Fluorescent tubes pointless?

i hate to keep posting the same thing on your thread but check out the bright wing, google bright wing and it should come up while it might be a few bucks more than making your own theese are pretty nice for the money. i hate to talk numbers but with a 200 watt and a scrog you could get 5 ozs easily. maybe not your first time but after a little practice. im not sure why people use all those small bulbs, they do work it seems but a 200 watt cfl is about 14 inches long and would cover 2.5 x 2.5 in a box with walls painted flat white. dont even bother with mylar unless youve got the extra dough. i think you would be very happy with a system like that it would more than supply you with your needs. i tried to pm you that but it would not accept a pm dont know why?

Soda - apologies, I did check them out, and they do look the business, alas £79.99 is above what i'm budgeting for, for the time being at least. Somebody sent me this link :

http://www.ledgrowlamps.co.uk/buy-led-grow-lights.php

What do you think? I cant imagine LED lights being any good at all going on previous experience of them to light my kitchen!

My second grow was a SCROG and very sucessful. I must throw in though that when growing small plants 12/12 from seed you're better off not SCROGing and instead putting your CFLs under the canopy along side your plants. Even with the best reflector you lose ALOT of lumens on CFLs just due to their throw distance. Having to hit the reflector and travel back to the plant your loosing precious power however if they are alongside your plants and literally surrounded by vegetation you utilize a bit more of the light. SCROG is definately the way to go for longer grows or just for the sake of ease though. Much less daily light adjustment.

And I would definately suggest making a reflector for those vanity strips. I actually did made some out of mylar covered cardboard and it worked just fine. You can also find sheets of aluminum precut to the exact length you'de need at most hardware stores..

i have absolutly no expierience with leds but i believe good ones are expensive. if you cant afford the reflector a mogul socket would cost you $15 american and a big cfl $40-$75 after buying all the little ones i bet tha prices would be similiar?

Do they have dollar stores over there? My hardware store has sales on CFLs. You can get 4 23w bulbs for $0.50. 12 cents a bulb. When they arn't on sale they are usually a dollar a bulb or you can get a 16 pack for $23 from the hardware store that comes with a 9 year warranty. Literally to run 300w of CFL it cost me under $20.

$8 lighting strip
$9 Y splitters 6*1.5
$.69 Extension cord to wire lighting strip
$1.50 12 Bulbs .5*3

Well I must say i'm completely off using fluro tubes now! I think CFL's sound like the way forward, and Gastankers vanity set up looks ideal if I can make a reflector. If I had the money to spare i'd go your way Soda, but i'm really on a shoestring until the work picks up. I've got a mate that works for an electrical wholesalers so i'm pretty sure I can pick up most of the stuff dirt cheap.

As for dollar stores, theres the odd similar type of thing but they're generally pretty naff over here.

Dude go CFL's for sure! Bulbs are in expensive and anybody with a half creative mind can make a reflector.

Check it out. This was my first DIY cfl reflector. It was really cheap and grew like a champ! And still is! Great dense tight buds, beautiful plant grown under this reflector and lights!

I think if I was to do another small CFL grow I'de try using those vanity strips and putting them verticle. I coud then keep adding bulbs higher up the strip as the grow and with 12w bulbs and Y splitters you'de get excellect coverage once u made some reflectors.

Oh and I just saw you debating over the larger CFL's and the smaller CFL's..... Well I wrote this up a while ago. It's what helped me make the dicision I did. It's a little long, but worth the read! Check it out if your serious about CFL growing!

Just a little FYI here. But CFL's start to loose their lumen per watt after about the 30W cfl's. So if it's possible for you, I'd go with an abundance of smaller CFL's, (mathamatically the 26W bulbs are the most efficient lumen/watt wise) rather than 1 HUGE CFL that doesn't put out as many lumens as if you we're to use the same amount of watts just with smaller light's. Does what I'm saying make sense?

Here, this may be better.
I looked at the 150W CFL's, and the one that puts out the MOST lumest/watt is the "150 Watt CFL Light Bulb - 650 W Equal - Full Spectrum 5000K - 8U Lamp - Energy Miser 35863 - 9,200 lumens"
So the best lumen/watt for a large, 150W CFL that I found was 9,200lumens/150watts which calculates to about 61.333 lumens per individual watt.

Now I looked at the kind of light's I use which are the "26 Watt CFL Light Bulb - 105 W Equal - Cool White 4100K - T2 Spring Lamp - Energy Miser FE-IISB-26W-41K - 1800 lumens"
So the best lumen/watt for the smaller, 26W CFL that I found was 1800lumens/26watts which calculates to about 69.231 lumens per individual watt.


Ok so let me break this down for you, straight G style! hahaha..
A single, 150W CFL, puts out 9200 lumens total. 61.333 lumens per watt
now let's see 150W/26W=5.796. So it would take about 5.796 of these 26w cfl's to have the same amount of watts being used as the 150w. So let's round that down (just to show you) 5 of the 26watt CFL's, that would be a total of 130watts, and you would be putting out 9000 lumens. So for 20 less watts, you would have only 200 less lumens. (Don't forget I rounded down to 5 instead of 5.796) just to make my point.
If you were to round up instead of down, from 5.796 to 6 which is what logic would tell us to do. That would give you 156watts (Only 6 watts more than the 150w CFL) and 10800 lumens (which is 1600 MORE lumens that the 150W CFL)

So 1600 MORE lumens for only 6 more watts.

Again, just sharing some info. This is what I do instead of using the HUGE CFL's. It's also a LOT cheaper to replace these smaller bulbs for whenever the time comes. Because it's said that CFL's start to lose intensity after about 2 grows.

Don't FUCK with me and my CFL's! lol
Hope this helps with your decision dog. And if not, at least I was able to spread the knowledge. PEACE

-Hookd

Hookd, that looks impressive!Is it just hardboard based?

Gastanker, thats makes a lot of sense to me! Seems to me you'd need a flexible reflector tho. Mind you the lamps would be close enough to the box sides that they'd reflect back anyway so you'd only need it for the top part no?

Hookd, i'm probably just confused, but I thought for veg growth you needed 5000 - 8000K & for flowering 1500-3000K, so your use of the smaller 26w lamp doesnt make sense. Or were you just using it as an example?

Also, if you read on here http://www.enviro-gro-lites.co.uk/stuff1.asp it says that lumens arent as important as PAR. So using your example above how does it work out with PAR instead of lumens?

Charmwah said:

Hookd, i'm probably just confused, but I thought for veg growth you needed 5000 - 8000K & for flowering 1500-3000K, so your use of the smaller 26w lamp doesnt make sense. Or were you just using it as an example?

Also, if you read on here http://www.enviro-gro-lites.co.uk/stuff1.asp it says that lumens arent as important as PAR. So using your example above how does it work out with PAR instead of lumens?

Click to expand...

Yes, you can buy both 2700K, 26W CFL's, and 6500K 26W CFL's.
Both are sold at your local hardwars store.
-The 2700K CFL's are listed as "Warm White" bulbs, 26 actual watts, 100 watt equilavent...
-The 6500K CFL's are listed as "Day Light" bulbs, 26 actual watts, 100 watt equilavent...

I hope the above answered your first question.

I have not read your link yet. I recently broke my wrist and typing is painful sometimes so I am now going to medicate...
I will go read that link after and get back to you before to long.


EDIT: Just read your link.
You stated that that site said "lumens aren't as important as PAR" and the very first thing I read on that site was, and I quote "For growers PAR is all-important ~ and as important as lumens!"... AS important as Lumens, not MORE important.
You can buy CFL's in a TON of different light spectrums! You just have to study and see which one's MJ uses, and then go buy THOSE CFL's. That's why you should just listen to someone who knows what THOSE CFL's are, and go buy that. lol, The thing you have to realize is, with indoor growing, all were trying to do here man is imitate the sun! There is no better light for growing than the sun! That's all there is to it! And whatever method that you choose to use to try and imitate the sun is up to what your grow room rwquires. Mine requires CFL's, I cannot run large HID lights in my grow room. But because of that I have learned as fucking much as I can about CFL's and growin with them! I'm just throwing out some useful info. Take it if you want, leave it if you don't. I have proof of pix if that's what your looking for. lol, good luck bro!

Oh, and here's another chart for you to gander at, maybe it'll help you out...

Hookd, much appreciated, and thanks for your patience. I dont mean to sound dumb, I just like to know i'm doing things right

hey i guess i learned something. thanks. i still just dont want to mess with so many cords and bulbs, but thanks for the info. im 90% outdoor grower my indoor grows are for amusement and to keep me from going crazy in the winter. i cannot grow big indoors-to many friends and family in a half a house.

hooked on chronics im sure you know but when growing you never use the equivalent to so many watts thing that it says on the package tru watts is the way you figure everything. peace.

sodalite said:

hooked on chronics im sure you know but when growing you never use the equivalent to so many watts thing that it says on the package tru watts is the way you figure everything. peace.

Click to expand...

lol, Yea man. I know that. I was just putting that on there so that the OP would know what kind of lights I was talking about. Because it seems that newer people always refer to the equivalent wattage of the CFL, rather than the ACTUAL wattage of the CFL. lol, good looking out tho...


And no problem Charmwah, glad I could help... If I did, lol... Don't forget to check out that chart I posted on the post before this one! It's some good info!

Hookd, did you take a look at that link about PAR? I guess its almost redundant if you've successfully used the system you describe above

Charmwah said:

Hookd, did you take a look at that link about PAR? I guess its almost redundant if you've successfully used the system you describe above

Click to expand...

I did go look at and read about PAR. I edited my second post I believe it was, I'm not sure if you saw the edited part... What I was getting about PAR is the light that the plant actually uses. I'm medicated at the moment so I'm not completely sure! lol, but if it is the light that the plant uses. That would be the 2700K and 6500K CFL's. Those CFL's are the spectrums of light "most" useable by the plants I guess. I dunno. I use what I use and I've done a TONE of research. And my product promotes itself! lol

Thats all I need to know If your product does the job then thats good enough for me! Once again Hookd, much appreciated for your time and effort. Respect+

Charmwah said:

Thats all I need to know If your product does the job then thats good enough for me! Once again Hookd, much appreciated for your time and effort. Respect+

Click to expand...

Glad i could help bro! and feel free to stop on by my journal if you want. The links in my sig. I'll be posting pic updates tonight. Then you can really see what the right set up can do! lol, thanks for the + dog! And keep us updated on your grow! Let me know when you start it and i'll tag along.