CFL's are stupid. I took them down.

BloodShotI'z

Well-Known Member
Yes it does look better...and seriously...the cfls nextt o those shop lights looked stupid....lol

On a serious note....I need more lighting for clones....I was gonna do cfls but I'll look into the shop lights. Im sure Home Depot will carry them. Maybe 2 lights....2 tubes per light. How much do the shop lights run for, fdd?
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
the fixtures are about 20$'s. the bulbs i think are 3 $'s. i'm using 2 whites and a warm. the whites are blue and the warms are red. i've been searching for "bright" white but they are hard to find. they are the highest lumen output for a standard floro. home depot has the listing for them on the wall but none on the shelf. those bastards. and yeah, try to ask an employee a question. they look around the immediate area (insert dazed look here) without moving a step and then say check aisle 13. fools.
 

babygro

Well-Known Member
cfl's are stupid. by the time you put out enough wattage with all 9 pointed directly at the plant you are up to the wattage of a small HPS. why not just do it right? yes sideways i understand. i had 20 plants i was VEGGING. i guess i needed 237 CFL's to do it right.
CFL's aren't stupid - you just need to figure out how to use them properly, yes that means investing some time into understanding their strengths and weaknesses, clearly something you don't consider to be a particularly good investment of your time.

If you'd looked at your situation critically, you'd have realised that low wattage cfl's simply were not the right solution - because of the reasons you're now giving - you're trying to illuminate an area far too large for cfl's to cover effectively.

Would you really try and cover a 5 foot by 5 foot area with a 250w HPS? I doubt it, so why try and cover a large area with lots of small inefficient cfls?

For your area, 2, 3, or 4 ft HO T5's would have been a far better solution - they cover a much wider area, dissipate less heat and produce sufficient PAR watts for good vegetative growth. The 2 or 3 T5's you would have needed would have been cheaper to buy and operate than the many cfl's.

Just because you made an error in judgement for your situation isn't a very good reason to slag off cfl's because they didn't work for you - for plenty of people they'll work very effectively.

If you can't control your temperatures for whatever reason, then your ventilation setup isn't efficient enough - it's as simple as that.
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
CFL's aren't stupid - you just need to figure out how to use them properly, yes that means investing some time into understanding their strengths and weaknesses, clearly something you don't consider to be a particularly good investment of your time.

basically went with all the "CFL rage" i read here.

If you'd looked at your situation critically, you'd have realised that low wattage cfl's simply were not the right solution - because of the reasons you're now giving - you're trying to illuminate an area far too large for cfl's to cover effectively.

i was illuminating a 1' by 20" area. not really a whole lot.



Would you really try and cover a 5 foot by 5 foot area with a 250w HPS? I doubt it, so why try and cover a large area with lots of small inefficient cfls?

see above...

For your area, 2, 3, or 4 ft HO T5's would have been a far better solution - they cover a much wider area, dissipate less heat and produce sufficient PAR watts for good vegetative growth. The 2 or 3 T5's you would have needed would have been cheaper to buy and operate than the many cfl's.

duh, i switched BACK.

Just because you made an error in judgement for your situation isn't a very good reason to slag off cfl's because they didn't work for you - for plenty of people they'll work very effectively.

i see many others here on my side.

If you can't control your temperatures for whatever reason, then your ventilation setup isn't efficient enough - it's as simple as that.

uh, what's a fan? do you really think i'm that dumb? why ask for more heat when you don't need it.
you back all my findings yet still continue to clown me. please look at the pics again and tell me how to best utilize my veg area with CFL's. venting the heat was not an issue. i own fans. i was using floros i tried CFL's i switched back. kind of a test. my boss treats me the same way. he's only 5' 5" i understand. :peace::joint::joint:
 

abudsmoker

Well-Known Member
Yes it does look better...and seriously...the cfls nextt o those shop lights looked stupid....lol

On a serious note....I need more lighting for clones....I was gonna do cfls but I'll look into the shop lights. Im sure Home Depot will carry them. Maybe 2 lights....2 tubes per light. How much do the shop lights run for, fdd?

for my clones i have one 4 foot fixture with 6500k bulbs thats all they get and it does up to 75 clones in 2 domes
 

abudsmoker

Well-Known Member
you back all my findings yet still continue to clown me. please look at the pics again and tell me how to best utilize my veg area with CFL's. venting the heat was not an issue. i own fans. i was using floros i tried CFL's i switched back. kind of a test. my boss treats me the same way. he's only 5' 5" i understand. :peace::joint::joint:
very classy responce
 

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
My last boss was 6' 2" and was a total dick. Just thought I needed to mention that. Short bosses don't have the monopoly on being assholes.
 

kindprincess

Well-Known Member
if anyone cares to check it out, i vegged my current clones under 8 23w warm cfl's. a few pix of the light setup are on page 3.... my thread is called kp gets her feet wet.

kp
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
These are growing under two 100watt cfls, and four 23 watt cfls. My temps range from 75-85. There was absolutely no stretching nor daily repositioning. The only reason there is any space between the bottom branches and the pot is because I had to trim them for airflow.

show off. lol. nice grow.:mrgreen: you can have my fixtures if you want them.

 

mogie

Well-Known Member
LOL

Best place for cfl's are replacing light bulbs in the house. Can't beat a good hps for growing. Well I take that back you can. Outside in the spring/summer time. Mother nature is the best.
 

TheConstantGardner

Well-Known Member
There are 10 plants there (I'm not counting my little retarded two headed runt in pic#1). These things are stacked with node spacing very minute. My lights are at least a full 6" over my plants and they are very very green and growing more and more each day. The space is about 42" long, 23" deep, and 32" high. This is my veg cabinet.
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
LOL

Best place for cfl's are replacing light bulbs in the house. Can't beat a good hps for growing. Well I take that back you can. Outside in the spring/summer time. Mother nature is the best.


hit 96 degrees today, fog in the evenings. come to cali!!!!!!!!!!!!!:hump::hump::hump:


 

ljjr

Well-Known Member
where the hell is g.knowm? he did a hell of a good grow using cfl's if i'm not mistaken he got like 8oz's off of 1 plant using cfl's. the strain was mango, that was the most impressive cfl grow i have seen! i think it was last year he posted pics of it.i don't use cfl's myself but i have seen a few good micro grows using them. i prefer 4ft t5's myself for clones,seedlings and veg. then its out to the greenhouse to flower!

LJ

GROW ON!
 

TheConstantGardner

Well-Known Member
show off. lol. nice grow.:mrgreen: you can have my fixtures if you want them.
Thanks, but I've got so many individual light receptacles it's crazy. I wire them myself and put them it wads. I'll upload new pictures Sunday when I can borrow a decent cam. My flowering rack is all CFL. EIGHTEEN 42 watters. Crazy, I know, but most of my materials were free. I'm thinking of adding more to the flowering room after I fire it up and give it a whirl for a week or two.

I do plan on going MH/HPS one day but I'm having too much fun with the DIY thing.
 
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