1000w hps vs 600w and light mover

I have the Hydrofarm 4'.5" x 4'.5" and i can tell you that heat is a major factor without a cooling reflector and you need extra fans pulling fresh air in! not to mention your plants need all the air they can get....down here in the south....1000w would be over kill and not woth the trouble nor the extra $20-$30 on your bill....stick with the 600w and consider some cfls underneath if you want to feed the bottom of your plants....you'll be happy....a good strain, nutes, and good hydro setup, you'll be impressed in that hut

thatnks fletch. awesome info

godcloset said:

Thanks for the replies
okay, I hear you guys.. 1000w is preferable. One piece I forgot to mention is that I am needing to run all this on one circuit- veg/clone, flower, fans, pumps, etc, along with a few lights in my apartment that happen to be on the same 15amp circuit. The 1000w draws 9+ amps which seems like a lot. I'd be willing to do it and find ways around it if necessary, but I wanted to see how much a 600watter could do if "maximized", say with a mover and a digital ballast. In the hydrohut a mover could go on a 3 foot track, back and forth.
Is there no way that a 600w light can put out enough light to build some big thick buds? Or is it just in the nature of the light to just not be as bright, so no matter what you do its still only 90,000 or so lumens to the plants?
Basically my question is: Does a light mover simply spread light out, or can it increase yield over a stationary light?

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As for the lighting for best results you should shooting for 3,000 to 4,000 lumen per sqft. You could go as low as 2,000 lumen per sqft to support plantlife but you wont have as good results. Going above 4,000 lumen per sqft wont hurt the plants provided the room temp stays where it should. However the farther you go over that amount the amount of benifit the extra lumens provide tapers and it tapers off quickly so you could be burning extra electricity without much if any extra benifit.


Allright So you have 4x4 space thats 16sqft. A 1000w bulb is 140,000 lumen and this would be 8750 lumen per sq ft.
600w bulb is 90,000 lumen and this would be 5625 lumen per sq ft. A 400w bulb is 40,000 lumen, this would be 2500 lumen per sqft and would work but you may have lower yield and loose light airy buds. Personally I belive that the 600w bulb would be the way to go. The 600w bulb is more lumen per watt than even the 1000w bulb so your monthly bill is going to be the cheapest with the 600w. To estimate your monthly costs. Watts X hours(per month the light is on) / 1000= KWH. Then multiply the KWH by the price you pay per KWH. (listed on your electric bill)

A light movers benifit would be to allow you to cover a bigger area with less lumens and there wont nessesarly be a big noticable differance in yield however A mover will give you a more even distrubtion keeping the plant growth more evenly through out the room which can be a benifit.

Having only 1 120v 15amp circuit makes the 600w bulb a logical choice. Allthough another option if possible would be switch to a 220v ballast. A 1000w at 120v is 8.3 amps however a 1000w at 220v is only 4.54 amps. Switching to 220v wont save you any money on the electric bill though and it would require you to run a 220 line into the room which maynot be an option for ya. The 600w at 120v is 5amps and still the choice I would be making even though others on here have told you otherwise. You can keep the 600w closer to the plants and lumen per sq ft wise its still overkill for his space. I highly doubt you would notice a differance in how dense the buds were between the 1000 in this space over the 600.

The 1000w is just going load that single circuit breaker twice as much and by the time you add in the exaust fan(s), Pumps, and etc you could very well be triping that breaker. The 1000w will allow you for 6amps of other stuff on that 120v 15amp breaker. The 600w would allow you to plug in 10amps of other stuff. So sit down and figure out everything including future aditional stuff thats going to need to suck juice from that breaker before you make your decision.

theres a guy under the advanced cultivation section that pulls like 4.5 pounds off of one 600 watt and a 6foot light mover, he uses his own smart pots and trains his plants like crazy. maybe not 4 but he says he pulls well above 1 gram per watt

Its only 4.5 x 4.5 I have a 8x8 w 2 600w HPS on cooltubes and I would highly suggest 1 600w with cooltube for max cooling or you might find yourself with heat issues really fast. I have a 4x4 for my veg tent and with 4 flouros and 1 LED heat can be a issue if I dont keep vents open and fans going.

600watts / by 120volt = 5 amps yes, but if you were to run it on 240volts it would be half that. 600watts / by 240volts = 2.5

600's are by more stable and efficient than 1000w lights.

2 600w lights will make MORE LIGHT and probably less heat than a 1000w'er

2 600's on a mover will promote stronger plants than a fixed single source light, any day.

moving lights causes the plants to move and follow it. this strengthens the stems much like a fan and promotes growth.

bigger stalks, bigger buds. make sense?

redundancy. you got 2 lights. one burns out. big deal. you got one light, well now ur plants are sittin in the dark.

air cooled reflectors.

the glass eats up alot of light and ALL the UVB. {uvb = trichs} sooo honestly a 600w bulb with no lense under it really is the way to go.

so in my opinion, 2 600's will kick a 1000w light ass all day.

i would use fixed reflectors..like bat wings, or umbrellas and a/c the shit out ur cab. if its just a hydrohut you can use your room as the "lung" and keep the box i ncheck with a big fan.

multiple point lighting is the shit!!!!