Lighting a 10' x 10' space

[YYZ Skinhead]

You would be fine running 2- 600 watt bulbs on a standard bedroom circuit of 15 amps (check your panel); load would be just over 10 amps on a 120 volt circuit. Depends on what else you may be running on that circuit- fans, etc.

That sounds about right. My outbuilding can do a 1000w and a 400w and two fans off one outlet in the ceiling, but I aim to bring in both of those two and run the 1000w in the same room as the two 600s. In addition I was thinking of lengthening my frame to 6' x 6'.

 

[YYZ Skinhead]

how are you keeping that thing cool, must be using smaller reflectors too.

Two fans (one for each light) and camouflaged windows. The budroom is an outbuilding at least 30' deep and 15' across, but the growspace is a half-tent with open ends on a 4' x 4' steel frame. The reflectors are smaller as well. If I get a ballast off Craigslist, I will get another hood the same size as the small Hydrofarm glass-bottom hood on the 1000w.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Why are you running small reflectors?

 

[YYZ Skinhead]

I bought them used and they were already assembled. Even before that I had read that small horizontal reflectors deliver more light than large horizontal hoods (page 31 in the original Last Gasp edition of Closet Cultivator, the grey one). It may or may not be true.

 

[BBFan]

I guess it depends on the size of your canopy- or where your canopy will be. If you see that dark line, it's too small or too low.

 

[YYZ Skinhead]

Wow, I am glad I read this before I went and bought an undersized hood. I thought the small hoods would be okay for 16 square feet.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I bought them used and they were already assembled. Even before that I had read that small horizontal reflectors deliver more light than large horizontal hoods (page 31 in the original Last Gasp edition of Closet Cultivator, the grey one). It may or may not be true.

That is kind of a weird statement. And while, I guess, that you could say that it may be technically true, there is more to it than that. A small reflector spreads the light over a small space, so I guess that it does deliver more light--just to a smaller space. Unless you have a small space, you are generally going to have to keep a small reflector quite high to get enough light spread to cover the entire area you want to, otherwise you will have dark corners and/or ends. A larger reflector will spread the light over a larger space and still allow you to keep your light close to your plants. If you have good reflective surfaces in your grow space, any light that hits the walls will be reflected back to the plants. I believe that a larger reflector is the better option.

 

[ston-loc]

The main thing I wonder is how I would power 3200 to 4000 watts. Could an average bedroom draw that much power by itself without blowing a fuse? I could easily use my spare room for a space that size, but would I need to draw power from two different rooms and synchronize timers for above 2000 watts? I am afraid to try.

You DEFINITELY need more than one circuit to run that. If 4000watts, even maybe 3. You can steadily run 1920watts on a 20A 120V circuit safely. 15A circuit, 1440watts.