Will 300W CFL's work??

[LarryB]

The soil grow box or soil cabinet, will be 5' tall, 4' deep, 6' wide, with 2 fans, 1 intake, 1 exhaust.

Using 300W Cfl's, how many you think I'll need?

thanks all

[jiggsaw]

cfl's will work but if you're going to use over 300 watts you should just get a hps/mh system. 300 watts of cfl is good for 2 plants. I use the regular GE ones that are 23 watts 100 watt equivalent. That way I get more light spread out. With all that area you're using you'll probably be growing like 6 plants right ? That would be allot of cfl's like 150 watts per plant with cfl. That's just my guess though you'll have to do the math and figure out the lumens but if I was growing 6 I'd use one 600watt hps/ mh system, you can get them on ebay and amazon with built in ballasts it's just plug and play no wiring. But if you get those you'll need like 3 quality thermometers and 2 strong fans.

[LarryB]

I do agree with you that a hps/mh system would be much better, but due to limited finances, I'll have to use the CFL's. However, I am thinking of using an extra bedroom we have, but man.. what a lot of CFL's! It's not the monthly expense of the better lights, it's just the initial investment. Ahh.. decisions when broke.

[jiggsaw]

Yeah cfl's are better for the budget. They're a cheap initial investment and they're cheap on the electricity. you just need allot if you grow allot of plants.

[LarryB]

Just trying to decide which way to go for indoor growing. I have a room that's about 8' X 12' which is an extra bedroom, question is.. do I want to build a grow cabinet inside this room OR just use the entire room as the grow room. I'm leaning towards putting a big table in the room, then use CFL's, ventilation really isn't a problem. A fan and open window fixes that. Trouble is, with such an "open" area, just how effective will the CFL's be and should I go up in size?

[jiggsaw]

it would take allot of cfls in an open area that big. it could be done. the bigger cfls from lowes and home depot are the ones I was gonna get. but I read on a forum, maybe here, that they aren't as many watts as they say and they burn out quick. They cost like 30 a bulb so I just got walmart bulbs. I had 12 cfls in a armoire that was 3 feet deep, 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. the main thing is with so many cfls and extension cords and socket adapters , it would look junky as hell. you would need to make a light system. I would use pvc pipes and make long rails wired up with sockets. and connect them all together like one big pvc light system to fit your room the same length and width. Then use cheap pulleys and twine to lower and raise them. you might need 100 bulbs though lol.