Perfect Sun LED
Well-Known Member
Also 48 Cfls produce a good amount of heat.
CFL's work just fine!
- Thread starter biotrucker
- Start date
with the 400w hps wont i need more watts for when it comes time to bud its what ive been told that 400 no matter what type of light is not enough for 4 plants that i need at least 600 for bud i wanna know what specs i can get away with and watts when it comes to growing in my scrog box im worried i wont have enough ventillation for hps and and metal halides, my box is nothing but lumber i dont wanna burn my house down and the power cost is not ideal for my living situation i have everything planned out im just having a rerally hard time figuring what lights to use spec and wattage wise
David Bowman
New Member
Tell me about it! I have nearly 600 watts of 2700K CFLs for flowering and when the outside temps are 70+ my grow box tops out at 90 degrees. Lower outside temps are more manageable but while each individual CFL bulb's heat output is relatively low, the cumulative effect can be overwhelming. I can't imagine dealing with the heat from an HPS system in regards to my setup.
Smokemupm8
New Member
I use CFL's for Veg theyre great, But I wil ALWAYS go my HPS for flower, 600w.. As the penetration and buds are not usually as big as with HID's. Altho I must say that your buds are doing well - But That maybe due to the amount of light you have in total as if LEDR is right well swap the the CFL"s for a 400w/600w hps.. ITS YOUR CALL THO MATE _ Do what you like and feel comfy with
Smokemup
Smokemup
David Bowman
New Member
From my research, the consensus seems to be that one needs at least 50 watts/sq. ft. for an effective grow. I've also read that one needs a minimum of 2500 lumens/sq. ft. for vegetation and 3500 lumens/sq. ft. for flowering. For my grow I maxed out at ~55 watts/sq. ft. (3350 lumens/sq. ft.) during vegetation. Currently in flowering I'm at ~75 watts/sq ft. (4550 lumens/sq ft.).
David Bowman
New Member
For my grow, I went with two big ass 125-watt CFLs for the canopy and 8 smaller CFLs for the sides to counter the low light penetration of CFLs as compared to HPS.
David Bowman
New Member
ITS YOUR CALL THO MATE _ Do what you like and feel comfy with
Agreed. Well said Smokemup!
i need to know if this is doable for scrog i wanna use a dual 300w spec feliz grow light and another 300red spec feliz both with white reflector hoods then when i get more funds get two more that are the same does anyone think that will work for my setup?
Perfect Sun LED
Well-Known Member
With Cfls I found that the 24w ones have the best lux
Per watt. I ran several experiments to see for sure.
Best results is the hood I made using 6 to 8
Cfls plugged into a power serge. The use a few
Cfls as spot lights on the sides of the plant.
Honestly though If u can afford it a 5 bulb t5 set up
Uses little watts with great output. 200 watts covers
4x2 feet at 45,000 lux 6 inches away from canopy.
Per watt. I ran several experiments to see for sure.
Best results is the hood I made using 6 to 8
Cfls plugged into a power serge. The use a few
Cfls as spot lights on the sides of the plant.
Honestly though If u can afford it a 5 bulb t5 set up
Uses little watts with great output. 200 watts covers
4x2 feet at 45,000 lux 6 inches away from canopy.
Perfect Sun LED
Well-Known Member
Here is the thread where I show how to build the CFl lamp hood
That produces 50,000 lux at 5 inches away or so
It covers one plant top.
About 2.5 x 2.5 feet
50,000k lux cfl lamp for DIY for under $50
That produces 50,000 lux at 5 inches away or so
It covers one plant top.
About 2.5 x 2.5 feet
50,000k lux cfl lamp for DIY for under $50
ok so now i understand why you are showing me this i think its fricking awesome and exactly waht im looking for now how well do you stand by this method? oh and how many of these for a 3x3 scrog screen with 4 plants?
I metered each cfl and they actually pull a little less than 11 watts each. a 600 watt hps pulls 600 watts at the light alone about another 100 watts for the transformer(heat). I don't need a hood with a exhaust which is about another 50 watts or more and the heat index is way up which needs hvac and fans. so cost wise cfls are way cheaper for me.
I worked for a sign company for a while and the only thing that is transform run that doesn't draw a ton of electricity on it's own is lcd. neon and huge ballasts. the only thing that will bring that down is if you're running a 220-240 system
I have nothing to compare the grow with other than the cfls but I am going pull about 4-6 oz off this plant with a 24 cfl light judging from the looks of it. that's plenty fine for me.. now if If I were to be growing in a commercial for profit sense, I would have to consider a more brilliant system, that I would build myself anyway. I have two separate areas to grow, flower and veg. don't need any extra ventilation or the likes so this,I think, will serve the purpose. and really I don't know enough to say anything other than my personal experience
My 24 light system cost 28.00 to build and my 48 light system was right around 60 bucks... both have reflective hoods that cost less than five buck to make and are reversible for different light reflectivity.
all my lights are less than inch apart side by side and 3.5 inches head to head. so far seems to be working wonderfully. but hell and hps might be in the future just to have the experience..
Smokemupm8
New Member
Hey Colorado,
Thanks for the kind words... Hey I have a question if you can help.... Its about this Watt/p - sq ft thing, its not in a basic stupid definition and hence, I am unsure of what my rate would be.
How do I work out my Watt/P-Sq, ft?? Ill give you my dimensions>> I have a 8ft H x 4.5ft x 2.5ft D space. My light is on a track which I lower & raise all thru the grow to imitate the moving sun across the sky and also some lower lying cola's.
So running my 600w Phillips Son T Gro globe, Id be interested to see the range im in, I get over 1000 lumens of light from my 600w @ 3.5ft into the canopy from tops down. This is usual type scenario for me, I have basically a scrog altho I do not remove all growth below a certain point, tho I will be changing things next grow as I am now pretty confident on what I can do or am doing I should say..
Cheers for your help Chat soon, Smokemup
Thanks for the kind words... Hey I have a question if you can help.... Its about this Watt/p - sq ft thing, its not in a basic stupid definition and hence, I am unsure of what my rate would be.
How do I work out my Watt/P-Sq, ft?? Ill give you my dimensions>> I have a 8ft H x 4.5ft x 2.5ft D space. My light is on a track which I lower & raise all thru the grow to imitate the moving sun across the sky and also some lower lying cola's.
So running my 600w Phillips Son T Gro globe, Id be interested to see the range im in, I get over 1000 lumens of light from my 600w @ 3.5ft into the canopy from tops down. This is usual type scenario for me, I have basically a scrog altho I do not remove all growth below a certain point, tho I will be changing things next grow as I am now pretty confident on what I can do or am doing I should say..
Cheers for your help
Chat soon, Smokemup
Smokemupm8
New Member
One of the ideas I had for my CFL Veg growing - and Ive seen used the same before and seen their results, is to get twin light socket extensions turning one globe into 2 ' Y ' shaped globes 90* apart from each other, having say, 3 of these above a plant with a good DIY or bought reflector will grow your girls perfectly for CFL"s.. I DO NOT KNOW WHY PLANTS GROW SO WELL UNDER CFL LIGHT?? Theyre usually always closely spaced nodes and a lush green color, and yeah the heat is reduced and you can have lights closer to tops, But IMO its best to have a few inches above the plants as theyll stay really stocky and short ( unless u want that! ) and Ive tried to flower with CFL"s and have done so before until I saw pistils forming in flowers but they were so wispy and lacking, I had to put my 400 HPS on.
But if you have a mix of say 4 - 2500 K cfl's, and 4 - 6500 ks' Im fairly sure youll see a good combo of growth from these, A member here Rico is doing CFL grow and his buds looking good, just try to trap as much light around your plants as you can, get moving air in there, doesnt have to be freshly pumped in from outside, I use a passive system with just 2 small desk fans keeping my 600w HPS COOL!!! Temps up top reach around 37*C on a hot day, and about 18-22*C at the plants base, and I just open a top vent for half the day to let air circulate out of the space.. My plants seem to cope as long as I keep an eye on em, as now she can be nearly bone dry in 48hrs..
Either way you can only do so much with the money/situation you have so just do what ya can, and if you want to upgrade to HID lights well you can, But a well dialed in CFL system can be very effective! I cannot remember who it was but a mates journal here has got some CRAZY PHAT buds at day 45, some of the largest Ive seen with CFL's, So Id be asking his advice, Ill find out for ya
GOODLUCK AND HAPPY HARVESTING.. Smokemup
But if you have a mix of say 4 - 2500 K cfl's, and 4 - 6500 ks' Im fairly sure youll see a good combo of growth from these, A member here Rico is doing CFL grow and his buds looking good, just try to trap as much light around your plants as you can, get moving air in there, doesnt have to be freshly pumped in from outside, I use a passive system with just 2 small desk fans keeping my 600w HPS COOL!!! Temps up top reach around 37*C on a hot day, and about 18-22*C at the plants base, and I just open a top vent for half the day to let air circulate out of the space.. My plants seem to cope as long as I keep an eye on em, as now she can be nearly bone dry in 48hrs..
Either way you can only do so much with the money/situation you have so just do what ya can, and if you want to upgrade to HID lights well you can, But a well dialed in CFL system can be very effective! I cannot remember who it was but a mates journal here has got some CRAZY PHAT buds at day 45, some of the largest Ive seen with CFL's, So Id be asking his advice, Ill find out for ya
GOODLUCK AND HAPPY HARVESTING.. Smokemup
David Bowman
New Member
The square footage of your space is 11.25 sq. ft. (4.5x2.5) - so that gives you ~53 watts/sq. ft. The initial lumen rating for that bulb is 88,500 and that would give you 7,867 lumens/sq. ft. These figures are for comparison purposes only and give you an idea of the maximum lumens available per sq. ft. For instance, as compared to my vegetative setup, we have similar watts/sq. ft. but you have over double the lumens/sq. ft. As you have determined, the actual lumens the plants received depend on a variety of factors and therefore it is hard to determine what your plamnts are actually receiving but nearly 8,000 lumens per sq. ft is definitely up there. FYI, the sun produces 10,000 lumens/sq. ft.
David Bowman
New Member
I use those Y adapters for my side lights and they have worked out well. What I like about them is that those adapters orient the CFL bulbs so that the sides of the bulbs are facing the plants rather than the tops, allowing for more light to reach the plants. I keep the two large CFL canopy bulbs within a few inches from the top of the plants and that seems to work well. Ironically, they seem to be cooler than the smaller side bulbs as I have burned leaves on those bullbs but not on the canopy bulbs.
I really like how my plants during vegetation grew under CFLs, very compact and bushy with tight node spacing. Of course now that they are flowering, they are stretching quite a bit but the nodes spacing is still tighter than some other plants I've seen in flowering. I'm hoping with all of the lighting I have installed I can avoid the light, wispy, airy buds that can be a result of the use of CFLs during flowering. I also plan on replacing some of the side lighting with 10% UVB CFLs to help increase resin production towards the end of flowering, that should help increase potency as well.
I really like how my plants during vegetation grew under CFLs, very compact and bushy with tight node spacing. Of course now that they are flowering, they are stretching quite a bit but the nodes spacing is still tighter than some other plants I've seen in flowering. I'm hoping with all of the lighting I have installed I can avoid the light, wispy, airy buds that can be a result of the use of CFLs during flowering. I also plan on replacing some of the side lighting with 10% UVB CFLs to help increase resin production towards the end of flowering, that should help increase potency as well.
Perfect Sun LED
Well-Known Member
What I've learned about node lengths is this. Farther node lengths, like you get with sativas can be good. It doesn't mean the buds are going to be fluffy or wispy.
If you want like a monster bud, which is just a bunch of buds growing into each other, then yes, you want tight nodes. However, if you have far node spacing, all this means, is all the smaller buds that actually make up the monster bud, are father apart, and thus you get air between the buds, making it harder to get mold or the dreaded bud rot from moister getting trapped between the buds.
The nod length doesn't effect the densness of the buds. There is just more distance between each bud, so you don't end up with a big phat bud, but many buds close together, that are just as dense if grown well.
Most people don't want to buy a big phat arm sized bud at the dispensary, so when I donate, I break the phat arm bud into the smaller buds that make it up anyway. That way you don't have this massive thick stem between all your buds. The smoker will have to break it apart anyway, just to see the arm sized bud is just a bunch of smaller buds attached to a big ass stem.
That stem adds a decent amount of weight too. Another reason a patient doesn't want it.
I actually try to avoid such arm-bud formations.
If you want like a monster bud, which is just a bunch of buds growing into each other, then yes, you want tight nodes. However, if you have far node spacing, all this means, is all the smaller buds that actually make up the monster bud, are father apart, and thus you get air between the buds, making it harder to get mold or the dreaded bud rot from moister getting trapped between the buds.
The nod length doesn't effect the densness of the buds. There is just more distance between each bud, so you don't end up with a big phat bud, but many buds close together, that are just as dense if grown well.
Most people don't want to buy a big phat arm sized bud at the dispensary, so when I donate, I break the phat arm bud into the smaller buds that make it up anyway. That way you don't have this massive thick stem between all your buds. The smoker will have to break it apart anyway, just to see the arm sized bud is just a bunch of smaller buds attached to a big ass stem.
That stem adds a decent amount of weight too. Another reason a patient doesn't want it.
I actually try to avoid such arm-bud formations.
johnicannased
New Member
A lot of initial hating on fluoro's but the HID lovers never consider the fact that you can get the fluoros to within inches of your plants, maximising light to the canopy as none is lost having to travel over a distance as is the case with HIDs.
When all is said and done and factors like distance, an equal distribution of light over the area (as is the case with lots on long fluorescent tubes), a fuller spectral ouput (as you can mix warm and cool whites into your fixture) when all is taken into consideration watt for watt personally I have had better yields with fluoro's.
When all is said and done and factors like distance, an equal distribution of light over the area (as is the case with lots on long fluorescent tubes), a fuller spectral ouput (as you can mix warm and cool whites into your fixture) when all is taken into consideration watt for watt personally I have had better yields with fluoro's.
