what would be better?

ok i have two 250 watt cfls, im thinking of upgrading to a 250 watt hps,would the hps make much of a difference compared to the two 250 watt cfls?

You would certainly get better penetration with the hps. You may find that it is not much more for a 400 or 600 watt hps.

250 watts of hps isnt much firepower..id stay with he 2 cfl's,

better penetration with hps but ull get more cfoverage

HPS does better by a 4:1 ratio, which means 1000w of cfl will be about as good as a 250cfl.... Secondly 500w is 500w as far as electricity is concerned, a 400w might suit your needs better OR 3-150w.

j to the c.........so you are saying a 400 watt hps would be cheaper to run than than the two 250 watt cfl? can you back this up with reliable info? i would defoo b uy an hps if this was true and the 250 watt hps would be twice as good as the two 250 watt cfls?

steph187....... where did you get this info about?

i only want to know cause if its cheaper and better i will deffo make the switch, why do they say cfls are cheaper to run if 500 wattis 500 watt as far as electricity is concerned

thanks for the replys

+ rep for anyone with hard evidence on the matter

JimmyTheJaw said:

j to the c.........so you are saying a 400 watt hps would be cheaper to run than than the two 250 watt cfl?

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two 250 watt of cfls = 500 watt, which is more than a 400 watt hps lol are u sure those cfls arent just 250 watt equivelant. if thats the case they are no where near 250 watts. At any rate, hps is ALWAYS the way to go imo, and if your concerned about too much electricity or what not, just go with an even smaller set up. even 150 watt hps is better than cfls

well, hows this, my 400w hps puts out 55,000 lumens(high output bulb add 5,000 lumens) My 10 40w cfl put out a total of 27,000 lumens. My hps puts out 137.5 per watt, my cfls give 67.5 lumens a watt. Hps is the way to go, i wish i wouldnt of been so dumb and wasted so much money on cfls. I've got 24 40w ones. The hps beats the hell out of them.

BigCheif said:

two 250 watt of cfls = 500 watt, which is more than a 400 watt hps lol are u sure those cfls arent just 250 watt equivelant. if thats the case they are no where near 250 watts. At any rate, hps is ALWAYS the way to go imo, and if your concerned about too much electricity or what not, just go with an even smaller set up. even 150 watt hps is better than cfls

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no they are not 250 watt equivelent, they are 250 watt and put out 19500 lumens each, i am not concerned about the electric, its just if a 400 watt hps is cheaper to run than my cfls i will just buy a hps, i thought cfls where energy saving compared to hps thats why i was asking and the reason that i bought the cfls lol

yah, four hundred watts is four hundred watts, regardless if your running cfl or hps or led, and the energy usage to run either will cost the same as your using the same amount of watts.. the way your electric company charges you is kw/hour.. so if your using 4oo watts. that would be .4kws/ hour.. and say your electirc company charges your $.15/ hour. you therefore multiply your .4 kws x your price per unit, in this example case, $.15, you are therefore paying $.60 an hour for four hundred watts of power, wheter it be hps, cfl or a hairdryer..
hope that helps you out some..

how large is your grow area and how good is your ventilation and cooling? 400 watts is 400 watts, but the 400 watt hps is going to have to be approx 16 inches above your plants instead of just 2 or 3 inches. also, the hps is going to throw off a lot more heat, which isn't going to be a problem if you are well ventilated and cooled. but if you are in a small room or cabinet, you may end up buying better, bigger fans and having to put in some kind of air conditioning to cool down the space.

racerboy71 said:

yah, four hundred watts is four hundred watts, regardless if your running cfl or hps or led, and the energy usage to run either will cost the same as your using the same amount of watts.. the way your electric company charges you is kw/hour.. so if your using 4oo watts. that would be .4kws/ hour.. and say your electirc company charges your $.15/ hour. you therefore multiply your .4 kws x your price per unit, in this example case, $.15, you are therefore paying $.60 an hour for four hundred watts of power, wheter it be hps, cfl or a hairdryer..
hope that helps you out some..

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thanks +rep

wil2279 said:

how large is your grow area and how good is your ventilation and cooling? 400 watts is 400 watts, but the 400 watt hps is going to have to be approx 16 inches above your plants instead of just 2 or 3 inches. also, the hps is going to throw off a lot more heat, which isn't going to be a problem if you are well ventilated and cooled. but if you are in a small room or cabinet, you may end up buying better, bigger fans and having to put in some kind of air conditioning to cool down the space.

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grow room is 1.6m high and 0.75m wide and 0.75m long, i am sure my ventilation would be good enuff for a 250 watt hps, not sure about a 400


anyway back on topic, so would i benifet from gettin rid of my two 250 watt cfl's and getting the 250 watt hps, and my power would be cheaper that way

16 inches is pretty high, i keep mine 6-8 inches from the tops.

JimmyTheJaw said:

grow room is 1.6m high and 0.75m wide and 0.75m long, i am sure my ventilation would be good enuff for a 250 watt hps, not sure about a 400


anyway back on topic, so would i benifet from gettin rid of my two 250 watt cfl's and getting the 250 watt hps, and my power would be cheaper that way

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yes i think you would benifet. 250 hps should give you a bigger yield, and if heat doesnt become a prob (which it prob wont, 250 not that bad) it will be cheaper, just as long as you dont have to go out and buy an expensive fan that uses alot of watts

BigCheif said:

yes i think you would benifet. 250 hps should give you a bigger yield, and if heat doesnt become a prob (which it prob wont, 250 not that bad) it will be cheaper, just as long as you dont have to go out and buy an expensive fan that uses alot of watts

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thanks + rep i allready have the expensive fan, its an acoustic one, its 100mm and is 180 cfm
, do you thin k that would be good enuff for a 400 watt or should i just buy the 250 watt and be happy lol

if it were me, i would go with 400 watt hps, but either way i think you will be happy

JimmyTheJaw said:

thanks + rep i allready have the expensive fan, its an acoustic one, its 100mm and is 180 cfm
, do you thin k that would be good enuff for a 400 watt or should i just buy the 250 watt and be happy lol

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get the 400w , it doesnt put out much more heat than a 250w and make sure you get a remote ballast system so you can store the ballast(which makes a good deal of the heat itself) outside the grow area/box then all you need to worry about is heat from the bulb itself. a air cooled reflector takes care of that part for you if you get one(which i strongly advise, allows you along with the keeping the ballast out of the grow area and you should be able to keep the bulb 4-6 inches from the top of the plant) . how do you have the fans set up? you could use that 100cfm for the air cooled reflector and the 180cfm one as the exhaust and then have passive intakes.

JimmyTheJaw said:

ok i have two 250 watt cfls, im thinking of upgrading to a 250 watt hps,would the hps make much of a difference compared to the two 250 watt cfls?

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Go with a 600 wattt HPS its not much more and will do a much better job. Either way even with the 250 you will be happier than the CFL's.

thinking of going with a 400, in theory that should still be cheaper to run than the cfls and have much better results, i will deffo be getting a cool tube

dark destruction... i think you picked up wrong, i only have one fan its connections are 100mm and it pushes 180 cfm

only problem i have with cool tubes are that most of the are 125mm and my fan is only 100mm do you think it would be cool to get a couple of reducers? more thanlikely they will have to be metal so the light does not melt them, or do you think plastic ones would be good enough

thanks