Compact Fluorescent Light Discussion

[latewood]

Bob, Hope you don't mind, but I am going to post a link to a cfl, buying thread that has some great buys, and alot of bulb co's...latewood

http://boards.cannabis.com/showthread.php?t=69431

later,

[grubbygit]

Been reading a bit about 'Sunstreamer' lights from the States...is it available in the UK?.....or is there an equivalent thats available. The lighting options available locally seem poor.

[Aaron385]

hey im noticing some of these compact floros are coming with digital internals now..

so the question is now how to overdrive them like their long and skinny counterparts.. I know in the early days of overdriving regular floros you would buy two fixtures and take the ballast out of one and put it in the other.. I guess here you would have to buy two bulbs then take the ballast out of one bulb and add it to the other.. net result is 1.7x brightness with very very little if any lost efficiency (it does not draw 2x the power if I understand correctly).

Worst case if you buy digitals now then when you replace them next year you can keep their ballasts and put them in new bulbs for overdrive.. in a few years you could be up to a 4x overdrive at no additional cost.

Anyone up for comments on this?? Please no "mommy said not to play with electricity" posts.. if you dont have any idea what I am talking about dont post your doomsday predictions please.. just go search and read about it here:

http://www.geocities.com/teeley2/overdrv1.html

[latewood]

I just noticed for the 1st time Bob; You wired your cfl's on a board with common receptacles just like I did...Cool

I actually took all the pictures for a DIY 600wcfl board, like the ones in you piks, I used romex. I never posted, because you seemed to have a handle on the cfl crowd, and there were so many other grow issues to deal with to help take some of the load off Z...peace, lw:smokin:

uncle woody's tidbit:I added an inline receptacle box in the corner
to have a source for my little fans and/or an airpump. All in one convenient board.

[latewood]

when purchasing CFL's the package gives a
x watt amount but only uses x amount watts

when i see people posting they are using a 125w... are they using the lights that say "125w but only uses 65w" lights?

basically is the 125w the actual watts or is say the 65w the actual watts

NO...cfl's come in wattages from 4w to 200w, Now! A common 42-45w cfl you could buy at wally's for 8bucks uses 42-45 watts but give off the light of a 150watt incandescent bulb, but is cooler and uses that much less electricity.

So when someone in here says I got the 125 watt...It means they bought the bigass 125w cfl which would give off 500 watts of light, but only use the electricity of a 125watt incandescent.

does this answer your question?:smokin:

[knna]

Aaron, you can overdrive floros, but doing it is like throw dollars by your window. Its a very expensive practice.

Floros decreases its efficiency when overdriven, near to halogens efficiency ratings, and burns very quickly. No $ at pennys...

[Aaron385]

the way i understood it..

a 2x overdrive (2 ballasts on one bulb) equals 1.7 x brightness

Since digital ballasts are built for it they automatically run at less than rated capacity (~1.7/2).

You can go up to a 4x overdrive (4 ballasts on one bulb) but this will only net a 2.4x brightness level.. same deal on ballasts.. Bulbs will last over a year.. which is about as long as you probably normally keep floros on plants.. well.. its as long as I do.. haha.. my old floros replace lights in my house and fresh ones go in the grow room.. haha

The moral of my question is.. and I dont mean to call your input BS or anything.. but where did that info come from? (note: my source is listed above).

I'd hate to lose a good idea because somebody somewhere said.. something.. there are alot of people that post bad things about overdriving floros but the ones I have spoke to in the past had virtually no basis for their negativity and had never tried it.. the ones that did do it swear by it.. anyone out there overdrivin?

[mobay]

hey bob just wanted to post some pics on your thread, with using cfl lights.

[HapaPride]

NO...cfl's come in wattages from 4w to 200w, Now! A common 42-45w cfl you could buy at wally's for 8bucks uses 42-45 watts but give off the light of a 150watt incandescent bulb, but is cooler and uses that much less electricity.

So when someone in here says I got the 125 watt...It means they bought the bigass 125w cfl which would give off 500 watts of light, but only use the electricity of a 125watt incandescent.

does this answer your question?:smokin:

:thumbsup: thank you so much.... that answered it perfectly clear...

[hairboy 1]

I have a question, its my first time growing the 4 plants that I have can produce clones thier about 12-24 inches in height. so when cab I put the small clones into flowering?I will be using 400 HPS for flowering.