Mars Hydro - FC-4800 EVO

The FC-4800 EVO is a 480 watt bar fixture producing 1368 µmol/s, meant for a square 100 × 100 cm growing area in flower. Its 2.85 µmol/J efficiency is the figure for the complete fixture.

480 watts of light is 480 watts of heat

Every watt this lamp draws comes back out as heat. A small part leaves the tent as light your plants actually use, but that part is negligible in a heat balance. So assume your extraction has to carry away close to the full wattage, and add the rest of your equipment on top of it.

That changes the order in which you should buy. People pick a lamp to suit the tent and only then an extraction fan, sizing the fan on the tent. At 480 watts in a single square metre the tent size is no longer the limiting factor: two 100 × 100 cm tents running a 200 watt and a 480 watt lamp need very different ventilation, while being exactly the same size.

So work backwards from your lamp rather than your floor area. If temperature climbs during flower, more light is almost never the answer and more air almost always is. Our grow tent builder pairs an extraction fan with a filter for each tent size, which is a sound starting point if you are putting the whole setup together at once.

Technical Specifications:

• Model: FC-4800-EVO
• Power: 480 W
• Light output: 1368 µmol/s PPF
• Efficiency: 2.85 µmol/J for the complete fixture
• Flowering coverage: 100 × 100 cm
• Current: around 2.1 A at 230 V
• Dimmer: built in
• Cooling: passive, wave-shaped heat sink without a fan
• Weight: 13 kg

Frequently asked questions

How much extraction do I need with this?
That depends on your tent, your ambient temperature and whatever else is running. Treat the full lamp wattage as heat load and use our builder as a starting point.

Does the fixture itself get hot?
The heat sink runs warm, which is normal. Keep the space above the bars clear so that heat can escape.

Does dimming reduce heat?
Yes, proportionally. At sixty percent the lamp draws roughly sixty percent of its wattage and gives off that much less heat.

Which diodes does it use?
Mars Hydro switched to another brand of diode during the production run, so we name none. The stated output and efficiency are unchanged.