I have a real winter affliction of Seasonal Affective Disorder.

It was either Lithium or light therapy....I opted for the light therapy AND Lithium

This is how I got into lights to begin with, far prior to growing.

I bought a light unit from people who specialize in duplication of sunlight thru artificial light in wintertime. It is badly needed as sunlight produces Vitamins and stuff in the human...

I have a unit that diplaces 23,000 LUMENS at 2 feet. This is as advertised. They said yes, if I placed it within 1 foot from me, I would be getting 46,000 lumens.

The deal is, it has 5 bulbs. So, even if I took out 4 bulbs, I would still have 23,000 lumens at 2 feet or 46,000 lumens at one foot.

IS THIS CORRECT?

If yes, the light would be no where near the intensity of the 5 bulb setup.

So, at some point, I need to understand....since lumens are not summable in total concentrative levels, what is it that I am missing?

The total wattage?

Each bulb is 55W.....so @ 5 bulbs, being the WATTS ARE SUMMABLE I have 275W producing 23,000 lumens.

Each bulb is 55W.....so @ 1 bulb, I have 55W producing the same 23,000 lumens???

Since a WATT is a unit of energy USED and not energy emmitted or displaced....the more lights I use the lower the lumens I get per watt.

This doesn't add up.

You need the wattage to power the lumens.

Now we know that 2 600W HPS lights will light up an equal area far brighter than say a 1000W HPS....since we're talking lumens and thats a fixed 1 sq. ft. measurement....watt...er...what is it that results in higher light from the 2 600W HPS setup than the single 1000W HPS setup?

The 200Watts?

Well thats energy used not displaced.....so that cant be it.

What else is it?