Say I wanted to get a T5 light but my closet is one inch to short do you think I should get it and jam it in there some how prolly uneven as hell. Or get a 2ft flouresceent light and like 2 compact flourescents bulbs?????
Printable View
Say I wanted to get a T5 light but my closet is one inch to short do you think I should get it and jam it in there some how prolly uneven as hell. Or get a 2ft flouresceent light and like 2 compact flourescents bulbs?????
you can get high output flouros in 2 ft
t12's with ge daylight bulbs work great. and they're cheap too. fixture and bulbs=less than 20$
im currently using about 270 watts of cfl and its working awesome....i had tubes but didnt like em cause you cant move em around your plant very easily also the lumens are distibuted from the whole tube, whereas cfl all the lumens it advertised are distributed from the short compact bul...i find thisto be more effecient...270 watt set up cost me about 90 bucks total and has the potential to be a 340 watt red spectrum set up better for flowering for only 20 $ more....that would give me 21000 lumens to flower...i think thats pretty damn good for a around 100 bucks
tubes are great for the fact that the cool flouro tubes are actually cool; the plants can touch the bulbs. and lumens are measure as the amount of light that falls on 1sf from one foot away, so tubes are what they are rated, not less (sorry, the distrubution thing is wrong ;) )
hmm.....good to know, thankyou!.....and here i am thinking i am making sense! I still stand by my CFL, if i can show you what they have done to this plant i think you would be impressed....we will see how flowing goes but im pretty sure ill be switchin to a 150w HPS and use the CFLs to supplement by then
i had the exact same problem; you might just go with all cfl's. not nearly as efficient at t5ho, but you'll save a lot in startup costs. utility clips are like $6 at walmart and you can get cool 26w bulbs for $5 or less, and soft whites are cheaper than that
basically here's my lighting guide:
1. HPS: 250w is 115lumen/watt, 400 is about 130lumen/watt, 600w is about 150l/w; that's a big difference; keep that in mind; 600's are way more efficient than the 250's per your electric bill. they have great spectrum for flowering, they last, the bulbs are cheap and easily replaceable; this is the gold standard; however, there are plenty of times (read: closets etc.) where heat is an issue. sometimes it's not worth it to put in all the ventilation you might need to deal with an hps heat issue
2. T5HO flouros: 92 lumen/watt and come in 4ft and 2ft: they are expensive, but they are cool, and put out more lumen/watt than metal halide. IMHO a great investment for vegging, and for flowering as well if you can't take the heat of an hps
3. metal halide: i don't see the point anymore. they put out about 80 lumen/watt and you'll have heat issues. i don't know why someone would use MH over T5HO, they put out more heat, don't last as long, and less lumens
4. all other flouros: basicallly these are compromise solutions: cfl's are generally the cheapest and easiest to set up, or t12's or t8's depending on what deals you can get and the size of your box. they are not efficient, but they are cheap and cool
good luck; the same solution is not right for everyone. i just got today a 250w hps from insidesun and hopefully i'll be able to handle the heat. they have the cheapest unit at $92. it looks good to me. however, if i could handle the heat, i'd much rather have a 600w hps for the future, as they are MUCH more efficient, like 35lumen/watt more efficient. when you have 600 watts, that's a big savings in electricity/harvest
What if I put 2 4ft. Flourescent tubes(shop lights) long ways down the wall (Vertical) face'n each other on oppostie sides of the closet. Mabye some CF bulbs on tops like 2 facing down. Or should I just say fuck it and get a 150 watt hps. Its a small closet though. like 46inchs by 22inchs. Would noise by a problem at all with that???
I just posted this pic on another thread but it seems appropriate here too.
Thats a 24" 4 bulb T5 HO on the bottom with 24" T8's on the sides. The Troublemaker mother on the right vegged it's whole life in here and it's a serious bush. The T8 up top is all that's needed for clones.
Air intake is passive (see the holes I drilled), 120mm A/C fans top & bottom for exhaust, temps stay 75 - 78. Since this pic was taken I put another T5 up top with a bubbler for starting seedlings off. Temps are still fine so far.