!

cfl's and T5 are great for flowing quality, not quantity.

You'll get stoney fat nuggs from either, just no where near the amount of HPS.

I don't know about some of these people. My opinion with hps for flowering is almost no change vs fluorescent. If you have the room just get a 6 bulb 4 footer t5. I don't remember the exact watts but it puts out good light and such low heat that these plants grow into the light and into the reflector and they don't burn for a couple days. For clones i have never found a problem with a 2 foot 4 bulb t5. I used to use hps till I tried t5 instead of mh for veg. Heat dropped and the speed at which they grew I want to say is faster with the t5. I have finished one time with t5 start to finsh and can say I haven't noticed of a change in bud too much. T5 is the way to go imo

+ rep to all who replied. I too, got tired of the bills I had from 2 1K watt hps, 3 inline fans, plus electricity for all other components: pumps, ozone, light rail, and oscillating fans. I am trying to do cost/benefit by decreasing a little yield and bottoming out my costs, while not sacrificing much quality at all. I am going to try one run with 4 foot 4 bulb T5 cool for veg, and same T5 warm for flower, with one 6 inch exhaust/carbon filter and passive intake, all soil, all organic. Maybe I will add a few CFLs if I get a chance. Should still yield enough for personal between harvests, and if not enough I will do a 2 stage perpetual. You all rock for the advice. Thanks.

Hey also too I see alot of people commenting here that have obviously never flowered with a T5 like topspin. He obviously hasnt done it because if he had he wouldnt be spouting the same non-sense as everyone else who have not done it. I grew 5 plants in a 2x3 screen under my T5 light and I ended up with 318 grams. That is .98 grams per watt and over 50 grams a square foot. If you know how to grow it doesnt matter what you use for a light. The buds dont change.

I just wanted to copy and paste another post I wrote in a similar thread in hopes it helps out.

Yeah I literally kept the light 1" above the tallest cola and I had a pretty even canopy so it was close to all of them really. Dont forget this too, a lights lumen rating is at 12" and my light is rated for 30,000 spread evenly so really when that light is 6" from the plants they are actually recieving closer to 50,000 lumens. Thats why I really cant bring myself to much pay attention to many opinions on lights here because everybody just jumps on the HPS dick and they dont even understand lights and how they really work. My T5 at 6" is giving my plants far more light than a 400 watt HPS at 18" and it is a much more useable spectrum for the plants. If you know how to grow and manage a canopy you can grow just as well with a T5 as any light. Oh and 1 more thing while I am rambling. My T5 gives every plant the same amount of light. With an HPS the plant directly below the light is getting 3x as much light as a plant 2' either side of the light so that is another thing to consider. Everyone wants to scream lumens but when you look at the whole picture you will see that its not the only thing to look at.

You're the shit dude. Thanks a ton for the input.

Thats An Awesome Thread,I am a Total Noob,I Need to Do Some Indoor This Winter For Meds And Actually Cant Afford the Electric Bill Of a HPS But Would Like To Get Somewhere Close Or At Least In The Same Ball Park To The Yield Of An HPS Setup Using T5's.I have The Room To Spare Just Not The Cash To Drop On a bunch Of Lights and a Pricey PG&E Bill.

I couldn't agree any more with bigv.

I think one thing that is being overlooked here is the penetration power or an HID. I veg under T5s and flower with a 1k HPS and I know there is no way the T5s would be able to penetrate the canopy and bushiness of the plants to get quality product and yield from the side and lower branches. They are great for veg because you don't really have to worry about the light penetrating as much but I want quality nuts on the side and lower parts not just the top cola

they don't penetrate nearly as good as hps, I top and lots of people scrog to keep them short. Again quality is great, quantity will not come close to HPS.

Like I said I've used 1000 watt hps and 400 watt hps before. The yield was great, and though the 400 watts hps only had about a foot of canopy penetrance, the 1K did do a little more... like maybe 2 feet. Regardless, you need lots of space for huge bushy plants, which I had at the time. I want to confine this to 2'x4' space. This way if I do scrog, I can use the lower part of the tent with a partition to seal light for vegging the next gen. HIDs are awesome, I can attest, but like I said, dollar for dollar unless you grow commercial and have the space it is wasteful imo. The advice on T5s here seems pretty good so I'm giving it a try. Even with two fans and vented from air conditioner the heat from the 1K hps was around 84-85 degrees. Total wattage with just one 1KW hps, plus accessories was around 1500-1600 watts. With the 4' T5 ballast I have it will be around 280. I'm curious to see if you could get 5-6x the yield I will in a similar amount of space... without sacrificing quality. My bottom and most side flowers were god awful compared to the top stuff with such a full canopy 1K watts or not.

Like I said I was 6 grams shy of 1 g per watt with my T5. I dont see many people doing that with any light so I am doing ok penetration or not.