CFL Light Tutorial

With CFL's, what light bulb orientation provides the most light to the plants? The bulb Vertical, at a 45° angle, or Horizontal. Given an appropriate reflector used in each instance. I want to fit 10 23W CFL's together in a 13" x 26" light bank and can make it work going with either Horz or 45° bulbs. The bulb spacing is a little more uniform at 45°, but I can save 3" of height going Horz. (the bulbs are 2 rows of 5)
 
Im selling my 2 250w CFL's and reflectors (1blue 1red) for about £100 asking price would you say thats ok? only been used for 1 auto grow.
 
I'm new to this joint...and I'm impressed!
I'm just starting to assemble a 'Grow Area".
My concern is the heat my Metal Hallide HID lamp will get to hot, even with adequate ventilation.
 
PolishPrince said:
I'm new to this joint...and I'm impressed!
I'm just starting to assemble a 'Grow Area".
My concern is the heat my Metal Hallide HID lamp will get to hot, even with adequate ventilation.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but to me "adequate ventilation" means you're doing fine ventilation wise. lol!

But... Ventilation is tough for the HID lamps we use, that's one of the great things about cfl's, relatively low heat. I'm now using them for my veg room and they still need a little venting, I'm using a 50 cfm fan and that is adequate for this time of year. but my HPS needs about 125 cfm drawn from right next to the lamp to be adequate.
 
Hey Roseman and all, thanks for all the great info, especially abot CFLs. I have been tempted to go the HID route because of the sexiness of it but I know my landladie's elec. bill is going to go through the roof. I am going with CFLs.

I have a small 5 square foot closet to grow in (3 feet x 1 2/3 feet) with about 5 feet in height to the crossbar. I am wondering about how m any 42 watt CFLs I will need if I am growing to plants and doing a ScroG?

Many thanks!
 
Hey Roseman and all, thanks for all the great info, especially abot CFLs. I have been tempted to go the HID route because of the sexiness of it but I know my landladie's elec. bill is going to go through the roof. I am going with CFLs.

I have a small 5 square foot closet to grow in (3 feet x 1 2/3 feet) with about 5 feet in height to the crossbar. I am wondering about how m any 42 watt CFLs I will need if I am growing to plants and doing a ScroG?

Many thanks!
 
PolishPrince said:
I'm new to this joint...and I'm impressed!
I'm just starting to assemble a 'Grow Area".
My concern is the heat my Metal Hallide HID lamp will get to hot, even with adequate ventilation.[/QUOTE


If you are able to separate the ballast and capct. from the lamp....you can reduce some heat there. This helped my in my smalled Veg room lots. If you need help with the electrical part of it....let me know....I can help walk you through it with safety.
Click to expand...
 
Rashislop25 said:
Hey Roseman and all, thanks for all the great info, especially abot CFLs. I have been tempted to go the HID route because of the sexiness of it but I know my landladie's elec. bill is going to go through the roof. I am going with CFLs.

I have a small 5 square foot closet to grow in (3 feet x 1 2/3 feet) with about 5 feet in height to the crossbar. I am wondering about how m any 42 watt CFLs I will need if I am growing to plants and doing a ScroG?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

I have a closet just a little bigger than yours and I have 8- 55w cfl's in it and that seems to be pretty good.
 
Rashislop25 said:
Hey Roseman and all, thanks for all the great info, especially abot CFLs. I have been tempted to go the HID route because of the sexiness of it but I know my landladie's elec. bill is going to go through the roof. I am going with CFLs.

I have a small 5 square foot closet to grow in (3 feet x 1 2/3 feet) with about 5 feet in height to the crossbar. I am wondering about how m any 42 watt CFLs I will need if I am growing to plants and doing a ScroG?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...

the easiest rule of thumb is 50 watts per sq ft bare minimum. With that rule, you'd need 250 watts, or 6 bulbs.

3000 lumens per sq ft bare minimum = 15,000 lumens, divided by 70 lumens per watt = 214 watts, bare minimum = 5 and half bulbs.

Again, that is the very least rock bottom bare minimum amount for the plant to live. I'd get 8 42s, if I could find both spectrums, 2700K and 6500k.
 
Everyone always talks about the minimum, how about the maximum? Can you have too many lights?

My grow area is 28.75" x 32" = 6.3888SF x 7000L = 44722.221L / 1600L = 27.95 23W bulbs.

So 28 23W bulbs = 644W

Too much?

And using that many bulbs, is my temp going to rise significantly?
How about power consumption? How do I calculate what that will cost to operate? I read on another thread how to calculate kWh, but I came up with about $50 per month for that many bulbs. Does that sound correct?
 
Green007 said:
Everyone always talks about the minimum, how about the maximum? Can you have too many lights?

10,000 lumens per sq ft is MAX and equal to the sun on a bright sunny day.

My grow area is 28.75" x 32" = 6.3888SF x 7000L = 44722.221L / 1600L = 27.95 23W bulbs.

So 28 23W bulbs = 644W

Too much?

And using that many bulbs, is my temp going to rise significantly?
How about power consumption? How do I calculate what that will cost to operate? I read on another thread how to calculate kWh, but I came up with about $50 per month for that many bulbs. Does that sound correct?
Click to expand...

Those CFLs are NOT going to use that much electricity and will NOT get hot at all.
 
Green007,

Easy enough to figure your power cost. 24hr/day x .644 KWH = 15.456/day x 30 day average month = 463.68 killowatt hours per month x your KWH rate ( it shoud be on your power bill). Mine is 6 cents/kwh but I think mine is low in comparison to other areas. Your cost would be 1/2 the total in flower.
 
Thanks guys, I'm shooting for 7000L per SF.

MC - how did you come up with 0.644 kWh?
My rate here is 11 cents/kWh, so it looks like about $51 veg, $26 flower per month
(don't get me wrong, it'll be worth it)
 
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