Lost in translation... Help please...watts vs lumens vs kelvins?

O

Og from wb

New Member
Alright...I am more confused then before I started reading on the subject. Seems everybody has a different answer.
I have a 4x4x7 tent I only have 2 plants centered under the light in 3 gallon containers using a 40/40/20 grow medium. I am using root organics nutrients. I am trying to figure out if I have sufficient lighting but am at a loss . Some people say I need at least 600 Watts of actual power usage, some say to pay attention to lumens and others say kelvins is what I should be concerned with....please help. I am lost trying to sort through fact vs bs
 
Airwalker16

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
Lumens are relevant to human eye on how bright a light is.
Kelvin is the color temperature of the light itself.(3000Kelvin=more red,6000Kelvin=more blue)
Watts are a measurement of consumption. It's how you're billed for electricity.

What you need to be looking for is Photon Output. PPFD.
 
wietefras

wietefras

Well-Known Member
It's all just an indication anyway. Plants can deal with a very broad range of light intensities.So yeah Watt or lumen or or PAR watt or PPF or average PPFD can all work perfectly fine. If you know the kelvin and efficiency of your lights that is. It would also be handy to indicate surface area. 600W per m2? Or 600W per football stadium?

Lux and a single PPFD measurement would generally be less useful since they depend on a lot of parameters on the testing side. So unless you want to spend money on a light meter (which you don't actually need) then those would not work.

Also you need to factor in efficiency. If you have a cheap Chinese purple fixture then you would need twice as much watts as you need with a fixture with current (and highly efficient) Citizen, Cree etc COBs or Samsung/Bridgelux led strips.
 
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