whats the diff betweeen hps and cfls?and which 1s better

i am noob to growibg and trying find out what hps and cfl is and wich ines better and if my 150 watt normal light bulb my 15 watt growing light and my 67 watt normal light bulb will gimme good harvest?


Keep it

CFL in my opinion i wouldnt grow with them your wasting you time..... getting an HPS is way better for flowering peroid which is when things really matter.... so i would go with an HPS i think they are better in every way possible for growing

HAPPY GROWING

ok thanks man but 2 questions how much $ is a hps lik 70 watt lets say and can i find it in home depot or lowes??? and see dramastic change from when i went from 15 watt grow light to that + 150 watt cfl

My 400 watt MH/HPS conversion system cost me 170 for 2 hood hangars, 1 MH bulb, 1 HPS bulb, the hood, ballast, and a timer.
I know they make 250 watt HPS as well but I dont know how much they cost.


No, they dont sell them at Home Depot or Lowes. You would have to get it from a local hydro store or from someone like HTG supply online.

And I wouldnt call a cfl grow a waste of time. Your node sets would be closer together for short bushy plants and the lights dont get as hot so you can keep them close to your plants. However, HID lighting would be the best for yield.

I find it funny when I see people say CFL's are a waste of time.
I have a good grow going with CFL's and if you check out the CFL section you will
see others who have had great success with CFL's.

HPS's bring more problems with heat, but I do agree that they will give better
yields than a CFL will in the end. I like the short fat plants I have going and I am
gonna use HPS for flowering, but the CFL's got me off to a great start and my plants have not stretched.

As a new grower the CFL grow has allowed me to learn the basics without
adding more complexity to the grow.

Cfls are great for beginners to learn how to grow, especially because of how little heat they generate. But be careful, 3 or 4 cfls don't throw much heat, but if you step up to 42 watt bulbs and/or use a lot of cfls, you WILL have heat issues unless your air circulation is up to snuff.

Cfls (6500k) are probably best suited for a veg/mom/clone chamber. HPS will by far give you better yields and tighter buds, and are better suited for flowering. However you can get amazing results from cfls (2700k) in flowering, especially if you use a lot of them.

OP, you mentioned a 150 watt bulb, a 15 watt grow bulb, and a 67 watt bulb? Are those all incandescent bulbs? If so, don't use them for growing, you'd be wasting you time. Use cfls to start out, and step up your game from there when you get a handle on growing. Good luck...

By God do not use any Incandescent lights! aka normal house hold bulbs, Cfl's are okay, on my current grow im using a 400w hps and another 250w's of cfl's and it appears that the lower buds by the cfl's have better tri production but are alot fluffier so in my experience they each have dif things about them but over all the HPS is just better, if you can afford it, do it! Those 15w grow lights suck by the way, not enough lumens to support herb.

ok thanks guys but sry to tell you all i have is that 15 watt floureecent growing light and my 150watt normal light bulb and 1 querstion wat does cfls light bulb look like is it swirly light?

Yup the CFL's are the swirly lights, they are good to start, however adding a bunch of them adds up in cost,
if you are growing multiple plants than I say HPS all the way. You might as well spend the bit extra and gain more
in that case.

ansermyquestions? said:

ok thanks guys but sry to tell you all i have is that 15 watt floureecent growing light and my 150watt normal light bulb and 1 querstion wat does cfls light bulb look like is it swirly light?

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Ok for a newbie youre asking all the right questions, sorry guys i havent seen the right answers yet though .

1) Lights = Heat so the size of your light will be realitive to your growing area so you need to take into account how many plants you want to grow and how big your area is.

TRUE HID's will create heat, but theyre much more efficient at producing light, so with a 250w HID lets say for example that it turns 200w into light and 50w into heat

Whereas : a 250w CFL will turn 150w into light and 100w into heat so in my opinion a HID is just much better as it makes more light and less heat per watt used (my examples arent accurate im just trying to make a point that if all the power isnt turning into light its turning into heat )

You need 7-10000 Lumens per plant for the best bud production Blue Spectum for vegetative growth, red spectrum for flowering, although i know a lot of ppl veg under a HPS (which produces more orange and red light) with great success.

With any growroom, good ventilation is key if youre using cfl's or hid's heat will always become a problem ( there is no escaping that fact)

THE MOST EFFICIENT LIGHTS ARE HID's you will get less heat and more light per watt in comparison to a CFL.

I hope i have been clear here if you have any questions fire away

aight thanks but its noly like 3 plants so i think ama go with cfls

my 400HPS was givin to me from a good friend for $100.....

if you're gona use CFLs then make sure you get some that are especially made for plant growing or make sure they are around 6200k for vegging and 2700k for flowering. i find that the 43w daylight bulbs work ok too for supplemental lighting. its good if you just wana do it for the fun and knowledge but i wouldn't espect a big yield. and once you've waited months on end and watched them grow you'll probably wish you went with a high intensity discharge lamp. they are worth it in the end.

but HID all the way you'll never see the dense buds you will from a CFL than with a high pressure sodium. but to each is own. cfls are good for stealth or heat control in small spaces or supplemental lighting. i'd probably use them if i wasn't able to use an HID its better than nothing!!

Im Growing 2 plants in a very small space under a 250w HID, and i can tell you now i have NO heat issues, your plants will grow bigger and better under HID's and also a little faster. As i said earlier you need 7-10k Lumens per plant. A 250w CFL will give you around 16000 Lumens, a 250w Hid with a good reflector will give you around 28000 lumens.

Just save yourself a lot of time and effort and get a 250w HID, i know CFL's work but theyre just damn inefficient.

If you really need to get cfl's then listen to farmerninja and get 6400k (blue spectrum) cfl's for vegging and 2700k (red spectrum)cfl's for flowering. if you live in america these are easy to get and cheap to get from Walmart all the information such as lumens and colour temprature will be on the box.

ok thanks but ama have to use cfl because im in parents babsement and they think its school project so cantbuy these expensive hid or hps sry

ansermyquestions? said:

ok thanks but ama have to use cfl because im in parents babsement and they think its school project so cantbuy these expensive hid or hps sry

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Dude, seriously? Parents? School project? You shouldn't be growing in your parents house, especially without their consent.

ansermyquestions? said:

ok thanks but ama have to use cfl because im in parents babsement and they think its school project so cantbuy these expensive hid or hps sry

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They think that growing pot is a school project? Well i mean if your in cali and they dont care thats one thing, its another to grow without their consent...

they think its a tomato plant lol amam buy these good light when graduate and move out