T5 or 300w cfl?

harris hawk

Well-Known Member
Im looking at starting a small closet grow where heat would be a real issue for hps. Im not sure which route to go , due to space the most i would be able to grow would be 2 plants, but im not sure whether to go with t5s or 300w dual cfl. Would this t5 be ok ? http://www.charlieshydro.co.uk/store/LIGHTWAVE-T5-FOUR-TUBE-GROW-LIGHT-42.html

tia
Suggest you use no lower than 400watt but 500 & 600 watters are better because of "lumen" out=put cost are under $40.00 and bulb, and ther is also a formula to determine the # of watts (alos lumens) needed, size of grow space?
 

hogbud

Well-Known Member
Suggest you use no lower than 400watt but 500 & 600 watters are better because of "lumen" out=put cost are under $40.00 and bulb, and ther is also a formula to determine the # of watts (alos lumens) needed, size of grow space?
except plants don't use Lumens, what matters to them is PAR
 

hogbud

Well-Known Member
Sorry PAR? lumen s is the intensity of the spectrum light spectrum (veg 5700k or flower2400k)
PAR = photosynthetically available radiation it is actually what plants use

the numbers you are typing are Temperature in Kelvin 6500K (the K means Kelvin)

Lumens is a measurement of how humans see light and is totally useless to plants and has nothing what so ever to do with the spectrum
 

hogbud

Well-Known Member
The typical rating most growers are familiar with is the “lumen.” The definition of the lumen is the total light produced within the range of the human visual response. It tells us nothing about the distribution of that light energy over the spectrum, and most importantly, it doesn’t tell us how much is useful for plants.
The problem with lumens is especially pronounced when measuring light at the far ends of the human visual response curve. Consider three lamps—red, green and blue—each emitting the same number of watts of optical energy. The red and blue lamps would have much lower lumen ratings compared to the green lamp, simply because the human visual response is very low at red and blue, and highest at green. That’s why a high lumen rating does not necessarily make a lamp better suited to growing plants.

Similarly, light meters that measure in “lux” tell us very little about a lamp’s plant-growing power. The light sensors in lux meters have their own spectral response curves which may over- or under-measure light at various colors. This is why lux meters usually have different settings for “sunlight,” “fluorescent” and “incandescent” lamps. Again, because lux meters are meant for measuring the amount of light usable by humans, they don’t tell us anything about how plants will respond.

Plant biologists define light in the 400nm to 700nm spectral region as “photosynthetically available radiation,” or PAR. The unit for measuring PAR, micro-mols per second (μmol/s), indicates how many photons in this spectral range fall on the plant each second. Inexpensive PAR meters use sensors that respond over the entire 400-700nm spectrum, and have their own sensitivity curves that require different calibration for sunlight, fluorescent and HID lighting.
 

smokefacekillah

Well-Known Member
being a T5 guy I'm gonna say T5's :hump: the link you provided would work but if you want to get serous you should get 2 of em and hang em in a an inverted V like /\ mine has 3 but you'll get the idea from the pic View attachment 3176823
I'm totally jealous of your setup, If I had the space, I would want it to look like yours! Also thanks for the little lesson on PAR & Lumens
 

hogbud

Well-Known Member
I'm totally jealous of your setup, If I had the space, I would want it to look like yours! Also thanks for the little lesson on PAR & Lumens
Your very welcome, it is what I do, there are lots of good tidbits of similar info in my Hey New Growers thread if you can get past the trolls
 

harris hawk

Well-Known Member
The typical rating most growers are familiar with is the “lumen.” The definition of the lumen is the total light produced within the range of the human visual response. It tells us nothing about the distribution of that light energy over the spectrum, and most importantly, it doesn’t tell us how much is useful for plants.
The problem with lumens is especially pronounced when measuring light at the far ends of the human visual response curve. Consider three lamps—red, green and blue—each emitting the same number of watts of optical energy. The red and blue lamps would have much lower lumen ratings compared to the green lamp, simply because the human visual response is very low at red and blue, and highest at green. That’s why a high lumen rating does not necessarily make a lamp better suited to growing plants.

Similarly, light meters that measure in “lux” tell us very little about a lamp’s plant-growing power. The light sensors in lux meters have their own spectral response curves which may over- or under-measure light at various colors. This is why lux meters usually have different settings for “sunlight,” “fluorescent” and “incandescent” lamps. Again, because lux meters are meant for measuring the amount of light usable by humans, they don’t tell us anything about how plants will respond.

Plant biologists define light in the 400nm to 700nm spectral region as “photosynthetically available radiation,” or PAR. The unit for measuring PAR, micro-mols per second (μmol/s), indicates how many photons in this spectral range fall on the plant each second. Inexpensive PAR meters use sensors that respond over the entire 400-700nm spectrum, and have their own sensitivity curves that require different calibration for sunlight, fluorescent and HID lighting.
Thanks for clearnig things up and thanks for you knowledge sharring!!!
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
Im not disputing what hog is saying because I have no clue. But it would seem to me that commercial growers would have done their due diligence when deciding what lights to use and if T5's out preform HIDs would it not be the light of choice? Sure see a bunch more hids in the flower rooms of the big boys. I use T-5's as well as HPS but have never done a side by side comparison so again have no clue. The t-5's alone did seem to be a bit wispier though if thats a word lol.
 

hogbud

Well-Known Member
Im not disputing what hog is saying because I have no clue. But it would seem to me that commercial growers would have done their due diligence when deciding what lights to use and if T5's out preform HIDs would it not be the light of choice? Sure see a bunch more hids in the flower rooms of the big boys. I use T-5's as well as HPS but have never done a side by side comparison so again have no clue. The t-5's alone did seem to be a bit wispier though if thats a word lol.
for commercial growers the #1 consideration is yield and HID's give yield without having to worry about other things, I care more about potency and I worry about the other things anyway so I get what I get with T5's the whole whispy thing is not understanding how to use light as a tool IMO
 
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