the guy said its 200 watt equivalent but 194 watt actual??? little confused , is this possible?
Thats because the guy was straight up with you (on the level, telling the truth
). its a good thing.... The bulb is 200 Actual watts (manufacturers round up, a 1000W HPS is only actualy 980~ Watts....).
CFL's use a stupid equivalency ratio. a 23W CFL is the equivalent of a 60W incandescent light bulb. incandescent bulbs are very inefficent, they only release 30~ lumens/ watt. CFL's make around 75 Lumens / Watt and HPS get around 120 Lumens / watt.
The short answer: your 200W lights are good 200W lights. it releases about 13,000 initial lumens / 200 Watts.
Am i also right in thinking that i could use these bulbs for sidelighting?
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/light-b...Cf0EMTMg==
Those are the same kind of bulbs i buy. i like the 23W because you can use Y socket splitters from home depot or lowes and make a powerful light with them, safely.
My fan died and my plants under 8x23w cfl's burned. Not like fire, but they got damaged badly. I grew them out. I noticed that the plants with the most damage originally produced smaller buds.
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^ This is the reason the closest CFL's ever get to my plants is 6 inches. if something goes wrong with the chains, fans Ect there is room for the plants to be safe. Heat withh dwarf plants and cause ireversible damage.