cfl's work best in a cluster, a lot of people put thier cfl's super close.. heh. if you have too many it will burn just like a HPS. Im using about 14 cfl lights (only) they are all 23w 1750 lumen each which equals to about (25,000k lumen) 322wats and the results are amazing & the best part the heat is super low. my setup is about the same as a single 300w hps light with much less heat. You can get 150w HPS lights now for around 80.00 usd
I think my cfl setup cost me about 35.00 to build then what ever the cost of lights are. normally 10-15.00 per 4 pack. one cool thing about cfl's is you can take away or add more at any time. when i vegg i prob use 4-8 lights, then add more as they get bigger.
growdemon Reviewed by growdemon on . Supplemental CFL light - how many to make a difference? Flowering... Hi! I am growing 3 plants under a T5 HO 4' (blue) light. Right now they're midway thru budding, with 4-5 weeks to go and I was wondering about supplementing their lighting with some red CFL's on the sides. I've been reading in the forum for about an hour trying to understand more about lighting, but I'm not very mathmatically or electrically inclined. How many CFL's should I get in total - was hoping 4 would do (2 on each side), but maybe I need 6? More? Should I go for the 23 watt Rating: 5