Buddy232
Active Member
I did not know that. Most people quote the actual wattage of their CFL's not the equivalent.
700W of equivalent would only equal about seven 27W bulbs. That's enough for one plant I bet, for two or three though I'd install 400+ watt's of actual CFL. When I did my CFL grow I did like 12 bulbs of 27 and 42 watters with a side light or two. Call it 350W though because I was bouncing around... and that worked out fine. For vegging I also had two 65 watters in there so that was a bunch extra, but flowering is where it really counts.
Like I said, yes you have to bulb a ton of CFL's and if you don't do a bulk order you COULD spend a lot on those. Yes you have to build a fixture, don't do that the wrong way and you will spend some money needless too. Yes you may experience some slow growth in between processes' and it may take a week longer for your plants to fully mature.
BUT, if your new and dont want to or don't have acess to a hydro shop - you don't have to goto one. If this is your first ever run and you have no one to show you first hand, you can goof off pretty much worry free. AND the electric is the thing. If you totally F up it's no big loss. Seriously, my house is over 1700 ft square. My in-laws is about 1400... the only exception is they have a pool and I don't, which yes I know that is a power hog. Last summer when I did the CFL thing, their power bill ranged from 350 to 400 while mine was 90-110. Yes $110 while powering 3 plants, two fans - plus powering and cooling my house.
The CFL's now are used for vegging in addition to T5. Once they burn out I can take apart the fixture and use the holders around the house, in the garage, etc. Basically none of it will have gone to waste, plus it didn't kill me in power. If I had bought a 250W HID then I'd experience the power draw from the ballast, plus the bulb - plus be stuck with a crappy lamp once I want to upgrade. It's not worth vegging with that - you can get the exact same output from a 8 bay T5 for 1/3 the operating cost and twice the bulb life.
Sorry for the rample but I went through the same through process in the past.
BTW I also did interlock some 27K's into my 65k's during vegging and 65's with 27's during flower. I never experienced leaf death - I wonder if that was why.
