CFL vs T5 vs T5 H0

Hello Everyone,

Hornchen back with more questions haha. I think I have decided on what I want for my flower room, but now to focus on my veg area.

I have trying to decide what the best 'bang for the buck' is going to be - from the get go. Many have talked about the success they have had with CFL's in smaller areas and the same success with T5 HO's in a little larger areas - well I just have no idea where my room fits into that mix.

The 'veg section' will be 6 1/2 feet long, 14 inches deep and 7 foot tall. My original idea was to get 3 or 4 shelves, each with a 4 foot 4 bulb setup but then I figured I would be wasting a good 2 feet per shelf. This lead to research talking about using a CFL instead of a 2 foot T5 section which then got me thinking - would it be better to just run a bunch of CFL's instead of the T5's all together?

I am looking for the ability to move the lights closer or further from the tops of the plants ( both can do this ) yet maintain the best penetration, even at 12 inches or more of plant height. I guess my main thing, I would rather wait a couple extra pay checks and buy the right thing than have the 'bug' and buy incorrectly now.

As always, thank you for the help everyone,
Hornchen
Semper Fi

CFLs work best when you can adjust every one exactly where you need it. However if you were to build a reflector that holds all your lights together so you can use them as a group i really think it would be a toss up. The benefit i think is you don't have to build the t5's, the cfl will have a lot of diy.
If you do decide to go with cfls the most cost effective place to get bases is the habitat for humanity, get the bathroom vanity lights, i have gotten them with as many as 10 bases in them, already a good start for a lighting rig too. Just my .02 good luck any happy growing!

Hörnchen, have you encountered the "LED without LEDs" thread? It has info on spec'ing aquarists' T5 bulbs (HO) to tailor veg and flower spectra. Imo doing it that way is expensive to set up but super efficient in operation. cn

i had the same conundrum when starting, and have chosed CFL mere for financial factors, they run a lot cheaper than the T5s and are way more easily adjustable.

cfls all the way. they are much easier to manipulate, which gives you better utilization of your precious watts.

Yes Id go the cfl route, plants will grow at different rates do I hung mine individually so I can move up/down as needed... I like the T5 Ho's, but gets a little pricey with all those special bulbs IMO. Maybe if you did 2' T5 Ho's it would work....

Oh boy, now I'm debating even more haha! I like the idea of having the CFL's in a way where I can raise/lower them appropriately per plant but at the same time I am wondering if having a 4 foot, 4 bulb T5 HO with a reflector might do the job as well. My biggest issue, I only have 14 inches of depth to work with so I don't want to over hang more than I need to.

A single 4 foot, 4 Bulb T5 HO system is about 110 bucks - if I go the DIY CFL setup would I be saving a decent amount? To me, 10% and its worth buying the T5 - 50%... yeah I can DIY a little haha.

Hornchen
Semper Fi

im using cfl.s all around a square box on each side and a huge 125 watt cfl above the plants.125 watter is a red spectrum cfl lettin out 2700k along with 2 cfl lettin out 3000k each and 2 energy lights at the sides possibly about 40 watts between the 2 of them but needing to change them to 40 watts each bulb .....doing fine tho now up to 11 inchs on 1 and 8 n half inchs on the other...theyve been in now for 3 months or so but i think the reason they are takin there time is because i topped one and trimmed some leaves at first ...

to me it is a no brainer, you can swap color temp. bulbs at will and mix however you want. However I do wish you could get some of the same special bulbs in a cfl as are available for T5

you can but there british made and there called energy saving lights. i think ebay does them for usa aswell

Ive never seen any of the actinics or other specialties for CFL's anywhere. Got a link maybe?