i just did that hole hand thing....its no more then 3 1/2" away from the plant....i can feel alil warmth if i keep my hand thereoh yeah how far is it from your plant you should be like 1"-2" away no more, Yeah it sounds crazy but a rule of thumb i have heard and seems to have worked for me is if you hold your hand where your plant is for 1 min and feel heat it is too close. hope that helps
you realize how ridiculous that is?I would get a couple and then you will be fine for a while but in time you will want more. You can never have too much light I have one 18" plant going to flower and there is 14 26w cfls on it and i am probably almost going to double that over the next few weeks.
It is a bit crazy but I just cant get over the little buggers they're neat for one, i started with 3 plants and had two guys and it was my first grow sooooo i didnt wanna invest in hps or mh systems i think some day i will but for now just wanted to see if i could do it. I mean the price wasn't bad i got all 14 for 30 cause there was some brought to you by com ed bs goin on with themyou realize how ridiculous that is?
14 x 26W = 364W . for one plant? you could have a 250W MH that would give you the same light output with much less heat! not to mention it'd be cheaper.
Or you could get a 400W that would still put out less heat than 364W of fluoro and put the ballast outside the grow room, jack up the light output and really cool things off.