cfl overkill?

B

briccksquad

Member
What do you think would be the max watts you would want to use for cfl, I'm currently at 161 watts, and am about to begin flowering soon, I'm going to be adding supplemental lighting and have adequate room in my cab to mount a 4 socket housing on each wall, so for a total of 8 more. Do you think this would be too much, I really cant do mh or hps right now cuz I dont have proper space or able to vent out the heat and smell until I move to my new place.
 
robnarley1111

robnarley1111

Active Member
briccksquad said:
guess I should have mentioned that its for a single plant :P
Click to expand...
There are many factors to consider when determining how much is "too much" for CFL lighting. Since you only have one plant, you are already above the minimum recommended amount of wattage for vegging a plant: 100 watts per plant. Now flowering will need more wattage, and more intense light than vegging. Here are some things you may want to ask yourself:

1.) Do you have adequate ventilation to control/lower the additional heat? What's your ventilation setup like?
2.) How many CFLs can you fit in your space while keeping temps between 70°F and 80° (roughly) while the lights are on? (trial and error)
3.) What square footage are you working with?


I'd say use as many as you can safely, without overloading any wires/breakers/outlets, and without burning any foliage. As long as temps are in check and the plant(s) is happy!
 
B

briccksquad

Member
robnarley1111 said:
There are many factors to consider when determining how much is "too much" for CFL lighting. Since you only have one plant, you are already above the minimum recommended amount of wattage for vegging a plant: 100 watts per plant. Now flowering will need more wattage, and more intense light than vegging. Here are some things you may want to ask yourself:

1.) Do you have adequate ventilation to control/lower the additional heat? What's your ventilation setup like?
2.) How many CFLs can you fit in your space while keeping temps between 70°F and 80° (roughly) while the lights are on? (trial and error)
3.) What square footage are you working with?


I'd say use as many as you can safely, without overloading any wires/breakers/outlets, and without burning any foliage. As long as temps are in check and the plant(s) is happy!
Click to expand...
Great info bro, and these are all things that I have kept in mind moving forward, I feel that my ventilation is good, I have a passive intake that is small, another intake that has a 120mm pc fan blowing air in, and I have a ridiculous 200cfm exhaust fan pulling the air out. my square footage is near 7.
 
giggywatts

giggywatts

Well-Known Member
between not feeding enough and over watering i about killed them. i had 4 and after i salvaged the grow i got a oz out of it, wasn't bad smoke. lets call it bag weed, it was high grade, but it was called special, i got 2 beans of it going now.
 
B

briccksquad

Member
giggywatts said:
between not feeding enough and over watering i about killed them. i had 4 and after i salvaged the grow i got a oz out of it, wasn't bad smoke. lets call it bag weed, it was high grade, but it was called special, i got 2 beans of it going now.
Click to expand...
damn man, would like to see some pics of your setup
 
giggywatts

giggywatts

Well-Known Member
i'll see what i can do, don't relly have pics of the setup. in one of my old threads i think i had pics of my homemade carbon filters. i am going to make some changes so it may be a little bit, the thread i started is the link i have in my post, but not much there yet.


briccksquad said:
damn man, would like to see some pics of your setup
Click to expand...
 
Sand4x105

Sand4x105

Well-Known Member
CFL's.... I use them....

Forget the square footage, design of your room and all the other stuff...

Always when using CFL's... Always, put the MAX number of lights you can for your space....
You can not have too many CFL's... NO one has ever had too many CFL's...
Asking the question, is an Oxymoron....
So, always add as many CFL's as you can for your space, as many that will not jack up your heat...
Keep adding them if you can vent the heat... CFL's do add heat...
Speaking from experience:
5-65 watt----325
4-40 watt----160
2-32 watt-----64
36-23 watt --828
My Total = 1477 watts of CFL in my veg room...
Over kill... NO Way... They are CFL's and sometimes.... you just keep adding....

So, the rule, for one or ten plants... ADD as many CFL's as possible....
 
giggywatts

giggywatts

Well-Known Member
sounds like you have the setup that we need to see. that is alot of light, but your right never to much with cfl.


Sand4x105 said:
CFL's.... I use them....

Forget the square footage, design of your room and all the other stuff...

Always when using CFL's... Always, put the MAX number of lights you can for your space....
You can not have too many CFL's... NO one has ever had too many CFL's...
Asking the question, is an Oxymoron....
So, always add as many CFL's as you can for your space, as many that will not jack up your heat...
Keep adding them if you can vent the heat... CFL's do add heat...
Speaking from experience:
5-65 watt----325
4-40 watt----160
2-32 watt-----64
36-23 watt --828
My Total = 1477 watts of CFL in my veg room...
Over kill... NO Way... They are CFL's and sometimes.... you just keep adding....

So, the rule, for one or ten plants... ADD as many CFL's as possible....
Click to expand...
 
giggywatts

giggywatts

Well-Known Member
i went and looked through my old pics and didn't find pics of the box. it is just a 2'wx2'dx4't wood box i threw together. i got a yard sale bathroom exhaust fan, and homemade reflector system. i'm making some changes to the lighting, i'm going over to cfl floods for overhead. keep a eye on my thread i got going for updates. my plants seen to be lagging so i'm gonna start stacking the lights to bring the heat up.
 
Concord Dawn

Concord Dawn

Well-Known Member
heres a pic of my lights for 2 plants in a 2x2x5 cardboard box, i use between 10 to 12 - 23 to 26 watt bulbs with a 1 to 3 mix depending on veg or flowering and 2 tubes for side lighting. post some pics man, LoL.

 
B

Benjwg

Member
I have 500 watts of CFL (2 250W bulbs) in a wooden box about 5 foot long, 3 ft wide, 3 ft tall.

At first, I had so many problems with heat. Rising to 100degrees.

I decided on a solution - put the grow box in my cold as **** shed. it dropped temps down by 40f

I then had problems warming it up... warming is much easier than cooling, trust me!

My temps are now running @ 70 low - 80 high

You do not have overkill... If I could control the heat, I would have 1000 watts in there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top