Hey guys, HPS grower going to try out some cfl's. I know the information is out there, and ive read a lot if Kamels CFL guide (sticky) but ive got a few questions that i need answers to asap, i have a buddy on the phone at the store now. i have some t4, t8 and t12 bulbs and ballasts, do those work for growing? i know ill need a different spectrum for veg/flower, but can i use those tubular's for growing? and what exactly does t8 t12 stand for? also how many lumens should i have in a 8sq ft closet, there will be 3 plants and probably 3-500 watts of lighting. last question, he says on the cfl bulb boxes that it reads "100 watt replacement using only 23 watts" what is that all about so thats only a 23 watt bulb? thanks for the quick help
t4, t5, t8 and t12 are grouping of flourescent tubes based on thickness of the tube. The lower the number, the thinner the tube. As far as lumens, I'd worry about wattage more. If you can use 3-500 watts of lighting you will have plenty of lumens for three plants. 100 watt replacement using only 23 watts is just saying that the cfl will produce light equal to a 100 watt incandescent bulb. You can disregard that information completely.
good lookin out man, so those tubular t's i have will work fine? lastly, why do some cfls have ballasts like the t8;s but the little spiral bulbs that go directly into a light socket dont, are they the same type of cfl?
The t4, t5, t8, t12 they aren't compact flourescents they are standard flourescent lights. The term CFL refers to the spiral ones that screw in only. People often times call all flouros CFLs without knowing but I figured I'd try to differentiate the two for ya. As for the ballast with the CFLs, what is the spiral connected to? That screw in part is the ballast for the bulb its just built into it. The bulbs you have should work just make sure you are using adequate wattage for each plant.
dude thank you so much for your help, and breaking it down for me i dont even have any spirals yet just those long t12's that pop into those ballasts (two 40 watts per ballast) but im going to buy some of the sprial bulbs that just screw into sockets, and ill just use lamps for them, i didnt realize they has built in ballasts so heres the plan tell me what you think 3 plants... gonna have 2 4ft ballasts that hold two bulbs each, so 160 watts in t12's and then im gonna get another 300 watts of "sprirals" and they are only like 26 watts a piece so ill probably get 8 or 10 of those. and throw in there all over the place. surrounding the plant all together about 500 watts. sound good? btw i saw you asked what the bulbs were connected to, the cfl's will be screwed in a normal lamp socket. and the tubular flouros pop into the ballasts i have for them.
Sounds good, just remember those lights should be closer to the plants since their output isn't as powerful. The t12's can be a couple inches from the plant top(s). The CFLs can be a few inches away also and you want to evenly distribute it around the plant. My question was just part of showing you the ballast is at the base of the CFL. You know about the two spectrums of CFLs right? If not, I'll fill you in. Just let me know
once again man i cant thank you enough for keepin check on this thread. like i said im an HPS grower that and MH all the way but this isnt my deal and heat will be an issue, as for spectrums, i dont know if cfl is any different, ive always vegged under 6500 and flowered under 2700 however i just looked at these bulbs and noticed they are 5000, will that suffice. is it just better to do 6500 or do i HAVE to do 6500? ALSO since the lights are only 26 watts a piece im gonna buy like 2 or 3 packs of 6 and i dont have near that many lamps to screw them in, so i was looking around and found these on a buddies previous grow. 3 per socket, my question is. if i buy those 3 socket adapters, how could i wire them so that they are going to a cord instead of a lamp. ive seen a lot of people have cords draped around their grow room, with the socket and bulb on the end of it. here is a pic of what im gonna get.
Im going to try cfl's on my next grow because of the heat my 400 watt mh/hps puts off, but will try with that hps/mh again later probably. Im also interested in how to set up the lights like your saying,
5000 should be fine but I would buy 6500 from now on if you can. I bought the sockets for my couple of CFLs at a reptile/pet store. They come with a ceramic base socket and a cord that comes out of it and plugs into the wall. I took the reflector off and the spliters can then be used to have multiple bulbs for each cord plugged in.
here check this out i made this a few years ago before i went to HID. i still use this board and it realy cost me nothing other than the ply wood.(i had a crap load of 4ft T-8's) each light is as close to each other as i could get them. it is a total of 12-4ft T-8's for 480 watts of Floros. and it works great, better than i could have ever thought. i use it soley for veg. but before that i veged and flowered with them. and trust me this board has produced some huge plants and buds. if you want to see some better pics let me know i can take some new ones
man thats pretty sweet. thanks for the boost, i was kinda worried about losing a lot of weight from hps to cfl
I like that setup with the lights kona! Im thinking about going with a few cfl's but now i like the idea of flouro's too. Whats better as far as growth and bud potency cfl's or flouros? Also, which one will put off the least amount of heat and use the least amount of electricity? I just got my first bill since using my 400 watt hps/mh and it doubled my bill.
Hey man instead of buying 26 watt bulbs, you should check out the newer high wattage compact fluorescents, the bulbs may cost a little bit more, but the the lumen output increase is substantial.
yeah i thought about that but my reasoning was id rather have 4 25's than one 100, that way i could place them all around the plants, but i never knew about the lumens, and thats important. thanks