Office Lights

My buddy just called me and said he had access to a bunch of those lights that they have in office buildings... can you use them at all to grow?

they are like those long tube lights

ya.. ask him what they take, t5, t8, t12
im guessing they will be just fine

Check out the CFL forum.

You mean those lights which are like 2 dollars a piece? I would suggest just buying them and not trying to have your friend gank any, you will get a better spectrum of light that way, and risk less.

i have tons of cfl's just have the chance to get some long office lights for free, was wondering if they are worth it to add

If they are the standard T12 42 watt, I would say . . . maybe. It really depends on the shape of your grow room. They use 42 watts, and the max lumen output i have seen on them were 3400 lumens. That was in cool white. The best spectrum for veg is 6500k, which the T12 version has around 2700 lumens if I remember correctly. Tbat is per bulb by the way. Compared to CFLs, they are about equal. The thing is, the flourescent tubes are long and thin, and disperse light VERY broadly. A LOT of light is lost with them, unless that is, you are putting your plant in a corner and leaning the flourecent againts the wall to basically cover the plant with light. Personally, i would stick to CFL's for vegging, since they are much more adjustable and can fit in smaller areas, and of course for flowering it is dumb to use anything but an HPS.