CFL questions???

Got some questions about CFLs like is wattage important or just the color temperature?
And what watt/color temperature is best for veg stage and flowering stage?
And any websites that have CFLs and that ship to hawaii
right now i only have two lamps and place them right above my plants when its nighttime, and i heard you suppose to have 1 light for 1 plant, is this true? or can i just get 2 high watt/high color temperature bulb instead of a lot.

blue for veg and red to flower or mix them up for different spectrums

if you want efficiency figure out the lumens/watt.
if you want easy go with the big ones.
i run all 23w and 18w bulb as the 23w are most efficient and cheapest to buy.
can buy 4 packs of 23w 5000k(veg for 10-12 bucks and 6 pack of 23w 2700k(flower) for 10-12 from lowes or home depot.
run a mixed spectrum of roughly 3:1 in both flower and veg.

a rough idea of watt bulb and then lumens/watt.
105w - 65.714
85w - 58.823
65w - 52.308
55w - 65.454
42w - 66.667
40w - 66.25
32w - 65.625
30w - 66.667
27w - 64.815
23w -69.565
18w - 58.88

this is a pic of my light setup in a 2x2x4 grow room. you will want roughly 5000 lumens/sqft for veg and 10,000 lumens/sqft for flower.
try to keep lights 1-3 inches at all times to avoid stretch.
good luck any questions feel free to ask.

Whatever your fancy and whatever your space can take.. I like to mix a few 65 watters up top with a few 28 watters between and a few 45 watters on the side.. pretty much the lower lumen bulbs keep the brighter lights embellished in between spaces kinda gig...

But whatever ya got.. just keep em 24 watters or above at 'least'.

I disagree i have vegged this in 30 days with everything under 23w.
i just started flowering so stay tuned in and will let you know how that goes.
most efficient way would be have as many 23w as close to as many leaves as possible for the fact a big cfl only covers a few leaves with very little penetration.
can be done however you like read a lot and make your own conclusions.
the guy above tell me why 23w are not good as in they are most lumen/watt??
facts not your opinion please.

Hey KailuaKid
in answer to the first question blue (6400k-6500k) is best for vegging and red 2700k-3000k best for flowering but alot of people use a mix of the 2....ie both types can be used for veg and flower ie all blue, all red or a mix of blue and red

wattage is MORE important .... but the use of reflective hoods for lights ...even home made ones can increase light to your plants by 30% (wild guess but probably right) or more and so less wattage is needed ... also side walls can be made more reflective ..it all helps

you said "right now i only have two lamps and place them right above my plants when its nighttime"

if you want your plants to stay in veg mode then you would put lights on at night as enough darkness will make them grow bud
if you want them to grow bud they must have approx 12 hours of complete uninterupted darkness

if they are auto's forget all that they will flower whatever
if you are just trying to improve the veg stage forget that too...

shipping ???? use ebay someone will deliver

hope it helps good and luck with the grow

hiitsbob said:

if you want efficiency figure out the lumens/watt.
if you want easy go with the big ones.
i run all 23w and 18w bulb as the 23w are most efficient and cheapest to buy.
can buy 4 packs of 23w 5000k(veg for 10-12 bucks and 6 pack of 23w 2700k(flower) for 10-12 from lowes or home depot.
run a mixed spectrum of roughly 3:1 in both flower and veg.

a rough idea of watt bulb and then lumens/watt.
105w - 65.714
85w - 58.823
65w - 52.308
55w - 65.454
42w - 66.667
40w - 66.25
32w - 65.625
30w - 66.667
27w - 64.815
23w -69.565
18w - 58.88

this is a pic of my light setup in a 2x2x4 grow room. you will want roughly 5000 lumens/sqft for veg and 10,000 lumens/sqft for flower.
try to keep lights 1-3 inches at all times to avoid stretch.
good luck any questions feel free to ask.
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hey hiitsbob ..
as you like the lume to watt ratio of your 23 watt cfl 69.565 lumen/watt...thought you might be interested in the fact that a T5 bulb can produce over 100 lumen/watt although most are 90+ lumen /per watt (larger ones are most efficient)
put another way 23 x 69.695 = 1602.985 lumens .....1602.985 divided into 90 lumen per watt = 17.81watts

and yes you,ve guessed it i use T5's
later dude

If you have a plant sitting under 1 100 watt bulb is it the same as having it under4 25 watt bulbs? This is true watts, and assuming that each light setup got equal coverage. I mean do the lumens combine to equal the output of the 100 watt bulb, or are you only getting the output of the smaller ones individually?

Cheapskater said:

hey hiitsbob ..
as you like the lume to watt ratio of your 23 watt cfl 69.565 lumen/watt...thought you might be interested in the fact that a T5 bulb can produce over 100 lumen/watt although most are 90+ lumen /per watt (larger ones are most efficient)
put another way 23 x 69.695 = 1602.985 lumens .....1602.985 divided into 90 lumen per watt = 17.81watts

and yes you,ve guessed it i use T5's
later dude

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Yep T5 HO are they way to go w/smaller hanging CFLs..T5s at work..

a 4 foot t5 putting out 100lumens/watt is over 2 foot or 4 foot. a cfl is roughly 4 inches long putting out 65 lumens/watt
i am not saying anyone is wrong use what works for you and i will be more than happy that you do it. just putting factual information out there not stating i just use t 5 with no proof.
i showed what i did and it was my first grow and i know i screwed up by under watering my plant a few times. good luck to everyone.

hiitsbob said:

the guy above tell me why 23w are not good as in they are most lumen/watt??
facts not your opinion please.

Click to expand...

I said something like 'I wouldn't go lower than 24 watt'.. you say you have a 23 watt.. I wouldn't sweat the 1 watt. I was being 'General'.

That said, I totally recommend to anyone who has the space, to get larger bulbs in there to mix with the lower lumen bulbs come flower time if you want to see the best yield. That should be a no brainer.

Your plant looks great.. if you don't get it under something bigger than 23 watters now, you'll wish you did. If that were my plant, and I was using only low watt bulbs, I would have to have at least 15-20 low watt bulbs on her before she was done flowering.


As far as 'facts'.. I got no facts man...

However I have pulled of dozens of successful CFL harvests using just about every configutation known to man... I would certainly be someone I myself might want to talk to, if I hadn't been doing this a lot.

If you find any 'facts' let me know, I wasn't aware of a book of facts.. most of this stuff is 'magic'..

er... is it just me or is it getting hot in here ....

cmon gents lets roll a spliff or fill ya bow...... as long as we can do that its all good

yeah you are right is is magic. didnt mean it to be hostile in any way. as for bulb i am already running 14 23w bulbs now.
i still do not know if i agree with the bigger bulbs for the idea your not really lighting the bud your trying to light all the leaves so it can make food to grow the buds.
but diffenent stokes for different folks. i say as long as everyone is happy with what they are doing that is all that matters to me.

hiitsbob said:

yeah you are right is is magic. didnt mean it to be hostile in any way. as for bulb i am already running 14 23w bulbs now.
i still do not know if i agree with the bigger bulbs for the idea your not really lighting the bud your trying to light all the leaves so it can make food to grow the buds.
but diffenent stokes for different folks. i say as long as everyone is happy with what they are doing that is all that matters to me.

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The reason I use bigger bulbs is to get more lumens in there..the lil bulbs are in the neighborhood of 2k lumens (give or take, usually about 1800lm) and the bigger bulbs are around 4000 lumens..

I certainly see a massive difference in bud growth with using the higher watt bubls WITH the lower watt bulbs, than just the olwer watt alone.. the bigger bulbs are like steroids for the little bulbs..


If I was going for 'efficiency; I wouldn't be growing this way.. they are so inefficient yet cheap enough, I can just toss 'whatever' at them without worrying too much.


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As for tone.. I didn't pick up hostility... just another guy looking for facts.. I wish there were 'facts'.. I really really do.. *S*

i understand your train of thought for sure. i went the route with 15-20 bulbs. which yes is a bigger pain in the ass then only 8-10 big bulbs.
the reason i went with the smaller ones is i can get 6 23w bulbs putting out 9,600 lumens for $12. all my wire and fixtures and y's were around $40.
so total cost for me i can get my whole setup going for the price of one 200w bulb.
just one 125w bulb is 30-40 bucks and only puts out 7,500 lumens. a 200 w cfl only puts out 12,500 lumens and is 60-100 bucks.
i guess we agree no right or wrong way as long as everyone is smoking and in peace that is all that matter.

totally agree cfl's are not efficient compared to hid.

yeah i wanna see those facts ...i really really really do... most of what people quote as facts l are usually quoting incorrectly misleading others in the process ... ie quoting something from a hps grow and applying the same rule to cfls or leds .... each light is differnt by design so no one rule applies they all must have seperate rules ....... each grow room is different and so the first rule would need to be applied to the grow room making endless no of scenarios ......but no facts..... lux ,lumen , par, each

the one that gets to me at the moment is the inverse square law of radiation ...ie double the distance and divide the lumens by 4 ..... what a load of crap....utter bullshit that applies no grow anywhere ...except grows in sunlight

But that law is fact i hear u say...... misleading bullshit is what i say.... coz ....does the sun have a reflector to reflect light comming from the other side ..NO .... does it have shiney walls to reflect the light back in ...HELL NO...then it means almost nothing to anyone growing inside ....pisses me off ...

a little bit......lol

haha atleast you have a brain to think for yourself i like to see this. a lot here do spread misinformation run with the first thing they read or hear.
i do not know much about the inverse square law of radiation been a while since physics about ten years. but will look into it and see if it can be related to inside.
it has to be able to be for sure but agree we use mylar/white paint to keep reflecting what light we can back to the plant. so the direct light from bulb to leaf has to use the inverse law of radiation but the rest bouncing around i do not have the answer. this is why a lot of people use mylar/white painted cardboard to shrink up the size of their rooms so the light does not diminish.

hiitsbob said:

i understand your train of thought for sure. i went the route with 15-20 bulbs. which yes is a bigger pain in the ass then only 8-10 big bulbs.
the reason i went with the smaller ones is i can get 6 23w bulbs putting out 9,600 lumens for $12. all my wire and fixtures and y's were around $40.
so total cost for me i can get my whole setup going for the price of one 200w bulb.
just one 125w bulb is 30-40 bucks and only puts out 7,500 lumens. a 200 w cfl only puts out 12,500 lumens and is 60-100 bucks.
i guess we agree no right or wrong way as long as everyone is smoking and in peace that is all that matter.

totally agree cfl's are not efficient compared to hid.

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One thing to consider when talking bulbs that put out more 'lumens' (which really doesn't tell us everything) .......

In general terms.. if you have 3 20 watt bulbs right next to each other, you increase the brightness in a larger area, but the actual brightness coming from one bulb 1 inch away from that bulb wont get any brighter .

Lumens don't actually multiply exactly.. Adding more increases in actual lighting, but at the same time it is a bit misleading for manufacturers to put out a 4 floro fixture at 50 watt's a bulb (for instance) and indicate it as a 200 lumen light.. it is a 200 lumen 'fixture' not light (more than just a semantic), and it's source of lumens is spread out over a larger area. Something akin to when you spread water out over a larger area, a drop becomes a mist.



I dunno man, I stopped and read what I wrote and it all sounds like shit to me man.. never mind any of that gobbledygook.. All I know for sure is when I put in the bigger bulbs, I get much bigger buds and very little popcorn, no matter how closely I cover my plant with the lil guys (pretty close), I have always been satisfied to put in some larger ones on top.. That said, I am sure I would be satisfied putting a 250 watt HID over my plant too.. and then 1000 watt..

I 'get' small bulbs for the small bulb crowd.. I really do.. I was one and will be again.. .. don't let my bullshit have you thinking I am discounting them.. they have their place in a lot of peoples well functioning setups..


Ciao..

RIKNSTEIN said:

Yep T5 HO are they way to go w/smaller hanging CFLs..T5s at work..

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what you got in there dude....lol.... i can see a long finger ....E.T .......

but on a more serious note you said T5 HO are the way to go with smaller cfls .....why T5 HO and not T5 HE ( HO = high output, HE = high effency) I heard many people say same thing and lightwave, sunblaster and others all use HO ..... but no one explains why.... my setup is using he bulbs ...a diy job .....

I think it maybe possible that HO setups using almost half as much materials to make in terms of bulb and ballasts would make for better possibility of proffit to a company .... where as HE bulbs would actually save you money in the long term .... and as companies are only interested in proffit, I think they are the ones that started that idea ..... if you can prove me wrong tho i would appreciate it...