Grow lights

If you have deep pockets and money isn't a issue you're going to want to buy a 1100w EGT 8 Bar from Eco Growtech This light is a beast and I personally know someone who is getting 3 pounds off 4 plants with one light, he runs autopots and Dual fuel from Green planet and has been doing this consistently for a couple years now...I have a the same light and my first run was a preprep for my outdoor run and in my entire 15 year outdoor experience I never had to transplant my clones from a 5 inch pot and I had to transplant them all into 1 gallon pots within 6 weeks and by the time I put them outside they were almost 2 feet tall and I finished the year with with 2 pound plants roughly....If you do decide on getting one tell them Jason Savoy sent ya from New Brunswick Canada ask for Tilia you can get a 20% discount because I'm a affiliate...

Autoflowers - FC-4800 or FC-6500 photoperiods - FC-6500 pr fc-8000 Boosting co2 with autos - FC-8000 Boosting co2 with photos - FCE-1000w use those as baselines... "umol/s" should be similar for each context if comparing different brands.. if they give ppfd, that info is below, too. If motivated, can potentially find better deals on alibaba, but always like pulling teeth to get accurate information from salespeople. A high efficacy light should be around 2.7-2.9umol/J. I'd let price dictate in that range as it would probably take 7+ years to make up any difference in savings. Diodes will run cooler even if not top bin, which means longevity will be as advertised, or closer than anything else out there for certain. This is something light manufacturers, especially the cheaper models, lie their asses off about. quick trick for samsung 301 based lights is to ensure that they are running at 0.25w per diode.. anything more and efficacy drops and heat increases. only top bin at higher wattage could maintain this range of efficacy, but even that comes with faster degradation with the extra heat when run at >.25w/diode. if paying for top end, it better have this ratio to warrant any premium pricing. again, only for lm301b or lm301h based diodes... the 4-5% 'other' types of chips will not impact efficacy much - weighted average. You pay for efficacy... don't let them short you. remember... divide watts by number of diodes... if it is not at or near 0.25w, it's not a premium light and is overpriced. A couple other tricks to catch liars is in the section below covering a few specs you should udnerstand. Less heat means teh plants can grow closer to lights too... if headroom is an issue, this is a benefit. Bar-style frame is going to give best allocation of light across your canopy. Avoid Quantum boards if paying a premium price... maybe an array of small ones, but good luck finding high quality.. and still moer hotspots. Autoflowers you can get away with a smaller light because you can run it for longer than 12 hours per day during flower. In fact, if you find a light that's maybe 5-10% lower umol/s, you can simply provide 5-10% more hours of light per day to make up this difference... important to remember if looking for alternatives. this is obviously true for photoperiod lights, but limited opportunity to increase light... figure 1/12 or 8% more is possible if you go from 12/12 to 13/11 for bloom. Photoperiods you will need another 150% compared to an 18/6 cycle because at some point it can only run 12 hours per day... Gotta squeeze in higher umol/s per hour to reach same energy provided per day to the plant. This is what DLI is... the total amount given regardless of how fast it was dolled out (umol/s). - Daily Light Integral. it takes into account size of garden in teh calculation so it's apples to apples metric. 5x5 is 2.32 m^2, important for PPFD. Some suggestions below with ratings given in following order Light model / watts / umol/s / PPFD / DLI -12 hours / DLI 18 hours FC-4800 is 480w. Produces 1366 umol/s. 1366 / 2.32m^2 = 588 PPFD -- DLI (12h) is 25.4 -- DLI (18h) is 38.1 FC-6500 is 730w. Produces 2079 umol/s. 2079 / 2.32m^2 = 896 PPFD -- DLI (12h) is 38.7 -- DLI (18h) is 58.1 FC-8000 - is 800w. Produces 2309 umol/s. 2309 / 2.32 = 995 PPFD -- DLI(12h) is 43.0 -- DLI (18h) is 64.5 FCE-1000 is 1000w. Produces 2766umol/s. 2766 / 2.32 = 1192ppfd -- DLI(12h) is 51.5 -- DLI (18h) is 77.2 you can reference this ppfd value along with hours per day of use on a DLI table (i've done it for you above). The FCE-1000w series uses bridgelux chips. i am not as familiar with them. i'd check out their longevity tables at bridgelux.com and what power they are runing them for those 50k hour liftime estimates... (this is why i mention 0.25w/diode for the samsung chips.. if you go to samsung.com, that is the power they test them at and it matters a lot for longevity and efficacy claims) The frames of the 730 and 800w are essentially the same size. The fc4800 is smaller and the fce1000 is a bit longer, but similar width. So, for autoflowers, one stands out as near perfect fit in regard to light produced, but the frame size is quite small for 5x5 and the corners of your 5x5 area and edges will suffer -- i have this light and certain of this assessment for a 5x5. All the other lights are definitely overpowered for autoflowers. The FC6500 needs to run about 70% power over 18hours for autos or would damage the plants, but could be dual use with photos and gives better coverage across entire canopy = better buds on edges and corners. Because of the size of space, i'd lean fc-6500 in this context -- More versatility, but probably dimming it to 70% power for 18/6 cycle. *can also raise light further if headroom is not important -- this would even out light distribution further, but would be more wasteful, which at some point would reduce hotspots similar to 70% power while also giving more light to edges/corners. For photoperiods, both the 730w and 800w make sense. You might* be able to give a few percent more than the FC6500 provides. You probably need to knock off a few percent from the fc-8000. Frame sizes are similar, so distribution of light will be similar. Or, could adjust height by 1" or so... that's the type of differences here. Distance you hang light from canopy should be more about geometry or light distribution... since you are going 6" out from frame in all directions, an extra inch or two of height might be beneficial. 20-24" is probably going to be best relative to this footprint, just guessing. So, that'd probably push the needle to the FC8000 for photoperiods. The 1000w option would only make sense for photoperiods AND you plan to boost ambient co2 to 1300-1500ppm while regulating temps and RH to get the most out of the co2 and light. And, even then, too much for autoflowers. The FC8000 and fc6500 with boosted co2 is probably more than you can give for autoflowers over 18hours. Use these as a baseline, if you cna find better that's awesome... most likely only find that working directly with some alibaba manufacturer, which comes with its own risks and annoyances. A wamer CCT (less than teh FC's 3400K give or take) might be better, but probably cannot tell a difference in outcomes with the naked eye. These lights have UV, but tbh, it'd be better to have uv only for mid to late flower, otherwise plants build up a resistnace to it.. uv helps with trichome prodcution. think they sell those as inserts for bar-style lights, not necessariyl mars hydro brand though. Some hefty heatsinks, and an overall durable build quiality, unlike their cheaper models. Specs to at least understand the gist of... DLI - daily light integral. this is max light a plant can process per day. the "max" is relative to temperature and co2 in atmosphere... 35-40 DLI for ambient co2, and 55-60DLI if you add co2 and keep temps at 25C or higher within safe limits that dont harm plant. umol/s - photons produced per second by the light, if accurate this is important. umol/s per m^2 is how you convert to PPFD. PPFD can be referenced on a DLI table with hours of use per day to give you resulting DLI... With DLI you can compare lights apples to apples regardless of garden size or hours of use, so it applies to both autoflowers and photoeriods - easier eh? umol/J - efficacy of light. if watts * efficacy does not equal advertised umol/s, something is wrong. someone is lying. this will be directly related to longevity and heat production -- less heat comes with more light per watt. This is another way to double check for lies on spec sheet... anything in these price ranges should not lie. it's a REALLY bad omen. If efficacy is off .01, no big deal.. but severa tenths is worth hundreds of dollars in quality. watts x umol/j = umol/s produced. you have 2.32m^2 area. Ambient co2 600 PPFD for 18/6 - 38.9 DLI 900 PPFD for 12/12 - 38.9DLI Boosted CO2 800-1000 ppfd for 18/6 1200-1500 ppfd for 12/12 Again, if you boost co2, better also regulate temperature, control RH and overall feed the plant perfectly.... or you won't make use of all that extra umol/s of photons per day.