just to throw it out there solid state circuitry consists of no moving parts within the circuit. Digital ballasts are solid state. if some of the components within the circuit are blown or damaged u have to replace the whole damn thing. the components cannot be pulled from the circuit board for they are extrememly small and are placed and soldered by machine. if u were to try replacing the components givien that u colud even find the problem, u would more than likely damage the traces surrounding the component. magnetic ballasts are not solid state because you can replace the transformers, starters , and capacitors at will upon failure however they are much less efficient than solid state. again solid state consists of nonreplacable components such as microchips, processors, transisters, diodes, blah blah blah.....
hallo foks,how much distant above the top of the veg plants should i mount 1x t5? and how much time needs the clone under 18w t5 to turn on veg? to flowering i have 3 O.B. under 1xnitro... 400w-55000 lum, and 4xcfl/18w/2700k, 1 t4/18w/3400k and 1x like 120cm t5 i think/33w/2700k, and every think is working fine. in like 2 weeks i will hang to dry. is my first groow by the way. great write'up by the way. thanks for that.
ASCUBUS101: thanks for that info I thought something along those lines but I'm carefull to not give bad info, you explained it like a pro...kudos to you!! LERNER: The "K" is kelvins it is a unit of measurement that tell you the warmth of the bulbs color 6500K is in the blue spectrum better for vegitive growth "spring light" 2700k is more toward the white light resembling fall type light. If someone can better explain the "warmth" of light and color spectrum PLEASE feel free to jump in here!
i dont think i asked what kelvin means, i already knew everything about the spectrum lol, its okay though, anyone who dont know will know now
Try eBay or Amazon too for 65k CFLs - I got a pair of big ass 105 watters 65k for $37 + shipping. They were 19.99 at Lowe's. & almost everywhere carries 27ks - it's just them 65ks you got to hunt down. Hey G do I got enough power for my grow? Here's my light set -up - veg room -(2)clamp on reflectors(like my clamp -ons - easy to move into any angle) w/ Y socket & 2 - 23 watt 65k 1600 lumens & (1) monster 105 watt 65k 5,000 lumens for top light 2'w x 4'd x 5't veg room for (4) white castles. Bloom room 3'w x 4'd x 5't - (4) white widows -ya seen em Ontagintinon(will call you that 4ever luv under (4) clamp-ons Y socket 2-23 watt 27ks 1600 lumens & another 1 of them monster 105s 65k 5000 lumens top light & ea plant has it's on clamp-on that I move around the sides. Do I got enough PROPER power for these grows - also both rooms are solid panda cloth (80% even reflection - no mylar hot spots 4 my babies)& plants are in panda pots - veg room will blind you it's so white ya gotta wear sunglasses Can't believe I had to come to forum to ask detailed ? about CFLs 'cause we screw around in 'School' too much & get off track - damners Oh & even w/ all those & running on 18 on/6 off & A/C most of the month bill was only like $15-20 over average- going to be butt burner this summer 90s since last week & 102 Fri betting on upper 90s most of summer & 2-3 weeks of 100+ in July & August. Decent size plants for almost drowning the 1st 2 weeks & trying to fry 'em for next week after the great 'flood' TWW white widow game - Marijuana Pictures, Photos & Videos - Grasscity.com Media Gallery The 'Goddess' says 100-120 dry & betting 2 males - 2 females - new pics 4 ya tomorrow Stay healthy - 'School' wouldn't be fun w/o you
i run a single 200w ( 600w equiv) 6500k 12,500 lumens cfl in my veg cabinet. it is as good for vegging as any mh or led. led was a disaster for me . after paying top dollar for a 90w ufo .it blewup after less than 3 months. i wont use them again, or aleast there is a standard and the junk leds are forced off the market. you cant tell if you are getting a good one or junk by name or looks. mine was labeled a major brand name but it was still a cheap chineese knockoff and a 400 dollar waste of money, be very wary of leds. Kelvin is a temperature scale based on the properties of hydrogen. it is also the most accurate of the 3 universal mesurements Farenheight (mercury) and celcius (water) and kekvin. the k number is the arc temp of the lamp required to produce light in the area of the spectrum desired. 6500k = 11, 200f or 6225c
Woah, uh... there's some SERIOUS misinformation about T5s in here. A 4ft 4 bulb T5 fixture with HO tubes puts out 20,000 lumens from 216W. I have no idea where you're getting your 5000 number, but it's completely wrong and pretty much invalidates every conclusion you make. T5s also cost WAY less than CFLs over the long run. They're 9-11 dollars each for 4' tubes. edit: rated lifespan of T5s is 20k hours, rated lifespan of CFLs is 10k hours on average. edit: and you can get pure phosphor T5s that emit nearly only blue and only red (or only green... though that's useless for growing obviously)
20,000 lumens are emitted but less than 10,000 are used by plants. just cuz you have a blue spectrum doesnt mean that a plant will use all the lumens that the light produces. in fact there is no light in production that has 100% useable lumens. if you measure a 4 foot fluro's lumens from one end of the bulb to the other you'll find that 60-70% of the lumens are emitted from the center 1ft of the bulbs. and even though they may last 20k hours the effectiveness drops bigtime after jus a couple months. I use T5s for small seedlings, but that is all, with a side by side grow (which I have done many times) the CFLs (good ones) have always had notable improvements over T5s in the vegetive growth stage. I would not replace a HPS with them but I would NEVER use a metal halide or T5 over a quality CFL for vegetive growth. Why spend 100% more money to get 5% improvement?
...100% of the lumens from a CFL are concentrated in a space much smaller than 4'x1'. You do not "lose" anything. The plants nearest the brightest spot always do the best, regardless of the kind of lighting you use. And don't try to pull some PAR crap on me, you did no computations for PAR and showed no spectrum graphs. The 10,000 lumen count you gave for those CFLs is also NOT PAR-adjusted (there's no such thing... lumens are the inverse of PAR). So if what you're claiming is true, you knowingly and purposefully posted a biased comparison... or you just didn't have your facts straight. So which is it? Also, the brightness does NOT drop after a few months. That's one of the major advantages of T5s. They maintain nearly their full intensity for their whole life. T5s are simply a better technology than CFLs. They give more output per input unit, and have non-ballasted bulbs so they're way cheaper in the long run. edit: http://www.globalinductionlighting.com/images/LumenMaintenanceChart.jpg This shows relative dropoff of lighting types. As you can see, T5s/T8s do way better than other lighting technologies, then drop like a rock since they just die. http://ecmweb.com/ops/electric_fluorescent_lamp_coming/ this one claims even better efficiency. Perhaps the technology improved at some point.
to a point you are correct, but only to a point, regardless of the "output" of any light, this thread addresses the total "useable" lumens reaching the plant, not leaving the fixture. I dont mind a difference in opinion but if you read and think about it maybe you'll understand better what I am explaining. you can not deliver the light at a 45 degree angle with any intensity. with a CFL drop set up at 2 1/2 - 3 inches, you WILL see increased growth rates and that is all there is to it. see even beyond the math, you just dont have the versatility. no matter what the box or the math says you must concider the "position" of the bulbs. and YES those T5s DO lose out on lumen output over 2-3 months, get a meter and check it out for your self. and please don't go "troll" on my thread, as I would not dis yours, opinion is very welcome....with respect to ya..
There's no "trolling" going on here. There is you, claiming untrue things about T5s. And then there is me, posting facts. T5s decrease in output like any lamp, but they retain their output the best out of any common grow light technology. There is no possible debate; T5s have a better lifespan than CFLs, and retain their output better over their life. I really have no idea what you're even talking about with the 45 degree angle thing. You can't deliver light at an angle with intensity? That doesn't even make sense in any way. And nothing about my T5 fixture is 45 degrees.
Though I should say there's nothing wrong with CFLs really... they DO work. I did my first grow with them. They're just somewhat less efficient in a few ways than T5s, which I am now transitioning to. I've heard that they're working on new CFL bulbs using improvements that T5s have used, so it may be a moot point soon anyway.