I found a 150 watt infrared lamp in my attic the other day from a while ago, i was wandering whether this could work as a grow light ???
I know it produces a nice amount of heat , if i cant use it as a grow light i suppose i could allways use it as a heater.
...I doubt there's any benefit, well, except keeping burgers warm to eat while you work in your garden.
That would be awesome! Have burgers hot and ready while you're checking on your girls. Just don't get anything on them
infared heat lamps dont produce any real amount of light, what they were designed to do is take a fairly low wattage and amperage, and multiply it. if you are looking for grow lamps that are cheap enough that ANYONE can afford them, get cfl's.... they arent the greatest for flowering (even the 2700k lamps) but it will make your girls grow good buds.
hps with supplimental lighting.. my personal growing experience is only with cfl's, have gotten decent buds but they just dont get as dense as they do under a hps system.. i have a friend that also grows, but on a semi commercial scale. they flower under hps lamps and compared to the bud from my cfl grow the buds are 3-4x more dense then under cfl's alone.. i will be adding a hps lamp to my micro box very soon so when that happens i will be able to give more of a personal opinion. right now i am just going off of what i have read and seen from other grows.
Yep im going to be getting a 250 watt cfl for my closet grow. :edit: what do you guys think of my sig , i made it today in paint , took me ages lol probs because i was stoned.
do not get a cfl of that size.. any cfl over 50w begins to lose its lumen to watt ratio. i wish i had my camera because i could take pictures to show you the difference in the large vs small lamps... in my box i have a 105w cfl and a 26w cfl. believe it or not the single 26w cfl puts out more light that is not only usable by the plant but also visable by the human eye. you'll be better off with 250ish watts of 26w lamps then you would with the single 250w lamp. or you could take the $100ish that the 250w cfl will set you back and throw another $25-30 and get a 150w hps system.
Thanks + rep i will be growing 4 plants does this still apply and are we talking about actual watt ??
Yeh thats why there sorta not a option for me because i want to minimize fire hazard to as low as possible i hear thats how alot of indoor growers get busted.
i was using 2 cfls to keep my clones growing but i just installed a 400w hps system and within the first night they greew a huge amount!!! and the ventilation problem was easy for me at least i just got a 80 $ inline fan and im running the duct out my door and thats it !! so worth the investment for that hps though forssure.
you both are probably better off growing with cfl's, but you need to remember these lamps still put out heat, and with a poorly ventilated box will get hot quickly no matter the light source. a passive intake system works very well, it creates negative pressure inside the box which means no hot air is being forced into the box. HID lighting systems produce a good amount of heat, but like i said, to me ventilation is more important then lighting... skunky the fire hazard doesnt come from the type of fixture you're using to grow with but the manner in which it is wired and how up to par your electrical system in your home is. if your circuts can handle the amp load then your risk of fire is minimal. if you are worried about infared imagining as a means to getting busted a simple solution to that is the bubble wrap style car visors (you know the ones that go in the windshield to keep the seats from getting hot) and keeping your box close to the same temperature as the rest of the house this wont be a problem.