2700K CLFs On Sides To supplement 400w HPS

Worth doing? Got a 400w HPS cooltube in a roughly 2x5 closet. at 8-10" I get amazing coverage for about 3 feet, the extra foot on each side is a little dimmer than I'd like. Would say 3x55 2700K CFLs on the side be beneficial or useless with even decent HPS light.

I would say the added light would be beneficial.

Peace out

ULMResearch said:

Worth doing? Got a 400w HPS cooltube in a roughly 2x5 closet. at 8-10" I get amazing coverage for about 3 feet, the extra foot on each side is a little dimmer than I'd like. Would say 3x55 2700K CFLs on the side be beneficial or useless with even decent HPS light.

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You could just use hanging cfls like carpenters use for temporary lighting (called a trouble light) w/ Y splitter adapters. Hang 4 different ones at different heights/places which would be 8 bulbs. Even the 27w cfls put out around 1750 lumens, so figure you could hang many more in different spots for better coverage. 8 bulbs would be 14,000 lumens, plus you could cover all sides & have them closer to the plant with less heat. Super cheap & you could put as many as you want.
Or you could buy a vanity fixture with say 3-6 bulbs & with the y splitters it would be 6-12 bulbs & mount it vertically to the wall like a homeade cfl t5 fixture.
You could even put two mounted vertically along the sides & you would have more light then you need !

I was planning a 3 socket vanity with 3 55w. Or perhaps a 4 socket vanity strip. That gives me 700-800 watts either way. 70-80 per sf should be good! Thanks for the reassurances.

You could always buy a 4-6 socket vanity (only $5-10 more then 3 socket), then you could have more then you need & not use them all. You could also space out the 55w's more & add some different spectrums to compliment the hps. I mean your taking all the time, might as well get 2-4 extra bulb slots even if your not using them for later on, then you can space bulbs more,add more if needed, or mix n match some daylight & bright whites with the soft whites. Some growers recommend still incorporating some blue spectrum into your plants during flowering

I don't like the idea of open sockets. Leaves could get in there, water, anything. It's only a 2 foot wall, I don't need much. And if it's not enough I'll use splitters and put 300w on each side with 400 on top. 1000w or 100w per sf. I like that. Expensive though.

I have 8 27 watt cfls for veg on sides, 2 ceramic light fixtures on each side with y splitters so 4 bulbs per side, and my 400watt HPS over top growing autos, does that sound good? I have 6 ladys 5 are new sprouts in my 3x3x6 cab

Heres a update. I have 6 veg cfl's and 2 flowering cfl's for a total of 8 on the sides, and turned on the 400watt HPS over top of them. The bigger lowryder you see I transplanted too late so shes stunted, thats as tall as shell get. Transplanted the 5 other sprouts into 3 gal smart pots. These are Big devil auto, ak 47, lowryder #2. All fem autos. I'll get some better pics after I drive to the grow site after work tomorrow