Using sunlight & CFLs

[Dr.Hashman]

I was wondering how sunlight compared to CFLs. I have searched the Internet (and various forums) to try to find out how many lumens natural sun is compared to CFLs. I found this on Wikipedia:

"Direct sunlight gives about 93 lumens of illumination per watt of electromagnetic power, including infrared, visible, and ultra-violet. This compares with the best fluorescent lights."

It seems to me like the sun puts out 93 lumens a watt, but how many watts is the sun lol, does anyone understand how it compares to fluorescent? Does anyone know how many lumens the sun is? If there is not a way to measure the lumens of the sun can you give me a guess? I am thinking about 3000 lumens/square foot with noon sun.

Also, would it be bennificial to put my plants out in natural sunlight in my backyard when nobody is home? (security is no problem and I have the house to myself for days at a time)

[Tomthehippie]

The sun is much more effective. it all so covers the perfect natural light spectrum. :)

[Dr.Hashman]

I transplanted a couple of my foot tall sunflowers outside about a week ago and they have grown about 4" since then. Inside they took around 2 months to get to 12", then 7 days to get to 16", they were also severly root bound though:(

I'll put my seedlings outside now, I can probably just leave them 30 yards behind my house with some screen around them so no animals get em.

Off to work on my earthbox too Xd

[Tokudai]

From Hydroempire.com

The noon Sunlight in Davis, California is around 5,000 lumens per square foot. Similarly, a 1 ,OOO-Watt HPS lamp with its inner arc tube 2 feet above a table is shining about 5,000 lumens on every square foot of that table. Although this HPS lamp appears to be equal to the Sun, it is not the same because its colour spectrum is poor. The Sun has another advantage over artificial lights in that Sunlight is just as intense at all distances. This is because the powerful Sunlight has already travelled some 93 million miles (149 million kilometers) to reach Earth, so the extra few feet or metres it has to go to reach the bottom of plants do not lessen its light intensity.

[Dr.Hashman]

Thank you so much Tokudai! A very strait forward answer that got all my curiosity cured.