65 watt cfl's: worth it?

V

vtguitar88

Well-Known Member
Hey there fellow growers

I have a 400 watt HPS for flowering, but I'm setting up an additional veg cabinet to have more frequent harvests. I currently have a bunch of daylight cfl's that I'm going to be putting into a couple of vanity fixtures I picked up dirt cheap. My cfl's now range from 23-30 watts, and I've got like 15 of em so those plus a few 42 watt 2700k cfl's would fill the 12 sockets I have, even with some y-splitters. My question is, should I invest in high-power CFL's? I know having a higher intensity of light from one source is more effective than greater dispersion of lower intensity light. But it also costs a lot more. Today I almost put in an order with CFLuniverse.com (great site) for a 4-pack of 65 watt daylight cfl's plus two 105-watt cfl's, but those 6 bulbs plus shipping would have run me just over $100 (still a steal compared to most other sites). So what would you CFL growers out there recommend? Am I gonna be set with my proliferation of lower wattage bulbs, or should I break down and buy the high power CFL's and spread those out among the lower wattage ones? Any input, knowledge or experience, greatly appreciated. peace and warm wishes to everyone!
 
om3gawave

om3gawave

Active Member
Depends on how many plants you want to grow. I am planning on doing something similar.

I bought 8 42 watt daylight CFLs (6500k) from Amazon for about $60 shipped. I have used those for vegetative for two runs of plants and are working great. I grow about four at at time.

Hope it helps.
 
c5rftw

c5rftw

Well-Known Member
oh yah they are. those you ordered are for veg though...
here is of of mine under (6) 65w 2700k for four plants

 
V

vtguitar88

Well-Known Member
darkdestruction420 said:
do the 65w and 105w lights your looking at require a mogul socket? some 65w+ bulbs do.
Click to expand...
nope they look like medium base bulbs. And to the second poster, I am doing this just for veg, cause I have the HPS so the daylight spectrum would set me up well I think. That's a beauty you've got there I'm jealous man. I'm probably gonna have like six plants vegging so I can count on between 2 and 4 females for flower under my 400 watt HPS. I don't want to compromise on fast growth and robust plants just to save 100 bucks, but if the small wattage ones work, I'll just put that money away for somethin else, ya know. thanks for the helpful replies so far everyone..

p.s. here's the links to the bulbs:

105-watt: http://www.cfluniversenew.com/servlet/the-227/105W-DAYLIGHT-TUBE-CFL/Detail


65-watt, 4-pack: http://www.cfluniversenew.com/servlet/the-172/DAYLIGHT-SPIRAL-TWIST-CFL/Detail
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
no don't do it

higher watt cfls do not have higher intesity

23 and 42 watt are the most efficient and cost less per watt
 
V

vtguitar88

Well-Known Member
Okay thanks guys. I have also looked into the lumens per watt numbers, and I noticed that the bigger bulbs do seem less efficient by that measure. However, my understanding is that lumens don't really add up in the way people seem to think they do. Lumens is a measure of light at a certain distance, so six 26 watt bulbs don't provide 156 lumens, but rather 26 lumens dispersed over a wider area. I'm not confident on this though, so if anyone's a lighting/math whiz I'd love to hear what he/she has to say about that. It's all pretty confusing to me. But if you guys have had good experiences with these low-medium watt bulbs, I'll just stick to that advice rather than trying to do fancy figuring and math mumbo jumbo... Thanks again for the help!
 
gogrow

gogrow

confused
vtguitar88 said:
Okay thanks guys. I have also looked into the lumens per watt numbers, and I noticed that the bigger bulbs do seem less efficient by that measure. However, my understanding is that lumens don't really add up in the way people seem to think they do. Lumens is a measure of light at a certain distance, so six 26 watt bulbs don't provide 156 lumens, but rather 26 lumens dispersed over a wider area. I'm not confident on this though, so if anyone's a lighting/math whiz I'd love to hear what he/she has to say about that. It's all pretty confusing to me. But if you guys have had good experiences with these low-medium watt bulbs, I'll just stick to that advice rather than trying to do fancy figuring and math mumbo jumbo... Thanks again for the help!
Click to expand...

you are correct, lumens do not add up... but you still benefit with more lights by getting better coverage and penetration.. to an extent. I wont try to go into the science of it, as i would probably fail miserably:lol:, but there are several good threads about it on here, (mostly in advanced cult.).

as for the cfls, i used em for awhile back when i first started, and am considering doing as you are with the veg room as well... i had two 85w and one 65w... i dont know what kind of area you are trying to cover, but just as a personal choice, i would go with fewer of the larger cfls... i like light intensity.... but if it is getting to be over $100, i would consider a small 250w mh... in the end its all up to you bro; i've seen some decent grows on here using many small-wattage cfl's, but just some decent.... the larger cfls are on par with HID's in my opinion (at least for their results when used realistically).

dunno if that helps or not... hope sobongsmilie:eyesmoke:
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
Well, lumens do add up but you do have to adjust for distance. What counts is impact lumens per sq ft of grow space. One of the advantages of cfls is that they can be placed much closer to foliage than other lights, thus at least partially compensating for their lower lumen per watt output. More 26 or 42s is an advantage there because they are easier to position close up. There are many times when instead of one 65 anywhere you can out it, you need a 23 here and a 23 there and another 23 over there.
 
ataxia

ataxia

Well-Known Member
great thread! im using cfls and with the money ive invested in bulbs splitters and lines .. and were still not done yet..i could've gotten an hps... im using a 65 and 42 cool soft whtie, 30 cool white, and 6 26 daylight. my first time so two males so far, KILLED EM, and one with different preflowers.. dnk know the sex yet. TO MY POINT! If anyone has a good blue-print or link of setting up cfl bulbs around plants that'd be A GREAT HELP for all of us!!!
 
V

vtguitar88

Well-Known Member
ataxia said:
great thread! im using cfls and with the money ive invested in bulbs splitters and lines .. and were still not done yet..i could've gotten an hps... im using a 65 and 42 cool soft whtie, 30 cool white, and 6 26 daylight. my first time so two males so far, KILLED EM, and one with different preflowers.. dnk know the sex yet. TO MY POINT! If anyone has a good blue-print or link of setting up cfl bulbs around plants that'd be A GREAT HELP for all of us!!!
Click to expand...
even with an HPS, which I have, it's nice to have a small CFL setup for starting plants at least. I know what you mean with finding the ideal setup/configuration for the fixtures though. I've tried a few different things with varying degrees of success. For a while, I was using this 5-head medusa floor lamp, each head having a goose neck, which was very adjustable and I could surround the plant/s with bulbs, which was nice. However, I had a few burn issues because the goose necks could easily get knocked, or weren't completely stable. It's a price you pay for all that flexibility. Here's a link to the one I got if you're interested. Oh and the other annoying thing with these floor lamps is that they take up space in the grow room or cabinet, and are like a min of 4.5 feet tall.... but they might work for you.

Now I'm trying something new, which is these vanity fixtures. I got two of them here as you can see they're currently 8 bucks and change for a fixture with six sockets. So I'm gonna attach them to opposite sides of my two foot deep cabinet, facing eachother, and put bulbs in each socket going across, so the facing bulbs almost meet, and thereby creating a canopy of light above the plants. Using y splitters on some of them positioned vertically, you could get some side lighting as well. I'll let you know how it works out. It's less adjustable than the other fixture, but much easier to deal with, and I can just use stuff to position the plants as close to the 'CFL canopy' as I want. Hope this gives you some good ideas, and let me know what you've come up, always looking to try new and better stuff!
 
I

Illegal Smile

Guest
If you want the best mix between cool and intense, try T5 HOs. I use them for veg and flower. Not cheap but very effective.
 
V

vtguitar88

Well-Known Member
Illegal Smile said:
If you want the best mix between cool and intense, try T5 HOs. I use them for veg and flower. Not cheap but very effective.
Click to expand...
yeah I looked into the T5 system that HTG sells. They look good, but it's seventy bucks for two lamps that emit 10,000 lumens each. If I'm gonna get a setup with a reflector that I hang, I'll just get a 400w metal halide for 80 bucks, way more efficient and effective. I have a cabinet that has a removable top, so I don't want to hang anything from it. I'm just gonna get a bunch of 6500 k cfl's and some 2700 watt ones, and I just had a stroke of inspiration for reflectors for the vanity fixture.

Check this out: gonna get 12 2 liter coke bottles, cut off the cap end until they're big enough to fit around the outside of the socket, cut out the bottle part so that it's more of a half circle or moon shape, tape aluminum foil to the inside, and just affix it to the socket so the bulb comes out under it. I can easily make 12 of those so each socket on the vanity fixture has it's own individual reflector. No wasted light, no money spent! I'll post a picture once I get it all set up.
 
ataxia

ataxia

Well-Known Member
and that poses a question for me....REFLECTORS.... i just have a bunch of shoplights hanging with two y splitters in each fixture..3 bulbs per fixture. My question???? obviously i'll never find a reflector for these lamps but i have access to sheets of aluminum ....i know they say its poorly reflective ..however ..if i line them with visiqueen would even a small square work as a reflector for me? or is a flat surface without any curves a bad idea ....im afraid it may block air flow. I HAVE SOOOO MANY MORE QUESTIONS, and with so many forums it's hard to find the right answer sometimes.....back to t5s real fast.. those fixtures in walmart ....are they worth it????? or is it safer to go with the way more expensive SUNSYSTEM FIX.?
 
ataxia

ataxia

Well-Known Member
should have asked in my last post but....dont they say reflectors are no good with cfls since light i being shot in every direction from them? Wouldn't you lose some light with one around cfl bulbs?
 
MileHighMoFo

MileHighMoFo

Member
No, it takes the light that was wasted off the side of the bulb not facing the plant and reflects it towards the plant, you want as much light reflection in your flower area as possible
 
darkdestruction420

darkdestruction420

Well-Known Member
i use clamp lights that come with their own reflector, everything but the bulbs and y splitters for 6 each. let me see if i cant find the tag off one of em, i think i kept a few of the tags so ill check what the exact name and that is. i highly recommend them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top