Lighting Cfl for tent
- Thread starter brd1984
- Start date
Hey Bgrt I have to disagree with this I have used Hps and MH and the bulb themselves will burn the shit out of you if you touch them and with a CFL you can touch them for a few seconds without getting burnt and as far as CFL's just penetrating the top with CFL you can hang them all around the plant and get all the penetration you need and still will not use the electricity you would with the HPS.
I do agree that the ballast makes a lot of the heat but the bulb makes a lot as well. you could use a cooltube but not everyone has the $ to buy these and with the purchase of a HPS setup with a cooltube you could buy a lot of CFL's and put out a lot more light. Just my
look at the light they give at the wattage though. lumen/par is what matters otherwise youre just trying to match energy use not light something efficiently. how much of that energy is being used to make light and not being wasted as heat is what matters. what hps and cfl are you comparing? if the hps is putting out alot more light then it will have more radiant heat aswell but youll get that no matter how you light its just what light does.
cooltubes are cheap mine was 50 quid i think, though i will be changing myself to a different vented hood as the light footprint is shit.
hanging them as sidelighting is fine not saying it wont work but you wont need to so much with a hps, the light travels further at a stronger intensity and will reflect better around the tent.
anything powerful is going to be hot but lots of heat sources spread out is harder to cool and not actually cooler just less intense at one point.
googled some example details,
the 250 watt CFL bulbs are around 19,500 lumens
and a hps of equivalent wattage is around Lumens (Initial) : 29000. the extra light is coming from the energy that in an inefficient system would be turned to heat.
nearly an third of extra light. so you could use a 333watt cfl(maybe more) to get near the same rating. its not as efficient, so youd have to compare a larger wattage cfl to see a proper comparison which itself should show you that they are weaker.
i would think hps has a better spectrum aswell but only vaugely guessing.
you cant fight the numbers. its why they use hps in street lights and not huge cfls.
they are efficient compared to incandescent thats all.
otherwise it goes led>t5>hps i think. maybe inductions in there somewhere too.
just how i understand it based on everything ive read but its not really random opinions people have backed it up enough that it makes sense logically and theres ways to check.
correct me if im wrong with some specific examples.
induction looks cool i was thinking of trying it myself.
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But the 250watt CFL is not using an actual 250 watts of energy just like a 26 watt CFL is equivilant to 100 watt so you save on electricity. I'm not saying HPS is not good but I think for a small grow tent CFL's are best and HPS are for larger scale grows. And also CFL's are more like natural light that plants use more so than any other light.(from all the info I can gather)
with cfl we always use real wattage though. well thats what ive always been told to do on here and other forums. equivalents just arent accurate and confuse new growers. im pretty sure that quoted 250watt cfl was 250watt but even if it wasnt the lumens wouldnt change.
another reason why lumens matter, i was using lumen ratings so the equivalent wattages dont matter at all as the lumens dont change its just brightness output so those calculations still stand.
tiny tent i agree hps isnt perfect for but thats what t5 is for which is even more efficient than hps. they just dont have the range/penetration that hps do so they would need a smaller tent.
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Folks are switching Hid to Magnetic induction that are half the wattage for street light and industrial lighting.
I agree Bgrt I wasn't wanting to start an argument bro so don't think I was just out to push any buttons hell I would love to have an HPS but its hard for me to spend that kind of $ when I have 3 kids and a wife to support and plus for around $100 I can get 3 or 4 Cfl's that would put out more lumens than the HPS would and its around $300 dollars. So all I was doing was trying to give another option to the HPS.
The grow that I just completed on here was done with 6 26 watt CFL's (100 watt MH was used sometimes in cooler weather) and all 3 plants looked great and all 3 had a main cola that was more than double the size of a 20oz water bottle and 2 of the 3 had 3 buds each that was this big with a lot f smaller buds so I think the CFL has came along way.
The grow that I just completed on here was done with 6 26 watt CFL's (100 watt MH was used sometimes in cooler weather) and all 3 plants looked great and all 3 had a main cola that was more than double the size of a 20oz water bottle and 2 of the 3 had 3 buds each that was this big with a lot f smaller buds so I think the CFL has came along way.
Any Light can make Short node spacing
Keep the lights CLOSE and INTENSE.
This controls node spacing, an keep em short an thick.
Why grow stem?
lol
900 umole par min. is what I run.
Im hoping to double mine to 1800 umole @ 6 inches soon by adding another 400w induciton flouro.
1800 is about like a 1000w hps @ 24 in.
Oh,And train the big ones down with lst for an even canopy.
no hostility intended, sorry if it came across like that, just got stuck on a ramble :smokebuds:
context/emotions dont come across too well on the net without excessive smileys.
sounds good, and chunky!
wasnt saying dont use cfls but just use them and know the reason why isnt efficiency, thats all i meant to get across. i did my first grow with cfl and t5s and still use cfl for sidelighting etc. not against them just theres seems to be a general thought that they are better because someone said so ona forum but no one really knows who or why. in small areas its a much more attractive option but im just saying this as a wide rule not specific to one situation. people searching through for similar info might assume it applies to larger areas etc. good to be clear.
im thinking of getting some led or induction to try out soon maybe next grow if i have some spare cash.
HPS is really not that expensive, at least to me. I just ordered this, for a friend, who is setting up their first grow, in a 4'X4'X7' tent. http://www.ebay.com/itm/iPower-1000...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item2325ec2454 Of course once you add in a fan and filter, you are looking at $450-$500, but it is much more efficient than 1000 watts of CFL.
I use a 600 watt and a 400 watt HPS, in my 4"X4'X7' tent, and usually yield between 16 and 22 ounces, depending on the strain. The heat is much easier to manage, than 1000 watts of CFL.
But that is my opinion.
Ridgerunner
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