Quote Originally Posted by jon420
As far as sockets go, I use exactly what you went and bought at HD/Lowes. I have not once had a heat issue and I use the big 55-watt 3800-lumen (actual wattage) CFL's as part of the lighting. I only run 18/6 light cycle too. I did run 24hrs for veg when I first started with CFL's but the 18/6 has paid off tremendously. When it comes to using different spectrums, I will highly recomend it when growing with CFL's. During veg I recomend 70%-80% 6500k spectrum over 2700k...During flower I recomend ADDING more 2700k lights to make it atleast 65% 2700k spectrum. You always want more light than you think when it comes to CFL's. Stick to the 2700K and 6500k CFL's and everything will turn out great. Keep them real close but no closer than an inch with the bigger CFL's, they do burn and growth will be atleast an inch daily once they start thriving.
Thanks for the info Jon! I guess I'm doing okay for now - despite how much I think about it repeativly.

I did see one CFL (in the store) which was higher output than what I bought. It has a built in sensor for auto-on/off. I was thinking maybe you can fool the sensor by getting them to turn on and then if the lights in your garden never go out then the sensors wouldn't pay any role. I didn't want to waste the money though.

On a second note, you mentioned your 55W'ers (and I read your logs). I went and looked those up on 1000Bulbs. Do you know they have 105W CFL's now too in 6500K? So at 55W I would need 1 for about every sq. foot, but at 105W I'd really only need one bulb per 1-1.5 sq foot. So for every few sq feet I'd be saving a bulb/socket, etc. Throw in a couple 26W at the end for giggles and I think I would get a nice sun tan off of that setup. Does this sound logical? Those 105 watter's are quite expensive though and I'm fine with buying a small T5 setup. CFL is just the easiest to put together at the moment since I already have access to a load of high quality (bag) seed's and I'd like to start having some "fun".

Last night I took an old tv shelf. Roughly it's about 2.5 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 3 feet tall. I guess I should have measured it. :P Anyways, I took out all of the guts so it was just a shell, I painted the inside white and added a solid plywood door on the front. It took roughly an hour and I think this should buy me another month to get a better set up. It also beats the heck out of my open top white vinyl "bin" thingy. Word to the wise folks, don't get married - then you have to waste time making the crappy white bin while you convince your wife to let your hack up the old tv shelf.

Off to get a few more lights this morning. 3 should be good for now correct? That enclosure is less than 5 square, but the plants are in 8 or 10oz cups so they are sitting in less than a one square area. Bulbs aren't the issue, I am going to get a bunch - but I know the little mom and pop store I'm going to only has a couple bulb holders left.

Thanks again Jon.