Newbie light issues...do they ever end?

[dedheded777]

Good evening all, dedheded here. Up front, this isn't just my first time on this forum, it's my first time on any forum anywhere so here goes... I have a nice little grow room on the side of my house. My house is semi into a slope so the bottom 45% is in the ground, nice and cool. The floor is 4 by four and I have 6 and a half ft. of headroom. No it's not a tent but an actual room. After you get 3 ish feet up it opens to 60" by 49". I don't want to fool around. I'm not rich, far from it that's why I decided to grow. But I do believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right...right? I would hate to leave bud on the table because I cheaped out on the lights. I bought a L.E.D. 1200 watt but I didn't do enough research and basically bought a light i can't use. The spects say keep it 36 above the plant during veg, but raise to 4 and a half ft. during flower...the only light by the by that I have seen you actually raise during flower. I then did a lot of checking and everyone say's 2 300 watts are better than 1 600. Now for my question...well, a several part question...based on all the pretty lil graphs that are along side the pictures on Amazon a 450 Watt Vipraspectra light will cover veg at 24" in a 2.5 by 2.5 and flower at 18" in a 2 by 2. So to cover a 4 by 4 grow room the best I can I need 4 lights right? Even though that appears to be 1800 insane watts. Part 2. My Century power strip with timer says do not exceed 1825 watts. Vipraspectra says that light actually pulls 200 watts. So do I have 972 extra watts to play with, like for my exhaust and fans etc. or do I only have 25? I just don't want to burn down the house ya know. Thank you kindly in advance for the help. I have 2 Sour Diesels 1 White Widow Max and 1 OG Kush going right now under a CFL and I figure I have a week, 10 days before I have to have my real light shining. In a pinch I plan to at least use the light I have to veg...I have room for that. Should I get 2 or 4 of those 450's?

[Waltermelon]

I think you're too concerned with watts. Watts are almost a useless measurement with LEDs. The only numbers you should concern yourself with is ppfd (light density)and coverage area. Yes, the science has has gone WAY past just simple watts, even past spectrum. They have been able to narrow in very very well on the exact shades of color plants use.
The ppfd number your looking for with the footprint of your room is around 1000-1500 u/mols per sq meter
with out co2. With co2 you can go for around 1800-2000 u/moles.
I use 2 600w panels in a 3'x3'x5' tent at about 18" above the canopy. My math with the advertised specs puts me around 1400 u/mols over my entire show.
Does your head hurt yet? If you need more help I don't have a problem taking the time to help. But it is complex and a lot of math. Not as simple as just hanging a standard 1000w bulb anymore.
but to really help you we need the ppfd values. Even with the electric draw question, there still isn't enough info. He lights should say on them what the wall draw it. Leave about 10% cushion for safety of what's stared on the info.

[RosettaStoned]

I'd love to pick your brain sometime if you don't mind

[Waltermelon]

For sure. I'm not an expert by any means. I've just got the basic knowledge so I didn't waste my time and money. There's lot of Info on the internet, I just don't think anyone's really put it all together In a concise piece for medical growers. It would help a lot to get one together, I'd just hate to put it all together, then it get buried in a mountain of forum posts where it'll never be seen again. I'm really surprised the GWE site hadn't put one together, with at least the basic need to Know info.

[Locrian99]

Everybody is super into LEDs I’m on my second grow, 1st grow I did with a 600w mh/hps I bought on amazon for about 85 bucks (it was a warehouse deal) iPower not a great brand but I got 6 ounces off 4 plants that I assure you could’ve been trained better ph’d better etc etc. they are very straight forward to use and you can get a far better reflecter than I had. I had a cool tube with basically a time piece of sheet metal on both sides. You do need to vent it etc but I wouldn’t not consider them. They work great with very little learning curve.