Growing with CFL's???

[gettinggray1964]

Thats alot of CFLS brother! I just dont see myself using that many lights. I had my experiment with cfls and I didnt like what I got. Sure it smoked decent but what looked like a oz was more like 7grams haha.

thats why i got 400 watt hps and cfls.......

 

[time4tokin20s]

The extra wattage is almost ALL given off as HEAT.

If your grow room is in an igloo and used to heat it, then go with CFL's.

It's been proven more than enough times that for an entire grow, HPS is the most efficient type of light you can use. As I've said many times, my little 3.5 x 5.5 foot area gives me a pound of cured weed on each crop using dual 400 watt HPS.

How many times do we need to cover this same stupid argument?

Hey, if someone likes CFL's and want to use them, fine! Just don't try to convince ANYONE who has their brain on that CFL's are more efficient than other forms of lighting. They aren't. Period. End of freakin argument.

Tommy has just shown it again.

Thank you.

No one in this entire thread had said cfl's are more efficient.Some people have to use cfl set-ups for various reasons and they happen to work great for their needs.I have seen some monsters grown and flowered with fluorescents.CFL users don't let these HPS guys get you down!

 

[pussum]

I always recommend CFL's for people who are just starting out. Why? Because they are a heck of a lot more forgiving to mistakes than if you were to use a heavy duty growing light. Get your technique straight while using CFL's and then upgrade to something more powerful. If you are just starting out and you roast your entire garden with a powerful light you are more likely to give up and not grow again. If you are using CFL's and only singe the tips of your plants where they touched the light you can easily recover.

 

[Waspfire]

since you can buy 150 HPS for 20$ ready to go it doesn't make sense to use cfls anymore..

yuo can use cfls with good results, like THG said let us know how big your grow area is and we can help you figure out how many lights you need.. good luck

umm i would love to know where i can get one of these hps for 20$, can u tell me where to find this at plz?

 

[cuy103]

There a lot of online places you can go to buy a $20 HPS lamp.

For example, elights.com has everything from 35 watts up to 400watts all for $20.

 

[Tom O'Bedlam]

I always recommend CFL's for people who are just starting out. Why? Because they are a heck of a lot more forgiving to mistakes than if you were to use a heavy duty growing light. Get your technique straight while using CFL's and then upgrade to something more powerful. If you are just starting out and you roast your entire garden with a powerful light you are more likely to give up and not grow again. If you are using CFL's and only singe the tips of your plants where they touched the light you can easily recover.

tell me about it....I had so many bulbs crammed into a small space that I had singed leaves all over the place. If I had a bigger grow space I'd buy something else.

 

[gettinggray1964]

hey tom how did your bud turn out, smokeing wise i mean......

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

umm i would love to know where i can get one of these hps for 20$, can u tell me where to find this at plz?

hxxp://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EFamily.asp

 

[Funkfarmer]

there is also a thread in the lights section here about the 20 hps

 

[ALLDAY420]

you guys never mentioned how much more energy it takes to run a 1000w hps and how much more that costs in energy bills every month over using CFL's. I guess it would be the same in the case of the guy using like 30 something cfl's to equal up to 1000w, but if you're only growing a couple plants in a small area then cfl is def the way to go, less heat, cheaper energy.

 

[gettinggray1964]

hey but he said he wanted to grow 6 plants, got to tell you, i got 5 plants going right now, 400 watt hps and 15 26 watt cfls,IMO I STILL NEED MORE LIGHT..... dont have a heat issiue either, growing in a 4footx4footx6.5foottent, 2 four inch fans running 24-7 at canopy level, one small tower fan running when lights on blowing on my pots.. temps never get above 80 degrees. had same fan setup when i was just useing all cfls... never a temp problem

 

[ALLDAY420]

hey but he said he wanted to grow 6 plants, got to tell you, i got 5 plants going right now, 400 watt hps and 15 26 watt cfls,IMO I STILL NEED MORE LIGHT..... dont have a heat issiue either, growing in a 4footx4footx6.5foottent, 2 four inch fans running 24-7 at canopy level, one small tower fan running when lights on blowing on my pots.. temps never get above 80 degrees. had same fan setup when i was just useing all cfls... never a temp problem

yeah, exactly you'll never have temperature issues with cfl's unless of course the plant touches the bulb. they are easily accessible for purchase at home depot, cheaper to run. My buddy and I only have 1 girl going right now with 8 cfl's. almost ready for harvest, it's still expensive on the energy bill either way though.

 

[gettinggray1964]

if you want to dance you got to pay the band......... i dont know for sure but i think my last electric bill had about 40 dollar increase, that is still cheaper than buying street weed....

 

[Grower_Dude]

A quick note about some of the new compact fluorescent bulbs. I have two rooms: one for vegetative growth, and a second for flowering. I don't have the funds for what I would like in each room, so I have a 1000 watt HPS in my flowering room and use compacts for cloning and vegetative growth.

There are new 65 watt (300 watt incandescent equivalent) curly bulbs that fit in a standard socket and produce approximately 4500 lumens. I find that using four of these easily illuminates a 4'x3' space. Total cost: 4 standard sockets and cords (pre-assembed): $24; 4 300 watt bulbs: $48.

My Sun Systems HPS was much more expensive: approximately $600.

I wouldn't try to flower under my fluorescent bulbs, but they are great for starting the process.

GD

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

yeah, exactly you'll never have temperature issues with cfl's unless of course the plant touches the bulb. they are easily accessible for purchase at home depot, cheaper to run. My buddy and I only have 1 girl going right now with 8 cfl's. almost ready for harvest, it's still expensive on the energy bill either way though.

You get enough CFLs together and you can have a heat problem. And CFLs are not really cheaper to run. A kilowatt hour is a kilowatt hour regardless of whether you are running CFLs or a HPS. The 150W HPS are not hard to cool. I have a dual 150W HPS cooltube (so 300W) and the closet is staying under 80 with a passive intake and a computer fan pulling the hot air from the light.

The $20 150W HPS makes HPS possible for virtually everyone--and they are actually cheaper than CFLs. One 150W HPS puts out about 15000 lumens. Six 42W CFLs (252W) put out 15000-16200 lumens.

Check out the $20 HPS (in the section labeed "Vapor Tight):

http://www.e-conolight.com/Product/EFamily.asp

 

[ston3pony]

Question... If you are only growing a single plant (in a small space). Is it not practical to use a few CFL's? I'm a newb, but it seems to me like you have somewhat of an advantage being able to lower the lights independently to surround the plant? Since they don't put off a lot of heat you can keep them in close?

And, what about CFL's for starting a tray of clones?

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Question... If you are only growing a single plant (in a small space). Is it not practical to use a few CFL's? I'm a newb, but it seems to me like you have somewhat of an advantage being able to lower the lights independently to surround the plant? Since they don't put off a lot of heat you can keep them in close?

And, what about CFL's for starting a tray of clones?

IMO, no. You get a better yield with less electricity cost running a 150W HPS rather than multiple (4) CFLs. I can keep my air cooled 1000W HPS as close as 6" from the top of my plants.

4 42W CFLs=168W 10800 lumens
1 150W HPW=150W 15000 lumens

Clones? Yes, clones don't really require a lot of light.

 

[HydroManiac]

point is you can get alot closer with cfls without using fans and what not only reason people use CFLs plus if you read up the plants not gonna use all the light a HPS uses i say do what you wanna i would love to use a 200 watt CFL for growing theres also a 315 watt CFL thats suppose to compete with 400watt HPS systems

 

[KaliKitsune]

I personally say don't go with CFL at all and use T5 fluros.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

point is you can get alot closer with cfls without using fans and what not only reason people use CFLs plus if you read up the plants not gonna use all the light a HPS uses i say do what you wanna i would love to use a 200 watt CFL for growing theres also a 315 watt CFL thats suppose to compete with 400watt HPS systems

Not necessarily and you need fans. You need to exchange the air in your room 2-3 times a minute. This has nothing to do with cooling (although it does help cool things down). You need to replace the CO2 that the plant has used. If you are bringing fresh air in, you have to be exhausting air out. I have 300W of HPS in a closet and I am using the same ventilation that I used for my T5. I have the plants about 4" from the lights (which are in a cooltube).

Companies make all kinds of claims. I don't care what the advertising (hype) says, no 315W CFL is going to outperform a 400W HPS. IMO, 150W of HPS will most likely outyield 200W of CFLs. But you can certainly believe what you want and you can do what you want, but there is really no debate on which provides the best yield (go back and reread POTUS's post) . Experience tells us that HPS are superior to CFLs. With inexpensive HPSs, I cannot understand anyone not using a HPS to flower.