Lighting How to setup 8 x 600 Watt lights?

[SkatterBrayne]

Anytime, the planning and scheming aspect is alot of fun. I have the same lights. The footprint is about 4x4, less if your lights are close to the canopy, though. I would say training is necessary, growing from seed. larger plants casting shadows = larf city for sure, regardless of total lumens.

You can see how my lights were arranged. unfortunately, the spread from the 600s wasnt quite large enough to illuminate the space in between the lights. (Because i keep my air cooled lights very close tomthe canopy, reducing their footprint). So i eventually dropped the UFO leds inbetween to get some more light to the bald spot.

the image under the HPS was after i had already harvested 1/3 of the plants. it will get VERY crowded, i assure you. Carve out a 1 foot path along the perimiter, as wrll as a "+" shaped path in the center, giving you easy access to each light. Then go from there

 

[Happy Horticulturist]

Here's my revised Light Map

I've made the lighted areas for lamps into squares now. Yellow squares with a red circle in the middle for where the bulbs is. The squares kinda overlap each other so it takes a bit of imagination to work out where one lights square finishes and where another one starts.

The dark black square under the lights is where the plants will be. The light kinda overlaps the edges of the planned grow space, but I want the plants on the edge of the grow space to be getting as much light as the ones in the middle. So the only way to do this is to make sure the lights on the outside have bulbs hanging above them.

What you can't see in this light map is there is actually a big more space in the room, down to the bottom, not shown in this diagram (i.e. the room is bigger than this, this is just the 'growing area') where there is a place for my reservoir tank and electrical fittings and nutrient bottles and tools etc etc.

I still need to work it out with the exact measurements of where the bulbs will be over the grow space but I'll do that tomorrow as its' 11pm now and I wanna go watch Survivor and chill. (I know I know.. I watch Survivor... and I LOVE IT so deal with it )

 

[SkatterBrayne]

I cant help but shake the feeling that the most efficient way to light that room would be with 6x 600s. Could you repurpose the other two for a dedicated veg space, or are you determined to stuff all 8 in there?

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I cant help but shake the feeling that the most efficient way to light that room would be with 6x 600s. Could you repurpose the other two for a dedicated veg space, or are you determined to stuff all 8 in there?

 

[Happy Horticulturist]

6 x 600 watt lights is 3600 watts of light. My space is 12 x 8 feet = 96 square feet. 3600 Watts / 96 square feet = 37.5 watts per square foot.

I've read that 50 watts per square foot (or even slightly more) is best, especially with CO2 enrichment which I'm planning on using.

Hopefully the temperature, humidity, CO2 and everything else will be perfect so skrimping on light seems illogical.

8 x 600 watts is 4800 watts / 96 square feet - 50 watts per square foot. Hence I'm planning on using 8 lights. Hope that makes sense.

Actually in the future if I can I'm planning on adding 2 x 300 Watt LEP (blue plasma lights) to increase trichrome production making for better meds. This won't increase yields but will increase the quality of the meds for my patients. So then I'll be just over the 50 watts per square foot

I had a dedicated veg space before but I've switched that to an autoflowering tent now. I will have a small tent in the near future for seedlings just to cut the first two weeks of slow growth off the grow schedule.

 

[Happy Horticulturist]

Ok here is my latest plan

I think it's good - Let me know if there's anything wrong with this. I'm going to hang the lights in the next 24 hours. Thanks