MH or CFL bulb, which one is better?

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by pauskocak, Nov 17, 2010.

  1. Hello guys, I am thinking of setting up a grow room, I am wondering should I use CFL or flourescent light instead of MH?

    Which one is better?

    EDIT: I use soil, not hydro
     
  2. Which is better, apples or oranges?

    They each have their use. Search and ye shall find. LED is the way to go.
     
  3. Yes, I've tried to search, but there's alot of different thoughts about them..
     
  4. MH is "better", it converts watts to lumens at about twice the efficiency of CFLs, so will deliver a lot more light to your plants for the same electrical consumption.

    But, MH is really only good for vegging, you will want to switch out that bulb for a HPS for flowering (and make sure your ballast can take both kinds or else get one of those as a "conversion" bulb). And, MH will run hotter, so you will need a way to manage that heat or MH won't do you any good.
     
  5. Here's 6 months of research summarized in a few lines:

    MH & HPS:

    Great if you have the space, have the money each month for the utility bill, and if you have enough room for a cooling system.

    T5HO:

    Great to keep temps down in comparison to HID and CFL, but also very pricey.

    CFL:

    Easy to use. Easy to find. But you'll need a lot more of them to make it work. I personally am 100% CFL but I'm growing in a stealth box. If I had a big room? Prob HID.

    LED:

    Expensive right now, but has the greatest potential for growing. Lumens are much less important with LED. Instead, focus on the wavelength of light.
     
  6. I prefer to use floro tubes to veg. I have a (6) T12 bulb setup that covers a 3'x4' area using less than 150W of power. This setup keeps the plants short and bushy. It provides adequate light for my entire veg cycle, no matter what the height of the plants.

    There is very little heat to deal with. The bulbs keep my veg room at acceptable temps but require no heat control.

    Another bonus of using floro tubes is it cost less than 20 bucks to add an extra 1'x4' of coverage (a 2 bulb ballast, hood and the bulbs).

    :smoke:
     

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