Yield: 750w vs 1000w

I have a sealed flower room with two 1000w sodiums with dimmable electronic ballasts and air-cooled reflectors. They are doing a great job over 6 five gallon ebb n gro buckets, but I have to keep the A/C on more than I like, which means I go through more CO2 and have a higher electricity bill. Next run, I'm thinking about turning the ballasts down to 750w and only using 4 five gallon ebb n gro buckets. I'd hardly ever have to use A/C and my CO2 tanks would last a lot longer. I'd be cool with only getting three-quarters as much of a yield as I am getting now, but I wouldn't be cool with getting half as much as I'm getting now. And I think that would be the case because, IMO, the 1000w does a better job of penetrating trees. That said, I'd love to hear someone prove me wrong so I can go ahead and scale down my flower room without losing too much yield. Just trying to get the best bang for my buck...

None of the horticulture specific bulb manufactures guarantee the spectrum and they don't recomend dimming. Why does AC cost Co2?
Theres got to be a way to plug that leak. Maybe try running 1 dimmed and see what id does. Also don't you need your AC to dehumidify?

budleydoright said:

None of the horticulture specific bulb manufactures guarantee the spectrum and they don't recomend dimming. Why does AC cost Co2?
Theres got to be a way to plug that leak. Maybe try running 1 dimmed and see what id does. Also don't you need your AC to dehumidify?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info about the bulb manufacturers not recommending dimming. Didn't know that.

My carbon filter with 8" fan runs all day long in the corner of the room at 50% power and I can keep good humidity and CO2 levels. That all changes when the AC kicks on. I assumed that the air's CO2 and humidity levels are killed after it's sucked into the AC unit. Maybe I'm wrong.

I have a dehumidifier so I don't need AC for that and would prefer to use a dehumidifier as the AC unit does too good of a job of dehumidifying the room when it's on practically all day long. And even with the extra heat from the dehumidifier, the room doesn't go above 85 with the lights at 750w...But I'll probably just leave everything as it is...I think my plants look happier under 1000w than 750w.

Portable AC's will suck air and co2 out. A window unit not so much.