This thing doesn't even come close to a 1000 watt HPS. I looked at the details and this light puts out 19,500 lumens for the HPS light. I had a 250 watt HPS light that put out at least 30,000 lumens. A 1000 watt HPS will put out about 140,000 lumens. I would save your money and just go with MH/HPS.
What nonsense. It says one unit covers 8'x6', but in the youtube they're running 8'x2-1/2' with 2 hoods and still pulling a small harvest. And how do they come up with the "usable" lumens? That's just stupid. The cfl is 70 lumen per watt, and 1000w hps is 140 lpw. Their youtube says they only got 269 grams out of a 20 sq ft garden claiming 4000w?! nonsense. Actual watts was 920w and 64000 lumen. They got .3 gram per watt using the CLF real wattage or .004 gram per lumen. A 1000W hps will probably do .75 gpw or .006 gpl on a good day. Not exciting at all. A piece of galvanized sheet metal $10 with two bends and some sockets $15 and splitters $25 with a bunch of 23w bulbs $50. $100 maybe all from home depot. I guess with free shipping and not having to build it and knowing you're gonna get a small yield you could justify it, but what the hell?! just buy some T-5 or T-8 hoods that are already built and their lumen per watt is more efficient! Get a good shape hood and chrome tape it and you can almost double your output! (so I hear from the crazies in the aquarium forums) P.S. Haha "Only uses 3.7 VOLTS!" um... AMPS!
It says usable, not sure exactly what that means but it's saying those lights can't use all of their lumens for some reason. The reason I'm looking into cfl is because it is impossible for me to use a HID light in my closet. I have 325w of florescent in there now and it won't drop below 84 degrees even with 3 fans running.
I was definitely thinking to make my own. I just like the idea of the setup. One of my grow spots will be receiving the HPS in a few weeks but as for this pad I can only go florescent due to heating issues.
It's nonsense, they're just stupid. For the lumens output the HPS are way way more efficient. Like double! A 250W should put out less heat than 320w of CFL and work in a closet with one exhaust fan.
I can't exhaust at all in the current environment. It is only meant to flower a few autos and host a couple of mother's since they will be on the same light schedule.
If your box (closet or whatever) is closed/sealed then your fans are only adding to the heat. You need some kind of exhaust for fresh and cool air. If you want to vent without cutting the house apart you could make a duct out of sheet metal that fits the gap under the door, also leave space for intake. The light output of the stupid CFL thing is only 32,000 lumens. A 600w HPS puts out 90,000 lumens. A 250w HPS puts out 33,000 lumens, so this CFL monstrosity is comparable to a 250w HPS BUT IT USES 460 WATTS!
Its never impossible. You need a cool tube. I ran a 400 watt light in my closet without a problem. However, I had problems with heat until I got a cool tube. Don't go with cfls. You will end up creating as much or more heat. Cfls only put out half the power as HID when compared by watt of energy consumed. By the time you double those cfls to make up that difference, they will put out heat. Get a cool tube, problems solved.
I think they mean "useable" because they are giving you two lights in one kind of. In example, I have bought a few HID kits. They each come with a MH and HPS light so I can swap them out for veg and flower. This guy is offering the same thing. He is selling bulbs that fit the color for veg and then he has bulbs that fit the color for flower. I think he is combing the two to say useable lumens when really you switch between them for veg and flower. No its not impossible for you to use HID. You have just never used a cool tube yet. One of those things will pull your heat directly from the source (the bulb). Get one and problems solved.
To be honest with you, I wouldn't even match this light with a 250 watt HPS. I think that a 250 watt HPS would blow it out of the water when it comes to yield. Save your money and go with HID.
I think its output is even less than that. I think they are trying to sell both the veg and flower bulbs with it and are trying to add them together to give you a total lumen count of the whole thing. I think that they have an HPS like spectrum with 19,500 lumens and a MH like or blue spectrum with about 10,000 lumens. But yeah, a 250 watt HPS will output more and use less. I totally agree.
They just made it up. They didn't say anything about PAR, and they're using the actual lumen output of the CFL, which at 23w is 1600 lumen each times 20 bulbs is 460W 32,000 lumen but they're not using the actual lumen output of HPS. It's classic bullshit marketing and the stupid font and colors they use is obnoxious. And they don't give you 40 bulbs to switch out when you want, they only give you 20 (22 but two spare for whatever reason) and mix them for whatever spectrum you want. Like I said before it WILL grow, but it's less efficient and will cause the same or more heat as a lumen output equivalent HPS. CFL lumen per watt 70 T8 lumen per watt 85 HPS lumen per watt 140
And that is why I come to this forum! Thank you guys for the saved money. Do cool tubes really make that huge of a difference.
Lol that advertisement is way off. First off, that's just a DIY reflector with a bunch of CFL bulbs stuck in them. I built the same setup for my first grow for like 20 bucks at home depot. Second, the light output would not even compare to an HID. you'd be able to grow plants at a maximum of 4-6" away from the lights before it becomes nearly useless. Third, and wow holy shit that price. I'm getting a new 600 watt digital ballast and 600 watt bulb shortly, and it's gonna cost 200 dollars. I can guarantee you that a 600 watt HID light would out preform that in every way except for heat output. But if you're willing to drop several hundred on grow equipment, and take the risk of growing for yourself, do it right. Get some nice ventilation and you will have no problem with HID lighting. EDIT: as to your question above, yes cooltubes are EXCELLENT. I am able to run a 400 watt light 5 inches away from the canopy maintaining 75 degrees, while having my fan turned almost all the way down. Before I got the cooltube, this time of year I'd get 80-85 degrees at 8" away from normal reflector with max fan speed (170 cfm).
Yes! Its like night and day seriously. I started out with a shitty wing reflector at first. It was impossible to keep temps down. Now with a cool tube, I just have to pull a decent amount of air through it and your temps are fine. The problem with wing reflectors is there is nowhere for the heat to go. It just stays inside of your small area. A cool tube pulls the heat directly from the bulb and captures most of it so that it can't escape into the tent. It pulls it from the source and pulls it out of the tent. If you want your grow area to be cool, then get a cool tube and it will keep your temps down.