Lighting 2100k? One big 250w vs many 23w? Seeking input.

[Bigolnoob]

Yes, as a matter of fact I have changed out ballasts.. More over, I have changed ballasts in T5's made in China. I would have to say that overall, everything was ok until I ran into two LED lights that I bought on ebay. Horrible crimps in the connections to drivers and bare wires exposed. PLease know, I am not putting you down. Not in the least! I buy a lot of my stuff the same way you do.

But thanks much for answering my question as it means a lot! Cheers!

 

[cowboy]

Good point... For some reason I have the personal opinion that leds should be supplemented with white light, hence my hook on cfl's, but I dislike the efficiency of hps/mh/hid. This opinion isn't based on any science that I know of, just a gut feeling I guess. I do plan on more led, just thinking about cfl options. But yeah that's an excellent point about the PAR , something I'll be thinking about more...

No. LEDS rock hard on their own. Their is no magic, magician behind the wall or any type of question any more in mh growing anthropolis. And that is the fact CFL's are not good. You can grow mj with it, you can use it to light the house, their great gift ideas. But no, the cats out of the bag, CFL's are LAST LINE OF DEFENSE.

Also color temp is more of a tint or glaze applied to the CFL....

Pop22 raped the answer first shot. UFO 180 will blow your 200w cfl out of the water in every single way possible. Heat, efficiency, power, technology,spectrum,lumens, DDDEEEEPPPPTTHHHHHH.

Not even gonna talk about depth and inverse square law and how cfls somehow make the inverse square even worse...

Listen to pop22. Otherwise why ask?

Im really not trying to be a dick, the tone of the message is just like shotting the shit.. so don't take this the wrong way. Its just done deal with cfl. I hear too much cfl talk. Yes some scenerios their a must. Im not gonna list them.

 

[cowboy]

And im not a moron. This is a cfl grow. Congrats to the guy. You can make it work ish... Imagine he had real lights though?

 

[Psyphish]

One 210w CDM is a nice option, or the 250w Retro White if you want to use a magnetic ballast. All the LED panels that didn't have white LEDs were terrible.

 

[cowboy]

Wow ignore my post I didn't read you already have an LED. Your wasting money putting cfls next to an led. Engineers are rolling over in their graves. Use the cfls to light your path to the hydro store for another led. But honestly for vedge your fine where your at. The question do I add cfls. fuck no.

 

[cowboy]

One 210w CDM is a nice option, or the 250w Retro White if you want to use a magnetic ballast. All the LED panels that didn't have white LEDs were terrible.

That's not generalized at all.........................What do you grow with sir?

 

[Psyphish]

I currently have a 315w CDM and a 300w chinese LED panel in my main tent, in my small tent I have an 80w Hans panel and a 4x55w PL-L fixture. My micro has a "150w" cob LED.

I started with 250w CFLs, but switched to a 240w Blackstar LED, the Blackstar was slightly better than the CFL, but it had loud fans and took ages to flower with. I then switched to 250w retro white CMH, I then realized I should've gone the HID route to begin with as my results were significantly improved in all areas.

[edit] I know I've only tried several LED panels, but the white LEDs are definitely important.

 

[pop22]

Yes, as a matter of fact I have changed out ballasts.. More over, I have changed ballasts in T5's made in China. I would have to say that overall, everything was ok until I ran into two LED lights that I bought on ebay. Horrible crimps in the connections to drivers and bare wires exposed. PLease know, I am not putting you down. Not in the least! I buy a lot of my stuff the same way you do.

But thanks much for answering my question as it means a lot! Cheers!

Hey no problem! Just pointing out it isn't just the chinese stuff thats put together like that. An of course, its a good idea to check out any product of this type, no one is immune to producing "Monday" quality products.

 

[pop22]

And im not a moron. This is a cfl grow. Congrats to the guy. You can make it work ish... Imagine he had real lights though?

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Actually, results with various lights is a matter of technique needed for each type light. I've seen some outstanding grows with CFL. T5 also. Heck, we have people that grow POUNDS of weed with T5's. Small scale, CFLs work ok especially on a tight budget, when you can by a 4 pack of 23 watt ( 100 watt equivalent ) for less than $10.00 if you shop around. And now there is a new option for people, 9-15 watt Red/Blue LED spotlights. ( You can get various spectrum of white also ). I built a DIY growlight from the for a small cab. It works great! But you know what? Right now, a have a couple of CFLs mixed in with them because I too believe the "white" light is important. I'm in the process of buying some Warm White 15 watt LED spotlights and will do a grow with just these white lights to see what the results will be.

 

[pop22]

One 210w CDM is a nice option, or the 250w Retro White if you want to use a magnetic ballast. All the LED panels that didn't have white LEDs were terrible.

part of the problem with early LED growlights was they didn't have the spectrum right. Need white? Go look at GroBlu, they use only blue leds for veg!