cfl wattage

[irishbud]

As "phatjay" said, if that is the actual wattage you should be fine but it depends on the strain too. His estimate could be totally different than what you actually produce. I am not saying Phatjay is wrong here but it does depend on the strain too.

As for your lights. I would pay more attention to the lumens that the plant will recieve. If you can supply a min. of 3500 lumens to the plant during veg you should have a nice grow. If you can up those lumens during flowering to a min. of 4000 lumens you should have a decent crop. I always suggest using more CFL's than you think you need because they are not quite as powerful as an HID light. Another great tip for CFL growing is to supply light to the sides of the plant too. I know a lot of people that say it makes no difference but the light from the CFL is not very powerful and does not reach the inner and lower portion of the plant as well as an HID light.

I cuurently have 40,000 lumens in CFL's in a 3ftx4ftx7ft area and two beautiful full figured ladies. This is my first documented study on CFL growth and I think many people will be suprised when they see what is being produced by CFL's only. Grow log to come soon....

i hear what your saying about the lumens i seen a 250w cfl on ebay tht gives off 19400 lumens would tht be really tht good?

[tevfik]

One thing about his CFL's: Their lumen outputs are based on their position. If you hang it vertically (Which is not possible with that big bulb) then the bulb will give out whats written. But if you hang horizontally then 3 of the 8 U's (about 6-8 tubes) will be looking up to the reflector and large amount of lumen will be lost between reflector and the bulb IMO. Instead if you go with more than one light source, i mean if you seperate that 250w in the room equally results will be much better.
If you use T5 or PL-L you'll be much more happy. I switched to PL-L's and now i am so sorry about the money i spent previously on CFL bulbs.
Here is a simple calculation for you:
1 250w CFL 19400lm. 78lm/w
1 55w PL-L 4550lm. 79lm/w and enough for 1sq foot (approx. 30x30cm - 900cm2)
4 PL-L will be enough for your box. 6 PL-L will hit.
How much are they?
250w CFL 19400lm= 90 USD
4x55w PL-L 30 USD + 2x ballast 60 USD= 90 USD

You can even go with 2x55w for vegging room and 2x80w for flowering room. For 80w there is 81lm/w output. I don't know exact prices of their ballasts but there is no difference between 18w and 55w ballasts. They all fixed price. So 80 must be the same.
There are several advantages of PL-L's.
They are cheap. Very cheap. Once you get your ballasts you'll just need to replace your bulbs and they're about 8 USD each.
They don't produce heat as much as that bulb will do. I pointed my two fans to them and they're cool.
There are wide product range, you can even go with special flower tubes or 90 RA tubes which is more effective on plants. You are able to mix spectrum.

Lets see:
You want 375w in total and it will give you approx. 7000+19400=26400lm
Since you're planning two different rooms
you can hit 6x80w or 4x80w + 2x55w. or 2x80w + 4x55w
Prices are almost same for each setup.
And you can set the bulbs 2 for veg and 4 for flower.
2x55w 6500k=110w for veg around 9.100lm.
2x80w 3000k + 2x55w 2700k optional=270w for flower. around 21600lm.
In total 380w and 30700lm.
You can get cauliflower buds with that

[irishbud]

One thing about his CFL's: Their lumen outputs are based on their position. If you hang it vertically (Which is not possible with that big bulb) then the bulb will give out whats written. But if you hang horizontally then 3 of the 8 U's (about 6-8 tubes) will be looking up to the reflector and large amount of lumen will be lost between reflector and the bulb IMO. Instead if you go with more than one light source, i mean if you seperate that 250w in the room equally results will be much better.
If you use T5 or PL-L you'll be much more happy. I switched to PL-L's and now i am so sorry about the money i spent previously on CFL bulbs.
Here is a simple calculation for you:
1 250w CFL 19400lm. 78lm/w
1 55w PL-L 4550lm. 79lm/w and enough for 1sq foot (approx. 30x30cm - 900cm2)
4 PL-L will be enough for your box. 6 PL-L will hit.
How much are they?
250w CFL 19400lm= 90 USD
4x55w PL-L 30 USD + 2x ballast 60 USD= 90 USD

You can even go with 2x55w for vegging room and 2x80w for flowering room. For 80w there is 81lm/w output. I don't know exact prices of their ballasts but there is no difference between 18w and 55w ballasts. They all fixed price. So 80 must be the same.
There are several advantages of PL-L's.
They are cheap. Very cheap. Once you get your ballasts you'll just need to replace your bulbs and they're about 8 USD each.
They don't produce heat as much as that bulb will do. I pointed my two fans to them and they're cool.
There are wide product range, you can even go with special flower tubes or 90 RA tubes which is more effective on plants. You are able to mix spectrum.

Lets see:
You want 375w in total and it will give you approx. 7000+19400=26400lm
Since you're planning two different rooms
you can hit 6x80w or 4x80w + 2x55w. or 2x80w + 4x55w
Prices are almost same for each setup.
And you can set the bulbs 2 for veg and 4 for flower.
2x55w 6500k=110w for veg around 9.100lm.
2x80w 3000k + 2x55w 2700k optional=270w for flower. around 21600lm.
In total 380w and 30700lm.
You can get cauliflower buds with that

thanks for the input lad i never read about pl-l wat are they?

[tevfik]

thanks for the input lad i never read about pl-l wat are they?

They're plug in compact fluorescent. One U only, and long.
here: http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...ent-tubes.html

[irishbud]

They're plug in compact fluorescent. One U only, and long.
here: http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-li...ent-tubes.html

tevfik thanks for the help. had a read of that thread have to agree they look the part. found a supplier will ring them tomorrow see how much they cost. will take your advise if the price is right ill get 2 55w 6500k to veg now to flower do i have to go as strong as you suggested?

[LetsSeeYa]

Yeah bud, i saw the thread and thought id put my 2cents in. My first indoor, i used 279w to grow 4 plants and i was very happy. I used 26w, 27,w and at flower some 13w all mixed. A lot of people will say im wrong doing this, but harvest was great. I think the big thing is to keep them close and when i mean close, i mean the plant will grow into the light from time to time. And i used painted white cardboard to enclose my grow area to focus every bit of light available to my plants. And in the end, i was very happy as my buds were nice and tight, not airy like some come out, if the lights are not close enough.

I made my lights for cheap, its in my Sig if you want to see what some of the buds i got from the grow looked like and how i enclosed it. The plants got nice size too. It was killer smoke:stoned:



Enjoy and have fun:rasta:

[tevfik]

tevfik thanks for the help. had a read of that thread have to agree they look the part. found a supplier will ring them tomorrow see how much they cost. will take your advise if the price is right ill get 2 55w 6500k to veg now to flower do i have to go as strong as you suggested?

2x55w will be enough for veg. Also for flowering additional 2 more can do as well but first tell us clearly how many plants you're going to grow? Are you going to grow simultaneously or not (i mean when one flowering will there be another vegging again at the same time. if so what are the sizes of vegging and flowering rooms)?
After your clear answer i'll try tell you what you need for minimum and optimum.

[irishbud]

2x55w will be enough for veg. Also for flowering additional 2 more can do as well but first tell us clearly how many plants you're going to grow? Are you going to grow simultaneously or not (i mean when one flowering will there be another vegging again at the same time. if so what are the sizes of vegging and flowering rooms)?
After your clear answer i'll try tell you what you need for minimum and optimum.

thanks tevfik what im planning is a homebox grow tent 80x80x160cm going to grow 1 maybe 2 plants from seed its called fruity chronic. i wanted to plit the grow tent into 2 rooms veg/flower and have a plant in each or 2 if i could or just grow 1 from start to finish and start again and hopefully ill get enough smoke to last me till the next one is done. what do you think?

[tevfik]

Hmm. Well, you can have one good grow in there or continuous grow in there but multiple grows will increase your electric bill + bulbs etc... And will give you just one month average. This depends on how much you'll smoke.
Your space is more than enough for 4 plants at least. If you'll smoke a lot grow 4 plants at once from beginning to the end. Than start another.

I already suggested what you need for multiple grows.
Here i'll suggest more reasonable option for you. This is the cheapest alternative based on lumen and watt.
Buy 2 ballast for $60 (1x55,1x80 they'll run 2 bulbs each)
Buy 4 bulb for $35 (2x55w6500k + 2x80w2700k)
Buy 4 socket. $5 (Not much necessary you can DIY)
Prices converted $ by me. They can be a bit different there but don't think there will be a huge difference.

First Run 2x55w 6500k bulbs for veg. Will hit 9600 lm. Enough for half of your tent. When switch to flower, run all. This will give you 21500lm with 270w and wide spectrum. Enough for your tent.
If you buy one more 55w 2700k bulb that will make more red in flowering room. Since they are cheap you can even buy two and go for flower with all red spectrum. Its up to you. You can think about 2700k bulbs later. For beginning you just need 2x55w 6500k bulbs and one ballast. The rest you can buy later as i said. This depends on your budget. You can also go with 6x55w (You'll need 3 ballasts). 330w. Oh yea
Most important thing is ballast. Get your ballast then don't worry about anything else.

Forget about one big bulb. If you're not able to go with PLL then go buy small e27 CFL. 4 or 6 for the beginnig, than later you can add more.

LetsSeeYa said and i'm totally agree with him. I previously used 6x18w for vegging. 6x23w for flowering. I had 2 beautiful lady.
Hope yours will be much more beautiful :thumbsup:

Go buy your bulbs and start your log already will you

[irishbud]

ok so i rang the supplier and getting the bulbs is no problem. from what you are saying 1 ballast can hold 2 bulbs, do you have like a part number or some kind of reference number on your ballast that i can use to give the supplier so he can get the ballast? ok so ill grow 3 plants in my tent from start to finish. 2 ballast with 4 55w 6400k bulbs to veg then to flower 2 55w 2700k and 2 80w 2700k will that do the job? but if you can some how help me get the part number of the ballast to get me started that would be great. thanks again