Amount of CFL vs Higher Wattage.

[Buddahbear]

Is it worth it to drop the extra money on the big CFLS (105-125 watt 30-50$ a light)
Or use multiple low wattage?

What do you guys with experience think, because I'm considering using all CFLs to save money but still would like to attempt a sea of green grow in a 4X4 organic soil bed (for 16 clone SOG).

Buddahbear Reviewed by Buddahbear on 09-26-2006. Amount of CFL vs Higher Wattage. Is it worth it to drop the extra money on the big CFLS (105-125 watt 30-50$ a light) Or use multiple low wattage? What do you guys with experience think, because I'm considering using all CFLs to save money but still would like to attempt a sea of green grow in a 4X4 organic soil bed (for 16 clone SOG). Rating: 5

[harris7]

well, some bulbs have higher efficiencies measured in Lumens/watt. And it's a lot harder to build a box with 100 2 watt bulbs rather than one 200 Watt bulbs.

You should consider the cost of buying all the extra fixtures too. I think having medium sized bulbs say 85Watt would be the best as you can spread them out so all plants get good light, not just the ones under the bulb (if you had one big one)

[kdspecial]

You will need alopt of CFLs to get a 4x4 area going... I use cfls for a 2x2 area and I know a HID light would make it much easier. But I don't have the space. or the ventilation.

I'm pretty sure a 1000W Hps will cover a 4x4 sq foot area,, and thats a lot of lummes I can't imagine how many Cfls you will need to match lummes in that,, Im pretty sure with Cfls a good rule is 3000-5000 lummes per sq foot is decent coverage 5000 good and any more lummes is only better. SO do that Math....

It would be cheeper to geta HID. I use CFLs but only cuz I have too. I wish i had a house not an Apt.

I think im right about this ,, but better to get some more opinions.

kd_special

[orange_cloud]

so I have seven 42W CFL's 2700K in my flowering room. each of them provides 2700 lumens. so in total I have 19 000 lumens and almost 300W in my closet...
I dunno how many lumens 300W HPS would provide (it's gonna be more of course, but not too much I guess) but there are several things I like about CFL's:
*I don't have "too big temperature in my flowering room" problem. when the lights are on (7 CFL's) temperature rises 4-5 degrees in celcius.
*I can always remove as many CFL's as I want if there's (lets say) just one plant in flowering room.
*In my opinion, light is more spreaded more evenly (I'm doing SCROG right now)
*I bought my CFL's in WAL*MART, and each set (light bulb $8.00 + reflector with 15 feet cord $5.00) cost me around $14.00 each. so around $100.00 in total...

[orange_cloud]

but then again... we r talking about closet/cabinet growing
I would not use CFL's if I had as much as I wanted to... LOL

[harris7]

HPS is way better on the power bill. Mine gets 125 lumens per watt!!!!

the cfls i have are about 60 lumens per watt

[orange_cloud]

but then again... we r talking about closet/cabinet growing
I would not use CFL's if I had as much space as I wanted to... LOL

[kdspecial]

Yeha i use Cfls for that reason too,, I havea small Cab. I get jelious when i see my friend sHps Grow in their cold cellers.

oh well better than paying fot it at high prices...

kd

[invision]

[quote=orange_cloud]so I have seven 42W CFL's 2700K in my
I dunno how many lumens 300W HPS would provide (it's gonna be more of course, but not too much I guess)

a single 250watt hps bulb produces 32,000 lumens that almost twice the amount and 50watts less of power and can penetrate 1 foot into the canopy

[greenburn]

It all depends on what you can permit and what you can afford. There's a lot of factors to setting up your grow setup as I've found out. I've got 6 lights, 2 18" T5s, and two clamp lights from walmart with Y adapters. 2 27000k 20 watt, 2 65000k. But that's only on one plant.