CFL problems

[McBudz]

Got tired of waiting for my sunleaves nova to arrive so I went to the depot and got some CFL's They died in a few hours? they are

n:vision - daylight hora solar 5500K
100W equiv / 27 actual
1300 Lumens
should have 10000 hour life

I had them plugged into the cords that come with the clamp and round reflector hood that costs like $6.

Those cords are plugged into a powerstrip. No light timers. Have other lights plugged in the same way except they are flood style with the cfl coil inside the flood bulb. They have had no issues.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

 

[NoLogo]

weird, i have used thse same clamp lights before with no problem, do you still have the reflector hood on them? because the ones i have this actually secures part of the light together, and when i have it off it is a little loose, but you can tighten it up, maybe it came loose?

 

[McBudz]

For these cfl's i left the hood in place since it deflected the light well back down to the seedlings. I took the hoods off of the other flood style bulbs since they are more of a directed light and the hood did little but take up space for more lights. I swapped to different cords and the lights are dead as dead can be. I'm going to bring them back the the depot. Its too bad I thought these would be nice. Myaybe I'll look at more of the flood type.

Any suggestions?

I still intend on using my floro tubes when they come in and keeping the cfl's for use with hps light in flower phase so I can strategically place the cfls bewteen the plants and shadowed areas.

Started as an idea, soon became a hobby and is now an all out obsession. Probably becasue i'm dry until my crop yeilds me something argh!!!!

 

[NoLogo]

could just be you got a bad batch, i got regular cfls before and had no problems. i have upgrade to the t5 floro tubes myself and i LOVE them. i am using them for both veg and flower.

i hear you on the obsession, everywhere i go im looking at things thinking, i could grow some good dope in that, i could use this thing in a hydro setup, this jar would be good to store my weed in etc etc. i think im driving my girlfriend nuts, but i just smoke her up and she forgives me lol

 

[McBudz]

My girl was nice enough to give up her closet for me. I had to build one of those 48inch wardrobe capinets from home depot for her to put her crap in but I'd rather have the closet. Slighty more area and a lot more volume since it goes to the ceiling. Now I can have a nice veg section and decent flowering section. Just need to find the right hps for the setup with venting and I'm ready to rock I think. Spruots are a couple inches now so I'm running out of time. I'd like to flower some at 18 inches and the next maybe around 30-36inches. Just playing around and experimenting.

Everytime I look at my bathroom I think it would be the perfectgrow room. Don't think she'll give that up as it has the only shower in it.

 

[NoLogo]

lol, if my girl and i wernt living together, id be sleeping in a jungle of weed lol

 

[McBudz]

Actually the cord with the lamp socket is not grounded - has 2 prong. It is plugged into brandnew powerstrip which is connected to the wall inside the closet. The power strip is grounded -3 prong.

I have 4 of the exact light type cords going to the power strip. The flood style cfls (still not sure the right name for these) are working no problems.

The cords are rated at 150 watt. Not sure if thats for temp issue on the reflectors they come with or what.

My Sunleaves Nova just came in so I'm going to fart around with that a little later but still want the flexibiliity of the cfls since they can be placed in the hard to reach areas. Hopefully just a bad batch or something.

But to answer your question no frays or old airing its all brandnew and I've inspected. All cables are tidy'd up with zip ties fairly loosely so as not too pinch any wires. Power strip still works fine.

Is there a grounded type of cord that accepts the standard light socket. The depot guy only directed my to the kind that came with reflectors which I thoughtb was actually pretty cool. There is a commercial kind which costs more. Didnt look at the but maybe they are grounded?

thanks

 

[McBudz]

Went back to the depot and they took their burnt out bulbs back no problem. I invested in some 2700 flood light cfls to assist with whatever HPS light I go with. I also bought some more of the same 100w 5500 cfls that blew out in the beginng. I wnat to plug them into some standard light fixture and see what happens. i liked those little guys I hope they hold up.

On a good not my 150W SL Nova came in today with it twin t55's 6500's Fits perfectly over my seedling farm. I love it.

Have to start thinking fans and venting for my hps flowering setup. Any ideas. I'm growin in a 2' x 4 closet. will end up using top shelving for veg. Closet doors are the double hung sliding type. I have one of those cool window dual fans that are about 1' x 2' and the fans can intake or exhaust and can operate automatically by preset temp trigger. I think holmes makes it.

I want to put it in the opening of the door at the bottom then baffle the space it leaves above it with some ply wood painted to math the closet. Leave some clearence so I can close the closet door all the way if need be

 

[McBudz]

Killed another cfl today. It died over night after I put the reflector hood on it. I think reflector does no allow enough air flow around the ballast at the base of the bulb and over heats it. Wont be putting reflectors on them anymore.