ceestyle
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but the point is that you can get the same light output from less total watts of HID. CFLs produce just as much heat.
Advantage V. disadvantage CFL's
- Thread starter lastfrontier
- Start date
lastfrontier
Well-Known Member
yep you get the same BTU's from each watt no matter how you slice it HID or CFL i love it for growing 20-15 at the most not saying that is all it can do i love it over my 600 watt MH/HPS with digital ballast but my CFL light can go as high as 2400 watts i normally run it at 750 watts to replace my 600 watt HID i get better results with my CFL but you can see that the CFL hood runs a bit hotter with a 150 more watts but i still think it is better i think it provides for more light coverage it runs about one inch from the canopy and the heat is spread even over the whole crop.
ceestyle
Well-Known Member
not exactly. you get the same heat energy for every watt wasted. CFLs are less efficient at turning electricity into light, and therefore more of it actually goes into heat than with HIDs.
that is why they are better for small ops or for beginners. but, that doesn't mean they aren't any good for slightly bigger grows too.
do what works best for you, and don't judge others. not directed at anyone, but just in case someone fights cfl's
lastfrontier
Well-Known Member
my hood is a great radiant and really removes and distributes heat well so the small bit of extra heat is welcome it helps things not mildew or rot i have tried using black light both mixed and stand alone and i feel alone they did not grow well mixed saw no change i think that CFL can become to big and the up keep would not be worth it but CFL's are great for the newb and the veteran they are so versitle and provide great coverage with the right reflector but i do use 150 more watts in my CFL hood
I don't think it would "visibly" help, unless you look at trichromes maybe. where are the pro's at? I'm just guessing here.
noob question..: is that a good or bad thing?
ceestyle
Well-Known Member
Good. THC gets you high. Cannabinoids give you couch lock. They also have medicinal benefits, but I prefer less CBD and more THC. THC also breaks down into other CBDs over time and in the presence of light.
do I understand you right, uv light increases d9-THC and not CBD? I'll read more about it some time when I get around to it.
+rep if I could. gotta spread the love first
what last frontier is saying is that a 100 watt hid produces the exact same heat as 100 watt CFL or a 100 watt hid. Doesn't matter what your system as far as total heat produced by that unit is concerned. Cfl's spread the heat over a much larger area than hid but thats about it.
ceestyle
Well-Known Member
Not exactly. 100W is the power taken by each of the bulbs. Some of it is converted to light. Some of it is wasted as heat, primarily through inefficiency of the ballast.
SO:
100W = X Watts Light + Y Watts Heat
If the HID produces more light with the same power - and it does - you're wasting the remaining power on heat. Only a fraction of the light is infrared (heat), and does not directly result in the heating of the plant.
annnnnddd.. what happens when that light hits something or the plant uses it for photosynthesis? It gets converted ultimately back to heat. Anything electric that expends its energy within a closed system ALWAYS has one hundred percent conversion back to heat.
some of the energy is converted into sugar in the plant
ceestyle
Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, that's not correct. As someone has pointed out, the whole point of providing the plant with light is that it converts it to chemical energy, namely through the construction of other molecules that provide the plant with energy. The only reason this produces heat is if the energy of the photons is above that required to initiate one of these reactions, in which case it is turned into vibrational or translational modes in these molecules, which we observe as heat.
Besides that, it is also reflected and absorbed elsewhere in the growing environment, and much more efficiently dispersed through conduction and convection than that produced by the ballast and bulb.
You're right about one thing: energy is conserved. The idea is to get as much of that energy as possible to the plant in a usable form, which we call radiation or light - of bite sizes just large enough for the plant to digest.
holy crap guys... someone other than me just try it! If you expend x amount of energy in a room regardless of the source you will need x amount of ventilation because x amount of thermal energy is ultimately made...
Yes some of the energy is directly used in the plants growth but not enough to calculate it into a design of a ventilation system. I guess to really find out you would have to let a plant die and decay and calculate the release of that energy as it decomposes... it wouldn't amount to a hell of a lot..
(100 watts), Btu/hour= Watts x 3.413 = 341 Btu/hour are produced in a hundred watt grow room. period. You really think the plants can even start to make a dent on this?
you may be right..ceestyle.. those sure are long words... but this is my experience.
Yes some of the energy is directly used in the plants growth but not enough to calculate it into a design of a ventilation system. I guess to really find out you would have to let a plant die and decay and calculate the release of that energy as it decomposes... it wouldn't amount to a hell of a lot..
(100 watts), Btu/hour= Watts x 3.413 = 341 Btu/hour are produced in a hundred watt grow room. period. You really think the plants can even start to make a dent on this?
you may be right..ceestyle.. those sure are long words... but this is my experience.