This is my first ever try at growing and im growing one single plant [ hopefully it'll be a female lol] and even enough bud for 1 joint will count as a success for me . i switch between sunlight and a cfl table lamp, my plant is around 5 days old now, give or take, about 2 inches, second set of leaves and third just sprouting, tall growing strong, bigass leaves. I'd just leave it out but the thing is, summer is almost over where i live, about 15 days max left, and the pre monsoon showers are already disrupting my hours of sunlight and its only bound to get cloudier from now on. it gets around 5 - 6 hours of strong sunlight usually and then i bring it in after sunset and put it under my table lamp through the night till around 3am then back out it is. What i want to know is, how long will my cfl be sufficient given current conditions and also, my table lamp's max wattage reads as max 60W, but i think CFL's convert differently so can i use a 100 W cfl in there without risking a fire etc? if not, what is the maximum wattage of cfl i can use? this is a standard table lamp.should i bring in more cfl's in the veg stage/ later in the flowering period? i've been reading up and it says i should start fertilizing upwards of 3 weeks? i'll try and bring in some pictures in tomorrow/today to give you guys a better idea. sorry the question(s) ended up so long, i'd really appreciate any inputs. thanks for your time!
usually the max watts is for a safety factor with the heat produced, which is an underwriters lab approval. secondly the cfl is a cool running bulb so a say 23=100 incandescent watts. i started with six of the 23s on a six post bathroom vanity. for a 600 inc value, then i got a second six post vanity and put in it 4 42w cfls and 2 64w cfls. the 42s are supposed to be 150 eq. and the 64s are 200w eq. so offering me 800w eq +the 600w eq. for a potential of 1400w eq.. when it comes on it will put my 600w hps to shame. i admit im ready for a new bulb but holy shiz the plants nearest the cfls seem to flourish while those only in direct hps do normal growth and the buds are not as big. so as an overall answer,"get a couple more bulbs and you'll be very happy". -d- btw. all twelve lights combined produce less heat than the single 600hps. and wired to a single plug. ive ran tree runs on them and never had a risk/heat issue in any socket. good luck and i'm sorry summers over for you, mine is just around the corner here in oregons "high" country
the wattage on the packaging is the wattage u use. not what it is as bright as. as far as how many... i dont use cfls. but ive read that its 100 watts per sq ft. so u would need four or five 23 watt lamps that acts like a 100 watt. totaling 400 or 500 wannabe watts.
If the socket says 60w's, you can use a 60w CFL. The equivalent ratings do not matter, that is not actual power drawn. It is the equivalent wattage required in an incandescent bulb to produce the same amount of light. So you can use a 23watt, 45watt, 60watt CFL equivalent to any number incandescent wattage.
Go by actual watts. Totally ignore "equivalent" or "replacement" watts, that's an attempt to describe the amount of light output compared to incandescent bulbs, even though wattage is not a measure of light.