First Post- Did I Buy The Right CFLs?

I've been doing a lot of reading on everything marijuana growing and most people recommend 23W, 40W, and 42W CFLs for a grow. I went to home depot and they didn't have any of those. I purchased 12 Ecosmart 60W(uses only 14W) Daylight CFLs and 12 in Soft White. Will these work? Do I need to do anything different with these lights compared to 23w, 40w, and 42w bulbs?

Those are really weak. I haven't tried them so I can't say whether they work or not.

60w are weaker than 42w and lower? You mean they are weak in general?

I would recommend sticking with 23w and 40w. I would not use any smaller bulbs unless I had to. So they will be fine to start a few seeds with but especially for flowering stage you would need an upgrade.

Is 60w lower than 23w and 40w?

Yeah man the 14w cfl is lower than 40w and 23w. When talking about CFLs, you always want to refer to the actual wattage, not the equivalent wattage. So the 14w CFL is just a 14w. The wattage listed where it says Equivalent is just comparing it to an incandescent light bulb.

Alright thanks. Time to return these.

Josh MacGruber said:

60w are weaker than 42w and lower? You mean they are weak in general?

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You're mixing your terminology. You bought 14w CFLs. They are called "60w equivalent" (because they produce the amount of light of a 60w incandescent.).

He's saying your 14w is too weak, and 23w is better (which is 100w equivalent?).

You have to distinguish whether you're talking *actual* watts or *equivalent*. (Equiv doesn't mean much, so just always talk actual.).

Josh MacGruber said:

Alright thanks. Time to return these.

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That's the right decision in my opinion.
If you manage to find 40w and 23w, I think you will be much more satisfied

Ya the guy at the store said they use 14w of power and produced 60w of light. I was like- hell yea. He also said bring them back if he was wrong haha.

Check Walmart.. The GE brand is good because it comes in 6500k and 3000k.

CFLs are not a good way to grow weed though. Real pain to rig them all together and an expense. Just get a Sunsystems 150 w HS for $60. You will save an have better weed and probably less fire risk or risk of burning leaves.

Start seedlings with 1 or 2 CFL's per plant.

150w hps give off much heat? Do you use built in ballast type?

sunny747 said:

CFLs are not a good way to grow weed though. Real pain to rig them all together and an expense.

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I think CFLs get a bad rap because people don't typically reflect/aim the light. New growers end to hang them in mid-air, radiating 80% of the light to everywhere *except* the plants. I just did a test of a CFL (bare and reflected). 180 lux versus 720, respectively. 4x improvement. (4 bulbs instead of 1. Or, 75% less heat. However anyone wants to look at it.).

Like you said, it's a bit of work to find creative ways to mount/reflect them. I posted this to another thread and remembered this thread: the OP might find some inspiration on this page, showing how to mount LED lightbulbs.

Youre good those will work. I prefer nothing less than 23 watt 100 watt equivalent cfl's myself. But 60 watt equivalent will do. Thing to remember about cfl's is this:

1. Proximity- they need to be close to plants 1-3" away max! That means that as it grows you got keep positioning them from 1-3 from foilage or leaves. So it'll be a daily battle to keep plants from touching them as they grow bigger, but you must keep them close.

2. Heat- You'll want to add more of these as plant gets bigger, and in a confined space allot of cfl's will raise the temperature. Get a cheap digital temp/humidity reader. Shoot for 70-78 temp and humidity of 50-55

3. Temperature- (of bulb). You want to use the more white or daylight (5000-6500k) cfl's to veg a plant. If you keep them close it should stay short and bushy. You want to change to the more yellowish or warm(2700k) for flowering.

check out these CFL's i got as side lighting, they're 40 actual watts 150w equivelent and theyre only $12!. I bought two for the flip and they're pretty bright! got some hanging sockets for them too!

az2000 said:

I think CFLs get a bad rap because people don't typically reflect/aim the light. New growers end to hang them in mid-air, radiating 80% of the light to everywhere *except* the plants. I just did a test of a CFL (bare and reflected). 180 lux versus 720, respectively. 4x improvement. (4 bulbs instead of 1. Or, 75% less heat. However anyone wants to look at it.).

Like you said, it's a bit of work to find creative ways to mount/reflect them. I posted this to another thread and remembered this thread: the OP might find some inspiration on this page, showing how to mount LED lightbulbs.

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I'm gonna go get giant aluminum reflectors from home Depot for my cfl Chandeliers tomorrow.

TJ baba said:

I'm gonna go get giant aluminum reflectors from home Depot for my cfl Chandeliers tomorrow.

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Another option is GE 10w (60w equiv) LED BrightStik. They cost only $3.50.

I usually use Cree 9.5w LED lightbulbs. They're omnidirectional and maybe 30% more lumens/w than a CFL. But, the GE BrightStick has the LEDs flush-mounted to the base (they all point forward). So, they are directional even without a reflector(!)

From my test yesterday:


As you can see, the GE 10w (without a reflector) is brighter than the 15w CFL in a reflector. (If you add a reflector, it's 6.6x brighter than a CFL without a reflector).

My test isn't quite as clear-cut as that. I didn't measure distribution across a 2-foot square. I only measured directly in front of the bulb (maybe 20" distance). There could be coverage differences (the intensity at 6 or 12" off center). My smartphone app to measure lux isn't that good (the sensor on my phone isn't that good).

In the past the downside to LED lightbulbs (compared to CFL) was the price. But, the 10w GE BrightStik is $3.50 at Home Depot.

I'm using one bulb now. @zachyweezer88 is beginning to grow with them (maybe CFL and GE mixed together?).

GE just relased a 16w (100w equiv) version. It's only sold at Sams Club at the moment. It looks like it could be even more efficient. (The lumens/watts on the box don't look that good. But, it is the forward-facing diodes which make these lights really good. They're already directional. Less loss is incurred from reflecting the light.). I've got one and will post more about it in this article.

Now for a word of caution:

To get the goodness of that GE bulb, you have to remove the plastic diffusion cap. This teardown has photos showing what it looks like. This expose line voltage. If recessed in a clamp-on reflector, there's not much risk of contact. But, still, it's potentially lethal.

To be perfectly safe, you should power these through a GFI outlet (just make an extension cord with an junction box at the end, and a GFI outlet. Or, replace the wall outlet with a GFI).

Removing the cap:

I grasp the base and cap, and try to break it in half. I rotate it in my hands, trying to break it in half. After 3-4 tries, it breaks.

However, one time the diode plate came off with the cap. It slides back onto the two prongs (seen in the teardown link).

It may be better to hacksaw around the base to remove the cap. But, don't cut too deeply. You don't want to hit anything.

Storage:

With the cap removed, the phosphor (yellow) coating on the diodes is subject to damage. They should be handled and stored carefully. (If the phosphors are scraped off, it will change the light spectrum.).

The 3-pack box they come in is a good way to store them. Or, use 8oz solo (party) cups (face down into the cup, a rubber band to hold the cup to the light's base.).

CFL are about the worst efficiency bulb available for growing.

Worst to best:
Incandescent 8-20 lm/w
Halogen 16 lm/w
Horrible LEDs less than 80 lm/w
CFL 70-85 lm/w (lumens per watt)
LED Bulb 75-100 lm/w
T5/T8 Fluorescent 90-105 lm/w
Cheap LEDs 80-110 lm/w
150w HPS 105-110 lm/w
250w HPS 115-125 lm/w
400w HPS 120-130 lm/w
1000w HPS 135-145 lm/w
600w HPS 140-155 lm/w
Vero 29 150-170 lm/w
Cree CXB 150-200+ lm/w

Too many CFLs are needed to get to proper lighting as well. You would need 3-4 24w bulbs per 1 square foot. 1125w of CFL puts out almost exactly the same amount of light as a 600w HPS. That is almost 47 24w CFL bulbs.

I agree, and because I have so many cfls it makes my grow look so ghetto.