Newbie answers to lighting: HPSvsCFL During Flower = Quantity and Quality

I'm one of the most vocal people on here I think as far as trying to encourage people to go HPS over CFL. I am responsible for steering a lot of people to the $20 150hps, created one of the largest threads on that light, created the slickdeals post about it, always trying to get people to take back their aerogardens etc etc so please don't think this comes from the wrong place BUT....

This is not a fair and accurate comparison at all and it has nothing to do with the angles of the pictures or anything. I'm sorry, but any cfl grower can do better than even the HPS bud you show. I don't think you had any of your lights close enough or your plants were starved for nutrients or fresh air or something or you ran too few lights in too big an area or a combination of many of the above. I also am getting the feeling that the security light you think is hps is actually cfl. I didn't read the whole thread it didn't seem to be going anywhere very accurate so just had to skip to the end and try to shed some real light on this.

Could be a comparison of small cfl's used too far away to a bigger cfl used too far away. Or perhaps the hps bulbs are too old if there was a hps. I see mention here of 20k hour life but that means nothing to us and in reality they are only good for 2-3grows.

Please I'm not trying to start an argument or diss the op or call him a liar or anything of that sort but I just think he's made some massive mistakes unknowingly. And yes, there is no 42w HPS.

I hope you're not upset with what I've had to say, I'd like to help you get more out of whichever lights you actually do have. I can help you easily double if not triple or quadruple what you yielded in this thread provided you have enough of whichever type of light and will be happy to do so.

Anyway as much as I love hps and etc it's just not fair to the cfl guys (or the small HPS guys) to let this slide as an accurate representation of what you might expect from either type of light. At least not used properly with enough of either.

peace....

Meds I respect ur stuff man and im going to leave it at that.
My bud just bought 2 of these 42 watt hps fixtures today man. And he has 7 boxes from previous purchases full of paperwork in his garage...
Yea This thread was not intended to put down and disrespect people growing with cfl's. anyone that reaches harvest while using cfls has accomplished alot and I applaud this. Ive seen some awesome cfl harvest actually.

But its not really about the hpsvscfl thing at all really and i started the thread along time ago.

It came down to finding out about the cheap and effective lower wattage hps lighting available to many of us that when used in flowering is not only scientifically proven to be the best producer of bud but reccomemnded buy all the most successfull growers here or otherwise.

Yea bro... I pulled down 22 gram buds dried on these cheap fixtures. Are u telling me that u could do the same with 150 watts of cfl?

Yea it was an experiment bro like i said at the beginning man...Another project I started while being bored to be honest and candid.So I prolly could have done alot more to better yields for harvest on both sides...
Could u imagine buds grown with on these on one plant that wiegh in @ an ounce dried... Im sure i could have accomplished that as well.

Anyways... Hps is better than cfls in flower hands down regardless of however people want to twist things.

Do u think id post publicly about a 42 watt hps if it didnt exhist?
I just put up a pic bro.

Are there not any pros that are reading this right now like WTF are these kids talking about?

Oh well Im out and good luck peeps.
LOL Ill have more pix of this 42 watt hps lamp soon..

i'm considering it... to add with the cfl's

Cool, glad that didn't get you in a twist.

Well it wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong if there is a 42w hps but the way I think you mentioned it said equivalent and the odd wattage just would really suprise me.

Well when you snap pics of the hps please give pics of your whole grow setup and wattages of everything you're running w/dimensions. Maybe you are running your lights fine, I could be wrong there too but if there's room for improvement it sure can't hurt.
I'd wear egg on my face over a mistake in a post any day if it doubled my yield.

Oh and for anyone thinking about getting a small HPS absolutely do... CFL's are in fact inferior in just about every way and there is almost no installation that can't run a small one like a 150hps but don't spend extra to get one at lowes or whatever.

Those $20-$25 ones from econolight are just too good of a deal to settle for less wattage or cfl's or pay more for the same wattage.

CFL's can grow the same buds as a small hps, but you need more of them. They still create the same level of heat, they are less efficient, they take more fiddling to keep them close enough, more crap to hook them up, and just end up costing more in the long run.
I guess if there were no wattages listed and this thread just said here's a hps bud and here's a cfl bud and they were both grown with equal wattage... That might be about right for the difference hps can do. It's just the details that seem wrong and not only from the op. Almost everything I read in this thread from the other side appeared wrong too. (didn't read everything, I'm sure some were right)

The only time I personally would reccomend cfl over hps is if you're too young for this site to begin with and a ballast sticking out of your pc case grow would look suspicious and bring the wrath of your parents down on you.
.

Speaking of 150 watts...Lol
I decided to go with 2X150 watt lamps to Reach a lil over 100 watts per sq.ft.
The lights I went with are the sun system 150 complete sold @ msrp pricing everywhere @ 78 bux a pop cuz they cant sell them any higher do to manufacturer pricing set for wholesaler scavengers.
2 flower tubs 300 watts/tub 2X150 watts over each tub cuz they are reasonably priced. And dont get as hott.
13 plants per tub 1.... I pushed the first one a lil past 1 plant per sq.ft. but the second tub only houses 9 both in 2.82 sq.ft. of grow space.
Im using and growing with all of al b fucts ideas at this point.
I had a couple moms i chopped maybe to make hash from.
I took a couple of my latest batch clones to cut and re clone on when the first tub is done. Hence why i only ended up with 9 plants in tub 2. I killed one during transplant as well.
No more cfls in the flower room. AS well as the 2 tubs... I have a single poison that I have one 42 watt hps, and 2 70 watt hps cheapy fixtures hanging over.

Some of These pix are from earlier..

Since im going to use 150 watt fixtures...Do i qualify to join the 150 watt club?

Yea Oregon Meds is right and so was winkdog, they are 50 watt fixtures. Caught up in the arguement of the whole cflvshps thing I was wrong so I owe yall an appology and can admit when im wrong..
The thread was not intended to bash people in there methods and choice of lighting only to show that there are crafty and inexpensive alternatives to cfl lighting in flower that dont burn as hot as the bigger hps lamps and are easily adapted to the smaller stealth grows.
50 watt hps for 22 bux still does not sound that bad especially considering the fact
U could cram more of these especially with a cool tube in a smaller area than u could with the equivalent amount of cfl lighting when it comes to lumen output per bulb..
Anyways I was wrong they are not 42 watts they are 50 watt hps fixtures.

cool no big deal i hope my depot has them!

Im pretty sure they will.. I cant find them on the website bro. I think these things would even be great used along with cfl's.
Oregon meds spoke of the best deal out and theres a link in this thread where u can get one of those 20 dollar 150 watt hps econolights. Im thinking im going to get 2 of those for my next tub and maybe do a cheapy 150 vs a real 150 to see what ones better and if theres a difference at all.

You'd be better off with the 150w econolights by a huge margin over 50w. They are out of the $20 ones but they have the $25 ones in stock, I added the $25 ones tot he slickdeals post.
It's 4x the light for the same price and technically using a bunch of 50w hps's doesn't make any more sense than a bunch of cfl's. More expense. more hassle, less efficient, more crap to hook them up.... All the arguments against cfl's appply.

Also your large bud wasn't that bad at all then from a 50w hps. You weren't doing anything wrong, that explains it, it was just a tiny light.

Yea bro thanks...I found out about these 150 econolights way after the fact..
I think ive seen u speaking about how to remote them and place them in cool tubes as well... U have a link on that? U should place it in here for sure to help the people out. Like i said if i can figure out a way to do it these may be my lights for my next tub. I got these sunsystem 150's for dirt cheap. But 50 bux for 300 watts of hps in a tube sounds nice to me.

onthedl0008 said:

Speaking of 150 watts...Lol
I decided to go with 2X150 watt lamps to Reach a lil over 100 watts per sq.ft.
The lights I went with are the sun system 150 complete sold @ msrp pricing everywhere @ 78 bux a pop cuz they cant sell them any higher do to manufacturer pricing set for wholesaler scavengers.
2 flower tubs 300 watts/tub 2X150 watts over each tub cuz they are reasonably priced. And dont get as hott.
13 plants per tub 1.... I pushed the first one a lil past 1 plant per sq.ft. but the second tub only houses 9 both in 2.82 sq.ft. of grow space.
Im using and growing with all of al b fucts ideas at this point.
I had a couple moms i chopped maybe to make hash from.
I took a couple of my latest batch clones to cut and re clone on when the first tub is done. Hence why i only ended up with 9 plants in tub 2. I killed one during transplant as well.
No more cfls in the flower room. AS well as the 2 tubs... I have a single poison that I have one 42 watt hps, and 2 70 watt hps cheapy fixtures hanging over.

Some of These pix are from earlier..

Since im going to use 150 watt fixtures...Do i qualify to join the 150 watt club?

Click to expand...

150w club includes any mix as long as 150's are a part of it.

welcome to the club

Cool bro these lil lamps are very effective in stealth situations.
Im looking into those econolights also.I may even just go order 4 of them and bring back these 2 sunsystems.

Allo gents,

Absolute noobie here, hope youre all well.

Like many nbs, im pretty undecided about the whole hps v cfl...i do love this website and sure every question has been answered a billion times im sure, but it can be a f'ing nightmare trying to find it, one of Rosemans bubbleponic threats has got 1,300 pages of replies!!!

Anyway, i got 2 questions about heat and coverage regarding hps and cfl.

Years ago i grew under a 175wt HPS in a cupboard which was at least 2ft x 3ft...way too low on lumens and seeds from god knows where,hermies left right and centre, so that was a complete fcuk up LOL, point is it was fecking SCORCHING in there...

So can someone pls explain how you can have, theoretically, 300W of HPS in a space 1ft x 3ft (100W per ft/sq) as mentioned above by onthedl0008, cos like i say i had just over half that in twice the space and it was fecking roasting...UNLESS, you fart around with cool tubes and ave some pretty serious extraction going on?

Im looking at getting a super small set up going in a closet, 2 cliped plants = hopefully 4 kolas per plant, 6 weeks veg max, so im thinking 1.5ft x 3ft x 4ft...is that realistic in terms of space?

Like i say, i just cannot imagine that you could have the 300W hps in there, so when you say yeah, small hps can work for closet stealth grows im a bit confused cos i do know how much heat those puppies put out...

Alternatively, 3 x 65W cfl (12,000Lu) or 4 (16,000Lu) would hopefully be enough for 2 ladies, but are you honestly saying that would be as hot as 300W of hps? If i can touch a cfl, whereas touching a hps would burn me badly, i dont get how they can be equally as hot...?

Sorry if this aint the right place to ask these questions, as i say theres no doubting the expertise here but threads nearly always get very complicated or veer off topic and its pretty daunting for a relative noobie like myself...

Anyway, cheers guys...and ha ha, that was funny as fcuk, all that bickering over 8W !

This comparison is not accurate. You should have taken two clones and flowered them under identical conditions, except lighting. That would be the best way to show the true difference between an hps and cfl's.

Comprende?

You are replying to a thread that was started over three years ago.
Comprende?

I am aware of this, thank you.