i was figuring which CFL i wanted to go with. (NO HID RIGHT NOW) 3 plants being flowered early at 5 inches. its between eight 55w cfl bulbs custom fitted to surround plants from the sides and top and this High Tech Garden Supply im thinking that since this t5 puts out higher watts and more lumens that it should be good but it wont get the side growth as much.. ideally i would figure how to get light to the sides. any advice?
i would take the T5 only cause its all in one piece when you want to move the lights and stuff like that. i like t5s
Whilst those T5s are ok they gotta cost a bit I would go with a growking cfl bulb and they come up to 300 watt now and get a decent yield for your money. I veg all my plants under one of these and the plants can nearly touch the bulb they run quite cool. Enc picture
You can just hang them into the plants or you can get a reflector for the bulbs. If they are in a closed confined space they do not need a reflector and whats more they don't need a ballast ether. Just use a E40 lamp holder to hang them. you can add up to six of them together in one shade if you wont or just get a bulb in a shade.
[quote name='dagetti']do you have a close up of that hood? is that a custom rigged hood? sorry, not tryin to hijack thread[/QUOTE You get them online or in any grow shop. Here is another pic of the type of shade you will need.
ok, so i found out how many lumens were in each.. there is 16,000 in the T5 8 bulb fixture & 28,800 in the custom CFL fixture iam making! so im gonna go with the eight 55w cfl bulbs
i found out that i can add one more bulb to my actual fixture without getting a 2nd adapter for the center ballast on the fixture. so nine 55w bulbs(3700lumens per bulb) 32,400 lumens thats pretty darn good and its cheaper than a 250 hps and i can get better coverage of light being so close to the buds. and not worry about heat at all the lumens for a 250w digital from htg supply is 33,000. im only 600 lumens off, and i could just add another bulb for ten total if i wanted. and it costs $200 w/shipping for the light. and it wont be aircooled, or have a better warranty. itll cost me $130 w/shipping for the CFL bulbs, and only $20 tops in extra materials to build. so $150 TOTAL w/better results for the type of growing, and its saving energy and money! because if i got the light i would want a 4 year warranty which is an extra $50-$75 and id want a easy cool 6 reflector, another $85. plus a decent inline fan, ducting, clamps. get the point? so ideally this is the best option for me.