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- #61
dutchmasters
New Member
just went out an got a 100w cfl bulb today to increase the lighting
1st time closet growing
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Take a regular (medium) socket or a mogul one? What color temperature? How many lumens? Did it have a built-in ballast or was it one that required a separate one?
Trying to learn more about CFLs of 100-watt size and above.
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- #63
dutchmasters
New Member
the output of light is 1300 lumens. the brightness is day light
1300 lumens? That's NOT a 100-watt CFL!
And THAT is why I wish people would learn to call identify a CFL by it's wattage and not some pretend one. It obviously confuses people!
Thats 20w CFL
check out my journal, i have a real 100w CFL, came with the reflector, ballast connected like other CFLs and has the mogul socket. the plants love it! for $60 i would reccomend it, perfect fit for 2 plants even just 2" away! bought it at home depot. you prob spent close to that on the smaller CFLs already, i know i did
-RC
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- #67
dutchmasters
New Member
oh shit my bad thanks for letting me know that. i am still learning all this stuff is very new to me.
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- #68
dutchmasters
New Member
check out my journal, i have a real 100w CFL, came with the reflector, ballast connected like other CFLs and has the mogul socket. the plants love it! for $60 i would reccomend it, perfect fit for 2 plants even just 2" away! bought it at home depot. you prob spent close to that on the smaller CFLs already, i know i did
-RC
thanks man now that i know what im am actualy looking for i can go get one.
dutchmasters you've got some very good advice so far on your grow.
Light and nutes are very important Home Depot sells Light of America I have 4 in my veg room a got on e-bay 4500lumens each they have good blue output. I got 4 for 120 bucks.
Keep up good work your going to do fine.
Pan4
Light and nutes are very important Home Depot sells Light of America I have 4 in my veg room a got on e-bay 4500lumens each they have good blue output. I got 4 for 120 bucks.
Keep up good work your going to do fine.
Pan4
oh k i was like dang i like that blue light looks awsome lol! but glad to hear you got urself a new light!
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- #71
dutchmasters
New Member
thanks pan ill have to check into that an see what i can find. an worst comes to worst its back to home depot.
l8t yea the blue grow an show bulb looked pretty sweet it made the lil ones look tropical lol. but i just found out the light i just got is only a 20w so i guess its back to home depot. but ima see what i can find on ebay like pan said.
Thanks for all the help guys i know im making mistakes with all this but im trying. im not the sharpest crayon in the box
l8t yea the blue grow an show bulb looked pretty sweet it made the lil ones look tropical lol. but i just found out the light i just got is only a 20w so i guess its back to home depot. but ima see what i can find on ebay like pan said.
Thanks for all the help guys i know im making mistakes with all this but im trying. im not the sharpest crayon in the box
Can get good light from CFLS in the 20- 23-watt range, but it takes a BUNCH of them lol.
I'd rather be the dullest crayon in a box full of sharp ones and work to become sharper day by day than to be the sharpest one in a box of broken ones and become blunted.
Or something.
Anyway, yeah - always make sure that when you purchase a light that you are looking at its actual wattage. With retail-store CFLs their marketing department likes to throw in "equivalent to n watts of incandescent light" which is fine for them since they are selling their bulbs primarily to people looking for area-lighting or a light to read with. But as it's pretty much pointless trying to grow a plant with an incandescent bulb the comparison is useless to us and can confuse some who end up seeing the big number and having their eyes glaze over as they mentally count up how many of them they'd need to have the same "equivalent" watts as a 600-watt HPS or whatever.
When in doubt, looking at the lumen output can be a clue. You really need a minimum of 3,000 lumens per square foot for veg and 5,000 and up for flowering if you don't want to be wasting your space. But having a large amount of smaller CFLs can be useful - since they don't have much penetration value, some have placed them all around their plants almost like Christmas tree ornaments. And if you are on a shoestring budget and still need to buy shoestrings, you can purchase a handful of them a week for several weeks in a row and begin to build up a respectable amount of light over time as your plants grow from seedlings, I guess.
The only thing is, you can also easily end up with, say, over 400 actual watts of CFLs that end up providing a good bit less than the light output of one 400-watt HPS, less penetration, and actually a good amount of heat that is pretty much impossible to vent separately from the stinky air in your growroom because they are festooned all over the place instead of being just one bulb in one nice, highly-reflective sealed air-cooled fixture.
And then when the person adds up the total amount of money they spent on 20 or 30 CFL bulbs, the sockets to screw them into, the wire, plugs, Y-adaptors, receptacles, etc., they might find that not only are they now spending as much - or more - per month to run them and getting less total output, but for the money they could have just saved up and spent it all at once on that HPS (or MH if looking for a flowering light).
But they do have their place. And as mentioned, you can - with a bit of effort and many of them - produce decent harvests. There are several good journals on this site that you can look at that have either used CFLs (of various wattages) all the way through or for vegging.
I'd rather be the dullest crayon in a box full of sharp ones and work to become sharper day by day than to be the sharpest one in a box of broken ones and become blunted.
Or something.
Anyway, yeah - always make sure that when you purchase a light that you are looking at its actual wattage. With retail-store CFLs their marketing department likes to throw in "equivalent to n watts of incandescent light" which is fine for them since they are selling their bulbs primarily to people looking for area-lighting or a light to read with. But as it's pretty much pointless trying to grow a plant with an incandescent bulb the comparison is useless to us and can confuse some who end up seeing the big number and having their eyes glaze over as they mentally count up how many of them they'd need to have the same "equivalent" watts as a 600-watt HPS or whatever.
When in doubt, looking at the lumen output can be a clue. You really need a minimum of 3,000 lumens per square foot for veg and 5,000 and up for flowering if you don't want to be wasting your space. But having a large amount of smaller CFLs can be useful - since they don't have much penetration value, some have placed them all around their plants almost like Christmas tree ornaments. And if you are on a shoestring budget and still need to buy shoestrings, you can purchase a handful of them a week for several weeks in a row and begin to build up a respectable amount of light over time as your plants grow from seedlings, I guess.
The only thing is, you can also easily end up with, say, over 400 actual watts of CFLs that end up providing a good bit less than the light output of one 400-watt HPS, less penetration, and actually a good amount of heat that is pretty much impossible to vent separately from the stinky air in your growroom because they are festooned all over the place instead of being just one bulb in one nice, highly-reflective sealed air-cooled fixture.
And then when the person adds up the total amount of money they spent on 20 or 30 CFL bulbs, the sockets to screw them into, the wire, plugs, Y-adaptors, receptacles, etc., they might find that not only are they now spending as much - or more - per month to run them and getting less total output, but for the money they could have just saved up and spent it all at once on that HPS (or MH if looking for a flowering light).
But they do have their place. And as mentioned, you can - with a bit of effort and many of them - produce decent harvests. There are several good journals on this site that you can look at that have either used CFLs (of various wattages) all the way through or for vegging.
you always seem to amaze me with your posts TS, ima give u rep if it lets me lol. you always seem to say exactly what i have done or have been thinking
this is the debate i am always torn on, i guess it depends on how big you want your grow to be, how much space you have, your budget, your future plans, and everything else.
if you have time to wait, save for some HID lighting, even if just 150w or 250w setups, you will get alot more lumens for your watt. but with the heat you will need them further away than a CFL causing them to stretch more and create need to more room. what im planning on doing is vegging under CFLs to get short tight plants, then fill the buds out under a 400w HPS, trying to get fat heavy rock solid sparkly stinky, sweet powerful nugs.
at HomeDepot in the security lighting section (just past ceiling fan section) besides the light of america 65w-100w CFL lights, u will also see a couple other good choice for lighting, such as 100w MetalHalide and 100w High Pressure Sodium lights with their reflectors and ballasts all included, u can take them apart and build a better reflector if u want too. and if you turn around (should be same aisle) you will see 2', 3' and 4' T5 flourescent fixtures, you could get a few of the double bulb setups and run them all parallel to eachother. but the bulbs that come with them are prob the GE bulbs which dont have that great of output and i believe are soft white (2700k) for budding i think, im not sure if you can find other T5 bulbs from there or not might need to check around other places, but the ballasts arent bad priced
edit: oh yeah forgot to add, throw those green plants right up next to those CFLs, dont be afraid, just dont let them touch the bulbs and you will be fine, just leave like 1" distance, or what u could do is say, keep the lights about 3-finger widths from the tops of your plants, can even string some CFLs down the sides (HIDs are different stories)
-RC
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- #74
dutchmasters
New Member
ok thanks guys i will check in to all this im thinkin ima prolly just save up my money an go wit the 400w hps. does the fixture an light all come together? an thats at home depot right?
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- #75
dutchmasters
New Member
oh an i used clothes hangers to bring the lights down closer to the plants forgot to add that in thanks againg im learning so much
i dont think home depot will have a HPS that big, and the HPS would be good for flowering, but not so good for vegging like a metal halide (MH) light.
although i know at my home depot you can buy 400w mh and hps bulbs, but i cant find anything for a ballast that big there
you might find some 150w ones though
and you will want to use some chain or something and screw some hooks into the rafters in your ceiling with the heavier mh and hps lights, expecially if you plan on using carbon filters or anything. or you can think of other clever ways to hang the lights but just make sure please that its safe and can hold the weight easily, dont want any squashed plants or fires!
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- #77
dutchmasters
New Member
RC51sport:: o yea dont worry i have a heavy metal support that everything is hanging from i have tugged, pulled an everything but hang on it nothing is gonna fall that was my first worrie. an how is the 100w cfl you got for veg an can it be used for flowering to? cuz i only have two plants and there still kinda small as you can tel from my recent pics.
Ill be posting new pics here soon but i wanna make sure there has bin progress since last time i took them dont wanna bor you all with tha same pics
Ill be posting new pics here soon but i wanna make sure there has bin progress since last time i took them dont wanna bor you all with tha same pics
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- #79
dutchmasters
New Member
ok well ill take some tomorrow an post em up they look neet with the lst
just making sure you were going to hang a HPS by clothes hangers lol. like i said the 100w CFL i have is kicking ass! for veg atleast, im not planning on using it for flowering. you will probally need to find a different bulb for it (2700k bulb) for flowering. the bulb in it now would work but not that well. others here might now more about the results of flowering under a 6500k cfl more than i do
but if you would get a different bulb for flowering, make sure u get one for a mogul socket. and im not sure if you can use a different size bulb (if it even fits in the reflector or not) but i would think you could seeing that the CFL ballast is attached to the bulb itself
-RC
but if you would get a different bulb for flowering, make sure u get one for a mogul socket. and im not sure if you can use a different size bulb (if it even fits in the reflector or not) but i would think you could seeing that the CFL ballast is attached to the bulb itself
-RC
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