Indoor blackstar or cfls?

[greenthumper]

i will ask, is the room your growing in air conditioned? you say its 90+ most of the year.

Lol 90+ outdoors I live in Florida, my ac runs at 78-80. Can't run too much ac here my bill would be insane.

 

[Hipster2U]

LED's typically run at half capacity (plus a few watts for the fans) so your 180W LED actual draw is about 90 watts. My Blackstar 240W uv draws about 107 watts. I had a 126W penetrator that pulled 70 watts. LED's can help solve heat problems and lower light bills. However, it's not really fair to expect the same light and penetration of your 209W CFLs versus 90W driving your LED. You might get close but I don't think you'll get better. Which is a whole 'nother discussion (or debate!). Choose an led fixture built with 3W diodes to get penetration. It just won't happen for you with a 1W diodes unit.

 

[Muddy]

Probably the biggest difference between CFLs and LEDs is that the LEDs are designed specifically for growing. They are providing a complete spectrum of all the different wavelengths of light that the plants need. With CFLs you will need to use a combination of different temperatures to broaden the spectrum.

I wouldn't bother with the 180 watt Blackstar. The price difference between it and the 240 isn't all that much and you'll be much happier with the additional wattage. If you're looking to light that whole 3' x 4' area, even a 240 watt isn't enough. I would recommend two of the 240 watters minimum to cover that whole space.

 

[RabbitFighter]

I too use a combination of LED & CFL, I recently replaced some 100w CFL's with 75w. The 100w CFL's draw 26 real watts and the 75w draw 20 watts, but there is a significant drop in heat output between the two, the 75w run much cooler. I can actually hold one in my hand when lit and not get burned.

My current set up is a (1) 90w Haight LED, (5) 100w CFL's, (6) 75w CFL's & (1) 100 Repti Glo, my tent runs a consistent 84 degrees. Today I'm going to replace the (5) 100w lamps with 75w and see if there is a big drop in temperature.

 

[Nelson]

I hate to comment on which would be better CFL or LED. I use mostly CFL complemented with some LED on my mail tank. I use one color of CFL and get good budding from them. I tried a lower color temperature (more on the yellow orange side (2700K) but didn't get any better bud groth than just plain old (4100K) bluer bulbs. when I built my main tank I just used all 4100K color temperature CFLs. I now have two 150 watt LED panels added to the main tank. They are mostly red LEDs and I think I can notice a change for the better but it is not dramatic less than 10% bud weight. Every 10% does help.

I have switched to starting the initial groth to nursery tanks where I can play with lighting and nuitrianst to find out if I can increase plant groth in the initial 5 weeks by first nutrient change and secondly lower lights over the babies. I am hoping to get better initial groth. They are all under CFL lighting only. I may add a high frequency CFL over the top of the baby plants later.

If you have lots of money maybe you should go with $700 of LEDs or whatever they cost now. If I was rebuilding my setup I would probably stick with a combination of CFLs and some LEDs.

 

[gtron]

Lol 90+ outdoors I live in Florida, my ac runs at 78-80. Can't run too much ac here my bill would be insane.

Hey Thumper,
I live on the gulf coast also. My grow box is just a little smaller than yours and it is housed in a room that rarely exceeds 82, I have found that regardless of what I run- CFL bulbs, T5 fixture, or BlackStar 240, that once the ambient temp of the room goes over about 73 that the temp in the box begins a somewhat exponential increase. At ambient room temps under 73 my box temp runs about 6 degrees hotter, with ambient room temps above 73 my box seems to run about 11-13 degrees hotter.
I have found a couple of things that help keep the temp of the box down.
1st- you gotta have an adequate exhaust fan, if your fan is not drawing in & exhausting enough air the temps will be higher. I probably need a bigger fan, but stealth is a concern for me, so for now I just have to deal.
2nd- I have my lights off from 12noon to 4pm if running 20/4, off 11am to 5pm if running 18/6, and off 9am to 9pm if running 12/12. This has helped with the temps immensely with the lights being off during the hottest part of the day.
3rd- This summer I hope to move things around and change the location of my grow area, when I do I am going to run a small duct off one of the AC ducts directly to my grow area, that should make a huge difference.

 

[greenthumper]

I have found a couple of things that help keep the temp of the box down.
1st- you gotta have an adequate exhaust fan, if your fan is not drawing in & exhausting enough air the temps will be higher. I probably need a bigger fan, but stealth is a concern for me, so for now I just have to deal.
2nd- I have my lights off from 12noon to 4pm if running 20/4, off 11am to 5pm if running 18/6, and off 9am to 9pm if running 12/12. This has helped with the temps immensely with the lights being off during the hottest part of the day.
3rd- This summer I hope to move things around and change the location of my grow area, when I do I am going to run a small duct off one of the AC ducts directly to my grow area, that should make a huge difference.

I also have lights out 12-4 . My exhaust is efficient but it spews out into my closet. Even with a fan relaying the the closet air into my room temps are around 83 in my cab.

Thanks for the advice on the 240w muddy that does seem a much better deal. It seems a combination of cfls and LEDs works nicely. :howdy:

 

[BrolyBuds]

i had 4 autos under a 240 watt blackstar and harvest just over 2 ounces...the reason for this being the plants weren't getting enough surrounding light...or atleast hats what i believe...the most recent grow i did...same nutes..same size container....another auto..with 10 23 watt cfls ...all 2700k for a total of 230 watts and that yielded me 66.5 grams or 2.25 ounces off of one speed devil #2

o...and i paid 300 for the blackstar and about $13 on cfls at my local bargain outlet store...

 

[Nelson]

I'm thinking of buying a Black Star. I got a room with a bunch of CFLs augmented by a 400 watt HPS. The room grows well with the combo but as well as HPS grows cooling in the Summer is a real issue. I use the room mostly for getting my photos ready to head outside and then I shut the room down. I would love to get rid of the HPS and put a BlackStar in its place. Where is the cheapest place to buy one these days?

 

[BrolyBuds]

i bought one direct from the guy himself in new york city....you can even call and talk to him. Some russian guy. Nice fellow. As stated and im sure it went down in price ..but i paid 300 for mine.