150 Watt CFL Bulb How would it do?

SunnyJim

SunnyJim

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't recommend using a single massive bulb for your grow. CFL's tend to have poor light penetration, to people usually suggest using several smaller bulbs spread around the grow box.

Also, 2700K is the right spectrum for flowering, but not great for vegging. I'm not sure what results you can expect using a red spectrum bulb from start to finish. The bulb itself looks fine, but I would rather use 2 x 125W, or even 4-5 50W bulbs rather than a single 250W.

That said, you'll be able to flower a couple plants under that bulb if you LST them so that as much of the plants are exposed to the light as possible.

Good luck.
 
V

Vache123

Active Member
SunnyJim said:
I wouldn't recommend using a single massive bulb for your grow. CFL's tend to have poor light penetration, to people usually suggest using several smaller bulbs spread around the grow box.

Also, 2700K is the right spectrum for flowering, but not great for vegging. I'm not sure what results you can expect using a red spectrum bulb from start to finish. The bulb itself looks fine, but I would rather use 2 x 125W, or even 4-5 50W bulbs rather than a single 250W.

That said, you'll be able to flower a couple plants under that bulb if you LST them so that as much of the plants are exposed to the light as possible.

Good luck.
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+1. It's enough lumens for a plant, but one of the benefits of CFL's is that you can adjust them to get good light distribution. \
 
napa23

napa23

Well-Known Member
It may be 20,000 lumens at the bulb. But they dwindle quickly as you move away from it. Just get HPS, it's worth it.
 
V

Vache123

Active Member
napa23 said:
It may be 20,000 lumens at the bulb. But they dwindle quickly as you move away from it. Just get HPS, it's worth it.
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Is "just get HPS" really helpful? And HPS is just like any other light: it's intensity drops at exponential rate as you move farther from the source.
 
napa23

napa23

Well-Known Member
Yeah, it was helpful. And no, it's not the same. HPS gets drastically more light penetration than CFL. CFL needs to be placed within a few inches of the plant, beyond that and it's not effective, I know because I've done it. My 150W HPS can be up to 15inches i think. 12 or 15. Lets see you do that and we'll compare. I was trying to be helpful and save him from wasting money on a CFL like I did.
 
Toolage 87

Toolage 87

Well-Known Member
-_- today I went to the electric store and I found out that you can buy MH and HPS lights and ballasts as low as 35w. Ditch the CFLs man unless your trying to root clones buy a mix of 70w MH and 70 HPS or 125 MH and 125w HPS. The power that they draw is almost the same the difference is that MH and HPS give you better growth and yields. 70w MH can be cooltubed. This let you put the light almost as close as you can get with a CFL except you don't have to worry about the plants touching the light them self.
 
greennewfie

greennewfie

Active Member
CFL's work great just use more smaller ones to spread around and keep them within a few inches at all times i just took apart old lamps and used the sockets.. my grow is working awesome i am using everyone's dreaded miracle grow and cfls and here's a pic to give you an idea its your choice what to use this is just my opinion!!!
Day 10 flowering:

 
napa23

napa23

Well-Known Member
greennewfie- you would benefit from LST my friend. I push people really hard to do it because it works great for me. With CFLs, LST is necessary to get light to the lower bud sites.
Toolage- that's good to know. Might have to look at that.
 
greennewfie

greennewfie

Active Member
Thanks napa23 i will do that my next grow this one kinda done it on its own because i transplanted it lop-sided lol but for now i keep 100watts on top and 100watts for the sides need a bigger closet soon for the next run!!!
 
napa23

napa23

Well-Known Member
what strain is that? A photoperiod? yeah it looks a bit tight in there lol nice and green though
 
Toolage 87

Toolage 87

Well-Known Member
napa23 said:
greennewfie- you would benefit from LST my friend. I push people really hard to do it because it works great for me. With CFLs, LST is necessary to get light to the lower bud sites.
Toolage- that's good to know. Might have to look at that.
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Yea. Its very useful information because most people only know about MH that are 125w to 175w lowest wattage of what they can find and around 250w for the HPS. The 35w MH and HPS would be perfect for the PC Stealth grows since you can get a cooltube rig it up and do 12/12 from seed alot better over CFLs and you should yield more over CFLs
 
Toolage 87

Toolage 87

Well-Known Member
Vedder6 said:
am i in the right fourm? thought this was the CFL section? all this hps/mh talkie
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Yes you are in the right forum but some people don't know about the low wattage MH and HPS lights because the common ones are 250w HPS and 125w MH and they might be alot happier using MH and or HPS over the CFLs but never knew that such lower range existed.
 
Vedder6

Vedder6

Well-Known Member
ahhh!!! word!
i was like 'what are people talking about in here!?!?!'

i had no idea there was a lower watt, coz im also cfl / trying to save $$$ and cut costs and a $150+ just isnt in the budget.. What would one of these cost me?
 
Toolage 87

Toolage 87

Well-Known Member
Depending where you live it will be different but for me it costed me $143 that includes tax and I got 1 70w MH bulb , 1 70w MH Ballast , 1 70w HPS bulb and 1 70w HPS ballast. They screw into a regular light socket but I would highly recommend using a ceramic one that is rated at 100w to 150w max that it can handle. If you have spare light sockets and power cords and can wire up a few wires to the ballast or know someone that can then you don't have to buy and spare power cords. And the heat they give off isn't a tone. Check out my journal. I changed from a 45w CFL to a 70w MH bulb for veg and I have a 70w HPS that I will be using for flowering.

Also depending where you live the MH and HPS bulbs might cost less or as much as a 45w+ CFL and either way you should replace the bulbs of CFLs , MH and HPS every 6 months because they aren't as strong, their falure rate goes up higher and its also good to change out every 6 months because if any kind of light burns out or w/e it can cause a fire.

that's exactly why I mentioned the lights.
 
napa23

napa23

Well-Known Member
Just because this is the CFL forum doesn't mean we shouldn't encourage a superior route. Honestly, i didn't even notice it was in the CFL forum, i was just trying to help. I guess I'll go away since everyone want to jump on me for it. Good luck making a decision OP
 
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