Hey this is just a speculative question, for those who may have already undertaken the time to construct and test it, but I want to know what you think of 700w of compact flouescent bulbs on a 2'X4' board, with a fan mounted at one side to cool???? Do u think I can get a pound or two, or should i go back to my magnetic ballasts? magnetic are much more recyclable and earth friendly than toxic digital ballasts BTW! but seriously, if I have 29 23w bulbs, and one 30w, thats 697w total, over a 8 sq ft board... do u think my standard 50-60w per sq ft (a 3.5x4ft area aprox.)will yield the same as A 1000HPS?? and, for info I have 25 3500K color and 4+1 2700K color. Any insight?
25 cfl's @ 40w = 1000w The 40w cfl's have 2600 lumens, so 2600 x 25 = 65,000 lumens. Thats not very good considering a single 1000W hps or halide would have way more lumens than that. Also light intensity isnt near as strong as with HID lighting.. You would have to keep the cfl's so close to the plants that your coverage wouldn't be all that great and your plants would be hot.
agreed........ stick with hps. its about the lumes . Ive grown with cfl when I started growing, was never happy till I switched to hps lighting. be glad you got a reply...... lol.... I asked a question about 5 gal pots vs 10 gal pots and all I got was send pics of your grow. whats the ph whats the air in vs the air out.... blah blah blah...... not one answer just got harrased cuz I wouldnt show pics of my grow,,,ha
After you get so many CFL's you will start to reach a point of diminishing returns. I'm not an expert, nor have I ever heard an informed response on the matter but I think eventually the CFL array would use more power than the HID and actually give less usable light.
and when i had it going right, I had 1000w covering only 16 sq ft! but really, its 30% less power and 50% less light. For a $50 and one hour assembly investment! and they are 30x 23watt 2000lumens bulbs in a red color, 3500K and 2700K. but thanks for the replies everyone. I very much appreciate the input, if I don't sound grateful. TY all
So you went with the cfl's.. Be sure you keep them no farther than 3-4 inches from your plants. Fluorescent lighting is low intensity, so you have to keep them close to the plants or they will end up stretching. You're going to need some side lighting as well because of the lack of light penetration when using cfl's. Also those bulb's are going to be cooking so make sure you have good ventilation and a fan blowing across the tops of the plants. Good luck with your grow, hope everything works out for you.
I hope it works out for you, I really do. But I have to say that I think it's a mistake to go with that many CFL's. You will have the same power consumption for less usable light. HID lighting is effective at greater distances than CFL's. You're going to have to keep 30 bulbs within 6" of you plants to make them as effective as 1, 1000 watt bulb. How ridiculous does that sound? All of the time in your grow room will be spent adjusting bulbs, and swimming through power cords and shit. If you want to use CFL lighting, use it like everyone else. Do it for your first 1 or 2 grows. Put one plant under 6-10 bulbs. Grow it out to learn the in's and out's of growing. Then move on to more effective methods. There are very good reasons that the pros don't use CFL's.
This is the point I was trying to get across to the OP in another thread he tried to say CFLs are more efficient. Its just not true, I laid out every single fact that these guys told you in this post. Lumens per watt is lower. Intensity at same distance, Foot Candles, is alot lower. That leads to less penetration. Cooling a large array of bulbs vs 1 compact tube. The only thing I left out was more clutter and less room to work and move around. Oh, and the broader color spectrums that HID lights can produce. If CFLs were more efficent, the HPS and MH market would completely die off. Who the hell would pay the MUCH higher price for the setups and power draw if there was a much cheaper and efficient solution? Again, I am not saying that CFLs cannot be used with good results. But I am vehemently stating that CFLs are no way better than HID in any aspect other than cost per watt. Good luck with your grow.
I don't know how many times I have seen new people come here and do this. They try to go the cheap, easy, and unplanned out way and expect great results. The point is, 1000 watts of cfl light doesn't come close to the efficiency and lumens of an hps light. They all at some point wise up, usually partway through flowering when they realise there buds aren't giant fat colas. I am in no way knocking cfl's, if thats what you have to work with go with it, save up some money for a better light if you want see some great results. There is a place for cfl's just not as a main lighting source during flowering.
PLEASE let me know where i can get a 1500 watt HID bulb... MH... HPS... i dont care. did you make this chart?
I got it from a post here on gc.. Here's the thread I got it from: http://forum.grasscity.com/general-indoor-growing/503453-hid-light-guide.html If you check the properties of the pic you will see the site it came from. http://www.1000bulbs.com/1500-Watt-Metal-Halide-Lamps/ <---- 1500W MH .
Yeah I had already broke it down for him, see below.. They are far less efficient than HPS and MH.. I was surprised to see he chose the cfl's.. Live and learn I guess. He'll probably still get ok results, but obviously HID is a much better choice.
also one thing to think about making a board with a bunch of bulbs pokin out. remember that if you mount them vertically you will loose a lot of light. i would suggest laying them down against the board with mylar or some other reflective surface to get the most out of the bulbs..sure it might take up more space but if done right i bet it would work great and be super bright.
Thanks for your valuable comments, whiteboy! Do I come off as new to you? Do I sound unplanned? Am I not wise enough to be here? Fair enough, thanks for not being prickish;More efficient up to a medium wattage HID. btw, Its very difficult to go by either footcandles, of lumens, as these are obviously not specific to plant wavelengths for measurements. Again, I mounted them to a board 2x4 ft. with a fan on the side. Plus its winter in the attic so the heat will help actually. But... My first 2 grows? Those were done with 2x1000w MH, and 6 1000w HPS, with my clones from my ezcloner120. in coco coir 3gal pots. with canna ($$) nutes, plus the basics like hygrozyme, nitrozyme, roots excelurator, etc. I think I've learned most everything i needed to know, up in nor-cal. But as far as now? Yeah,, I know u were wondering, but it really does suck to get the door kicked in while at work and have EVERYTHING stolen, including my safe... and the police just shrugged. and I was legal. well F*ck everybody. I'll figure something out, I always do and always will. And I know who did it too, thats just a kicker. My karma is finna run your dogma over.
Obviously You Havent Learned Everything You Should... Heres a Better Idea. Save Your Hour of Time and 50 Bucks Go Back To Work For a Few Weeks And Buy one 1000w MH and 1 1000w hps..... Get another EZ Cloner and Start Over Again Oh Yea I Almost Forgot.. DONT FUCKN TELL ANYONE Nobody Thinks Your Cool Cause Ya Grow... In All Reality By Telling People You Grow Your Setting Your Self Up For a Few Things....1. Getting Robbed... 2. Getting Into Trouble...and 3. People Expecting a Hookup...
You're better off going HPS dude... Check this out.. insidesun.com has a 400 watt HPS fixture + Ballast AND bulb for $99 right on their front page. At that price you can get 2 of them and run them side by side covering a 8 x 4 grow area enough for like 8 plants. Dont hassle with all those CFL's.
A little, yeah.. Planning does no good if you plan to do it wrong so ... yeah Nobody ever implied that. You just asked for advice, got 10 replies that all agreed with each other, and did the OPPOSITE. Does that seem wise to you? If you mounted all of those CFL's to a 2x4, I GUARANTEE that at least half of them are not close enough do do any good at all. Scroll up if you need an explanation of why, it's been typed at least 3 times in this thread. **EDIT oh, my bad you said 2' by 4' board. lol I thought it was a 2x4 piece of lumber. Sounds like you probably got them tight enough for a couple plants. Sorry for your prior problems man, I really am. I hope you get manage to get things back to normal. It really sucks starting over. Good luck. **EDIT** I forgot to mention, I grow with CFL's. So I do believe that they have their place in indoor gardening. Just not to replace HID lighting.
Hmmm, This must be why i dont use this board. People here arn't optimistic and PRICKS! MY current setup works great and im getting GREAT results.. 950+ watts of cfl usage with mixed spectrum. HEAT? lol its cfl's wtf you talking about heat for? Without that fan on AND the doors shut ( and btw the walls are lined with Reflectix insulation) It hits 80 degrees. OOOOOOOOO thats some heat! AND OMFG LOOK AT ALL THOSE WIRES tangled everywhere!! THOGC dont let people rain on your parade. I actually do think your cool because ya grow.... SO fuck you ctoker850 . You can make any grow successful just gotta put your mind to it. As for you other pricks.... shame on you.
Haha... that is the gayist setup I've ever seen. You must be a complete noob. Hey dick weed, you could have bought a nice HID for all the money you spent on those cfl's.