300w cfl enough?

5 plants, 1.5" tall in a 2.5' x 2.5' x 8', well ventilated. blood meal and bone meal in soil........
i had to kinda ghetto rig my lights, i have 3 100w cfl hanging 5" from plants.

IS THAT ENOUGH LIGHT?? much thanx

How many lumens are the bulbs?

Are they 100w equivalent or actaully use 100w?

1600 lumens a piece, equivalency of 100w, 3 of them

the more the better man......

your bulbs are actually 23 watts each you are looking at the incandescent equivalent. So you actually only have 69 watts.

I have heard a good rule of thumb is about 2500 lumens at least per plant. You could either add tube fluros or a couple more CFLs. That would probably get it done at the least out of pocket cost. This was my approach.

I have about 13,500 lumens in my set up with a combo of fluros & CFLs. Cost me about $50 to set up.

You also want to have the lights within just a couple inches of the plant from what I've read - this helps with light penetration as fluoresents light lose their lumen output at further distances.

gangjababy said:

your bulbs are actually 23 watts each you are looking at the incandescent equivalent. So you actually only have 69 watts.

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Now thats 69watts of electricity converted to power. Has *nothing* to do with light output. Light is never measured in watts.

jus get the 42 watt (150 watt) 2 to 3 inches away from the top at all times.. the more the better tho

BigBudBalls said:

Now thats 69watts of electricity converted to power. Has *nothing* to do with light output. Light is never measured in watts.

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How many watts is proportional to lumen output. IF he did have 300 actual watts the bulbs would be putting out around 19,200 lumens a opposed to only 4,800 lumens. I understand lights are measured by lumen output but they are also classified by watts/spectrum

3x23w CFLs for 5 plants is nowhere near enough - it's barely enough for one plant to be honest.

I wouldn't bother with the 23w lights - i'd go for the 42 or 46w ones and have 4 PER PLANT (obviously you can get away with one or 2 when the plants are small).

have 2 on top and one either side of the plant - this will ensure the light is being distributed evenly onto the plant.

I know that seems like a lot of light but with CFLs you need it - especially during flowering.

You don't *have* to have all those globes in there from day 1 - you can add them as the plant grows, but it's prob a hassel to add lights while you've got plants in there - better to have them already setup and just plug them in when you think the plants need them.