grow room with lots of flouro tubes

CB7guy

Well-Known Member
i been reading for about 4 hours already, and keep reading the more light the better .,,and finally posting something
anyways i have built a box and really trying to figure out the best lighting method.

obisvly i am doing a fluorescent light , and i was going to use this http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/55168/AW-NW232RC.html

the box is 24"x24"x48" apx.. i was going start with about 5 of these light in the box . at $23 apeice i can only fork out so much dollars at once. but in the end i want to have 14 total 3 on each wall couple on top,, ima crazy. i alreadyy thought about the heat issue and ventilation...

the fixtures you hold to different kinds of lights idk difference yet, but ultimately i can have any light spectrum i want ...

please no rudeness just constructive critism
 

fraiserblaze

Active Member
use cfl's you will get a lot more bang for your buck . You can get more lights for the money you plan on spending .
 

CB7guy

Well-Known Member
the only thing with that is i go above and beyond !! i would still use the same concept lining the walls but im still working on how to manipulate the lights as the plant grow ,,anyways piont is
then it comes down to wiring of the sockets. i did think about the cfls at first but the flouro do about 40w a light x 16 lights its more than enough light coverage....back t o the point is wiring up all those lights ima kinda smart but electrical ain't my cup o tea "YET" bc i don't want to go with the 23w'ers bc they seem to small for me i still wanna do 40w's or so
 

TruenoAE86coupe

Moderator
The cover is going to lose lumens, go to Home depot or lowes (one is like $10 cheaper last time i checked but cant remember which) and get the 4' t8 fixtures. They only use 32w but put out more lumens, lumens is much more important than watts.
AS far as adjustability i would just mount the ones on the wall solid, then make the top lights adjustable. Otherwise i think you are going to be fighting it a lot trying to get the sides to move like you want them too.
Another consideration is t5's of course cheapest price i have found (matches e-bay low prices) $200 for an 8 bulb 4' t5 is killer, and it includes the bulbs (like a $90 savings alone)
https://www.ultralohydro.com/index.php?l=product_list&c=15
 

Junya951

Well-Known Member
honestly i considered this but walked away from the idea when i looked at the lumen out put. my flowering set up now is 2 65 watt cfls (10,000 lumens each) 4 26watt cfls (1,600 lumens each) and thats a hell of a lot more lumens then you would get out of T5 T8 or T12 of $35 for my flowering set up and maybe $25 for my veg set up. if you decide to use those fixtures they might be fine for veg but i dont know if they have the lumens to really penetrate the canopy to get fat buds at flower. Its your choice but i feel as though you would get your moneys worth with just plain cfls.

good luck what ever you choose.
 

Junya951

Well-Known Member
oh and the lumen output for a lot of the tubes is a lot lower than cfls of the same wattage. For example a 6500K 32watt tube will put out around 1250 homelumens if i remember correctly, while a 26 watt cfl puts out 1,600 with less power. Then positive of tubes is you can get better use of reflectors to aim the light, which is a problem im working on and will hopefully successfully test during my next grow with my homemade system.
 

CB7guy

Well-Known Member
oh and the lumen output for a lot of the tubes is a lot lower than cfls of the same wattage. For example a 6500K 32watt tube will put out around 1250 homelumens if i remember correctly, while a 26 watt cfl puts out 1,600 with less power. Then positive of tubes is you can get better use of reflectors to aim the light, which is a problem im working on and will hopefully successfully test during my next grow with my homemade system.
honestly i considered this but walked away from the idea when i looked at the lumen out put. my flowering set up now is 2 65 watt cfls (10,000 lumens each) 4 26watt cfls (1,600 lumens each) and thats a hell of a lot more lumens then you would get out of T5 T8 or T12 of $35 for my flowering set up and maybe $25 for my veg set up. if you decide to use those fixtures they might be fine for veg but i dont know if they have the lumens to really penetrate the canopy to get fat buds at flower. Its your choice but i feel as though you would get your moneys worth with just plain cfls.

good luck what ever you choose.
im sorry but your saying you getting 10,000 lumus outta them bulb,,i don't belive you uless you give me a link i found you same 65w clf at http://www.1000bulbs.com/search/?q=65+watt+cfl your bulbs are showing 3400 lumes at start of life , yes they do have more than my 40w tubes that are pushing 2325 initial life now u multiply that x10 u get 23250 lumes ,,,plus these fixtures are only 23$ apeice..but i think would save me more money in the long run..im not looking to grow a forest (yet) just a few really really well formed plants

if u get the grand total of all 15 fixtures its almost 70,ooo lumes is it cost efficent IDK at the current moment ..but this is all and idea im toying with in my head
yes if i get 15 fixtures it probable would be cheaper to go HPS ,MH, ,,BUT if i build these fixtures myself cost woulb be considerable cheaper than prebuilt ones..

AND yes COUPEDEVILL i agree that a soild mountside lighting is good and having adjustable top lighting ...
overall im just want some oopoions if these seems like a reasonable build for 2-4 plants

not taking crap to ya i just like hard data that can be provided
 

Kottonmouth king15

Well-Known Member
I grow w/t12& cfls, u gota be able to penatrate w/ur lighting&fixed to wall u cant adj. Them. U gota have'em hella close to the pplants to get results.
 

brownbearclan

Active Member
I know you've got a really small space to work with, but my first thought when you said you were gonna spend about $120 on some tubes was why not just get one of those ufo led lights for like $150, or even a 250W HPS setup for like $100-120? You can even get like a 400W HPS setup from HTG for like $120 plus shipping...although that would probably generate too much heat.
 

CB7guy

Well-Known Member
Im sub'd! I wanna see these lights fit in this 2x2x4box.& what temps are like.
its gonna be bulbs only nothing else i was still wnting to build my own lights so that way the ballast and all the wiring wonn't be in the box with the plant just the lights.

if really need be i can use a really small window ac and use that as the vent intake and exhaust the air out the top...i still figuring oout the charcol filter bc i live n a apt and my room mate is a bit*h and dosen't want me growing in here..so im using this time to figure out my entire system and obtain all the materials i need so when i start all i gotta do is setup up and plug her in

also remember that i think it would be cool to do 15 lights total ...but i just maybe be going over board,,,i figure 2 or 3 girls in my box and with all the lighting it should be sufficent PLUS i can have whatever spectrum i want bc of the amount of lights .....ty opoions please
 

tokingtiger

Well-Known Member
the box is 24"x24"x48" apx..
im thinking if its 2ft x 2ft x 4ft high, you aint getting no 4ft fixtures over that box? only 2x2 wont give you a lot of room of running them down the sides and having a plant in there either? With 4ft in height.. you could just go with say.. 4 x 23 watt twisted tube, house lights and at 2 ft go to bud as it will still grow at least a foot before it goes into full bloom and just gets buds and this leaves about a foot for light to hang and a couple inches to not burn. Panda plastic is nice, you can buy 10sq ft i think the smallest or you can go ghetto and get cheap kitchen white garbage bags and line the inside of your box. just a suggestion.
 
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