Register a free account today to become a Bud Builders member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on our site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox.
Join the fun and make some friends!
Mystic is running the raging kush as well!
Thanx some great choices to look into. The CLW spectruamax Vertical 1000 looks nice.
Awesome thanx. And yeah I’m around $1000 plus tax of course. I definitely want something top of the line but not overly expensive. Never thought of Ebay but I will be looking now. I would like to have something for all growth stages tho.What's the limit on your budget?
You can get into something top of the line at around $1000 and something that will do well but maybe not top shelf will be in the $500-$700 range.
Brands like CLW, Raging Kush, Fluence, and Phlizon are top shelf lights. Each unique from everything else and high performance.
You'll have to dig deep on stats but looking close at Gavita, HLG, Growers Choice, and Iluminar, they're all very similar if not the same but under a different brand then weigh the pricing between them to choose.
The next tier in lights would be something from Kind. Kinda middle grade. Not elite performance but also not garbage you'll regret buying unless you go with something too small for the space.
Then after that you got the Mars and Vipers of the world and they'll save on money up front and do well but also give you wanderlust wanting to upgrade later.
If you want high end without the cost, ebay used lights are a really good option.
Two of my CLW were bought used and they perform just as good as the one I bought new and I saved about $500 buying used.
If you do go this route, be patient for the right score and come back here for second and third opinions on the deal you're looking at. We love talking lights around here
I don’t have a tent. Just an upstairs bedroom. If it gets too hot up here I place a fan in the attic entry in the ceiling to pull out the heat. I only grow from October until late may. Because those are our coldest months. And your right my lights do most of the heating so no heaters unless it hits below 20 degrees.
Hot isn’t the word. Roasting is more like it. The CLW runs 3065 btu 104 degree operating temp. The raging Kush ll isn’t that far behind less BTU ‘s but runs at 104 degrees also. I like the CLW Vertical 1000 but I also like the 120’ optics of the Kush.
I’ve been running the lumatek zeus pro 2.7 for a few years now in flower..great light and no issues at all..checkout the buds in my grow or media photos
Thanx for all the great info. I have looked at the Philzon FD8000. No tent for me. I have 8’ ceilings and a 12x12 space. Minus a walking area. So 10x12. And No salesman hoopla for me. All my research is here and at the websites. Yeah the top shelf lights are nice if you need 1. But the way I’m looking at sq feet I may need 3. Kinda why I’m looking for something that doesn’t lose light intensity on the sides. Or at certain heights. I hang my lights a bit higher than manufacturers recommendations.
I have 2 quantum boards from Phlizon, theyve been good to me so far.
Thanx for the heads up.
Think of optics like the f stop on a camera. You can make the photons converge in a specific zone to keep the ppfd focused on a specific band in the canopy rather than spraying them everywhere. It’s an efficiency thing.
I’m running hlg’s on 220 with groflux controllers. I really like them.
@Ikilledit I didn't catch the part earlier about running 220V. Are you setting up a commercial grow? I guess I'd like to know more about your plans ... For a small home based grow using 1 or 2 lights, there's no real benefit to justify the extra expense. My answer changes if you are looking at running multiple lights on the same circuit.
That's really not true. When you double the voltage, you use half the amps. The circuit to the light may run cooler, but 640 watts is still 640 watts and the light fixture temperature remains the same. For one light, it's a big expense for no realistic amount of energy saved.
Makes the ballast cooler with less amperage
I thought about it just to relieve the wall outlets. But when I ran the electrical I only put 3 receptacles per home run. Plus they’re on 20 amp breakers. I used 12/2 with ground so they should be good. The reason I thought about going 240 was so I could just run a line and have a ceiling plug and eliminate the extension cords. But I could do that with a single pole I could just run a dedicated circuit for 2 lights on a 20 amp breaker.
I disagree. I’m not talking about the fixture running cooler. I’m talking about the ballast. There is also no added expense other then running the 220 line if it is not already available. I have it existing from when I finished my basement. As you said, a watt is a watt and Kw hours is what is billed so it doesn’t drive up the electric bill any more then a 110 would.
Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Your ballast is still consuming the same amount of electricity. With 240V, you have 2 120v hot lines each carrying half the amperages. Once that power hits your ballast or LED driver, the draw is still the same. Each line is providing half the amperage needed to drive the light.
I still disagree. I do agree the main advantage is it allows more lights to be run on the same circuit.
That’s what I want to do. Run 2 lights on the same circuit safely. I have 250’ of Romex 12/2 with ground and a few double pole 20 amp breakers.
I would recommend the lights, I am thinking it's probably my error in using the app, I just don't quite get the logic behind how the recipes work yet but I'm getting there. Their tech support has been super helpful when I have had time to call them, like I said, I do believe it's my error and not the light itself.
20 amp circuit x 120v = 2400 watts max surge so 75% of that would be your max continuous load which is 1800 watts. You can easily run 2 lights but might be pushing it with 2 lights + 2 fans and all other equipment you might try to run on that circuit.
This is only for lights. I’m just going to run a double 20 and use each side for a single light. I’ll have 2 circuits on one receptacle. My breaker box is upstairs. So I’m only 20’ away. I’d would take me less than an hour to run it, hook it up.
That's what I did. I ran 2 new 20 amp circuits so my 3 lights are each on a different circuit. Each circuit has plenty of available amps for all the extra equipment I run.
My argument against running 240v lines is the extra expense involved in running 12-3 wire as opposed to 12-2. You pay out the nose for wire anyway and that extra strand adds to the cost. Also the plugs cost more. The outlets cost more. The light also has to be wired to accept more than 1 input voltage. Most lights today will likely be wired that way ... but probably not all of them.
