Getting the most out of your cfls!

jerriblank said:

ok, this is really great info but i am having some trouble understanding the diagrams... I had planned on dangling from secure hooks 2 y-split cfls (4 bulbs total) so the "top" of the bulb would be upside down and hitting the top of my plant (the canopy?) is this correct? Or do i have this backward where i need to position the lights in a vertical fashion, as in seen in the second image of the diagram. Thanks in advance for anyone's help.

Click to expand...

nope you got it right the first time! The "top" of the bulb in a regular lamp is the brightest part , it was made this way to send usable light up to the ceiling to help spread the light out. So to get most of that powerful light on the plants you should hang them by the threads(upsidedown) in my hood the bulbs are on 45 degree angles bc of the splitters so i try to shoot them down into the canopy, they all criss cross and this helps side lighting too and the multiple angles help prevent shaddowing by shooting under the canopy.

Cfl's are the shit , i love them and will never buy a big heavy , dangerous , expensive and burning hot h.i.d. Unless i get a huge room someday! A 1000 watt hps is said to light 40 average parking spots when 25 feet in the air thats a ton of light to have within 6 feet of our plants and the heat waste is huge with them. You can run 40 26 watters for the same money and get 3x the light and 1/4 of the heat. The cfls still are not perfected but with free replacement at wallmart i just return them whenever i notice a slight change in thew bulbs or box they come in.