How many cfl lights would I need to grow 4 plants and what wattage should they be?
- Thread starter cmbajr
- Start date
CaptainCarnival
Active Member
do you mean the bulbs are actually 85w or are they 85w equivalent because most people say that when using CFLs you want about 100w per plant minimum
I currently are doing my first CFL grow, Im a outdoor grower normally and have no indoor experience till now.
Day 36 from seed:
They are happy, FFOF, using full FF regiment including beastie bloomz. (expcdeting open sesame and cha ching (these are autos flowrs..)
They are 4x Double Diesel Ryder Autoflower by Sagarmatha Seeds. and 1x Random bag seed i(in the red pot) Bagseed plant is 47 days old today
Current light setup is
20/4 on off , 900 watts CFL, 4x 100watt 6500k bulbs. 2x 150 2700k watt 1x 200watt 2700k (veg up to week 3 was mostly 6500k cfls, this was changed a bit to more 2700k at onset of flowering. Butt wattage the entire time has been maintained at 900-1000 watts.
Hope that gives ya an idea
Some have told me thats over kill, the girls love it
Day 36 from seed:
They are happy, FFOF, using full FF regiment including beastie bloomz. (expcdeting open sesame and cha ching (these are autos flowrs..)
They are 4x Double Diesel Ryder Autoflower by Sagarmatha Seeds. and 1x Random bag seed i(in the red pot) Bagseed plant is 47 days old today
Current light setup is
20/4 on off , 900 watts CFL, 4x 100watt 6500k bulbs. 2x 150 2700k watt 1x 200watt 2700k (veg up to week 3 was mostly 6500k cfls, this was changed a bit to more 2700k at onset of flowering. Butt wattage the entire time has been maintained at 900-1000 watts.
Hope that gives ya an idea
Some have told me thats over kill, the girls love it 
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
If I were you I would ditch those reflectors and put the bulbs horizontal instead of vertical. Most of the light in cfls come from the side of the bulb, not the bottom. Those reflectors don't really do much for cfls because you need to get the light real close, and by time the light is reflected it's real disbursed already.I currently are doing my first CFL grow, Im a outdoor grower normally and have no indoor experience till now.
Day 36 from seed:
They are happy, FFOF, using full FF regiment including beastie bloomz. (expcdeting open sesame and cha ching (these are autos flowrs..)
They are 4x Double Diesel Ryder Autoflower by Sagarmatha Seeds. and 1x Random bag seed i(in the red pot) Bagseed plant is 47 days old today
Current light setup is
20/4 on off , 900 watts CFL, 4x 100watt 6500k bulbs. 2x 150 2700k watt 1x 200watt 2700k (veg up to week 3 was mostly 6500k cfls, this was changed a bit to more 2700k at onset of flowering. Butt wattage the entire time has been maintained at 900-1000 watts.
Hope that gives ya an idea
I use HPS for flower, but have a smaller clone/veg chamber that I use cfls in. Here's how I do it:
Also, is what you're calling 900 watts really 900 watts, or are you are looking at the incandescent equalivant rating, which is meaningless for our purposes. If it's really 900 watts of cfl, you are totally wasteing your energy. Just get a 600 watt HPS and save some money every month, plus grow fatter nugs. If you are looking at the equalivant, then it's more like 200 watts.
yesum
Well-Known Member
If I were you I would keep the reflectors as they double the light as measured by my lux meter. I think you have y splitters for the bulbs. If so, you are getting a lot of light off the sides of the bulbs and the intensity of the light is doubled, as the bulbs blend the light coming off the sides of each bulb. Only drawback is heat trapped by the reflectors, a little fan fixes that if necessary.
At flower I can get cfl's as close as 1 inch from the buds. It is a game of inches with cfl.
i did not know i should have my bulbs horizontal! thanks for the heads up! ima rearrange my lights now
yesum
Well-Known Member
You will not get much more light from the sides than the bottom if you do not have a reflector, I know cause I used the lux meter on both. You will get quite a bit more light from the sides if you use a reflector, as there is more surface area on all sides than just the bottom. Again, y splitter with a reflector will give you the most lumens than any other method I know of.
I missed answering the first question... Anyways, I would say you need at minimum, 50 watts actual cfl light for each 1 foot tall plant. I can grow a little plant with 2 26 watt cfl's in a y splitter with clamp reflector just fine. Without a good reflector the 52 watts would be inadequate imo. 100 or so watts would be preferable for a single plant. I have seen excellent 100 watts grows using horizontal positioned lights and just a flat metal strip glued above the lights(for reflection) on the ceiling of the grow box.
I missed answering the first question... Anyways, I would say you need at minimum, 50 watts actual cfl light for each 1 foot tall plant. I can grow a little plant with 2 26 watt cfl's in a y splitter with clamp reflector just fine. Without a good reflector the 52 watts would be inadequate imo. 100 or so watts would be preferable for a single plant. I have seen excellent 100 watts grows using horizontal positioned lights and just a flat metal strip glued above the lights(for reflection) on the ceiling of the grow box.
Bleezyboy1990
Active Member
For what he is talking about sidemounted lights will be fine. 99% of micro grow boxes are mini reflectors in themselves.
But you will want at lease 50 actual watts a plant for your size grow
Stickyladies420
Member
get a 300w cfl and a 125w cfl. thats wut i got and thats NOT a equivelnt or w/e
Everyone on here shared a good point
Cfls are good because if you buy a cfl that says something like "200w equivalent" than it ACTUALLY only uses like 55-40w of power and your plants are ACTUALLY getting 200w which is why i use them alot.....you should make sure you try to get at least above 3000 lumens for each cfl when in the vegetative state....but i have a 5000 lumen x 3800 lumens x 3000 lumens and my plants are growing fine
200w, 250w, 150w
Cfls are good because if you buy a cfl that says something like "200w equivalent" than it ACTUALLY only uses like 55-40w of power and your plants are ACTUALLY getting 200w which is why i use them alot.....you should make sure you try to get at least above 3000 lumens for each cfl when in the vegetative state....but i have a 5000 lumen x 3800 lumens x 3000 lumens and my plants are growing fine
200w, 250w, 150w
PJ Diaz
Well-Known Member
I don't think you understand what "equivalent" really means in this context. A 100 watt equivalent means that it looks the same to your eye an a 100 watt incandescent, NOT the same as a 100 watt HPS or MH light. Also, your plants are NOT "ACTUALLY getting 200w". Watts is a unit of electrical measurement, which does not directly correlate to light output at all. You are burning a certain amount of power (watts) to attain a certain light output that plants can use. Relative to HPS and MH lights, cfls are very inefficient n terms of lumens per watt.
