Having trouble understanding lighting.

Okay so I bought a pack of cfls. And I'm having trouble understanding. It says they're 100w but only use 25w. So when My question is an I using 100w per each bulb or am I only using that 25w and is it enough for 6 plants. Here's the info
On the lights. In my set up I currenty have a 150w hps which I plan on upgradig to a 400w I have 6 cfls saying they're 100w so total is 600w in cfls I think or 150w if it only uses 25w can someone please explain this to me?

• Brightness: 1,600 lumens
• Estimated Yearly Energy Cost: $2.77 (Based on 3 hrs/day, 11¢/kWh. Cost depends on rates and use.)
• Life: 9.1 Years (Based on 3 hrs/day)
• Light Appearance: 2700K (soft white)
• Energy Used: 23 Watts (100W)
• Energy Star qualified to meet or exceed federal guidelines for energy efficiency for year-round energy and money savings
• Soft white light is great for indoor and outdoor use
• Mini-twist spiral shape with a medium base

your only using the 25watt per. the box is just stating its equivalent to 100w incandescent bulb brightness wise. also that is plenty to grow a couple plants with but the cfls don't penetrate leaves as well so you have to move them around as the plant grows

I think they are trying to say that its equivalent to a 100W incandesent, but the CFL only uses 23 watts.

Yeah I intend to keeping the cfls mid plant height and the hps on top but I'm just using them for extra lumens. I will be buying the 400w hps tomorrow and okay so I will want to get better cfls that actually use 100w and nkt equivalent

Okay well it all makes sense now. Cheer to you all I appreciate it a ton.

I would ditch cfl all together when u get a new hid light. no sense in running 400 watts of cfl when u could run a 400 watt halide/hps setup unless heat/space is an issue. assume a 400 watt hps can put out like 50k lumins whereas 400 watt of cfl might not even hit 10k. its a waist of money unless space and heat is issue .

ninezeroseven said:

I would ditch cfl all together when u get a new hid light. no sense in running 400 watts of cfl when u could run a 400 watt halide/hps setup unless heat/space is an issue. assume a 400 watt hps can put out like 50k lumins whereas 400 watt of cfl might not even hit 10k. its a waist of money unless space and heat is issue .

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Yeah the reason is heat issues. Other wise is just use a 1000w hps/mh. the tent I have it in is already gets in low to mid 80s with a fan blowing upwards at the hps. And running both 400w hps and cfls each 105w cfl provides 7150 lumens.
So total i have 78,600 lumens. Is that enough lighting for 6 plants ? Or watts total 820w

You can't use lux, lumen, foot candle or kelvin and expect to have the light levels that will give you repeatable results. Lumens is a human vision value which represents intensity to the eye. Plant lighting depends upon having both intensity and spectrums. Plant lighting spectrums are going to be wider spectrums than the regions we see best in. The reason a plants leaves are green to the eye is that this is the region that plants absorb the fewest spectrums and the color bounces back to the eye. The other spectrums are being absorbed. Check out this chart and you'll see the big white region which bottoms out in the green. That white region is the region the eye sees best in.

True you can't use only use lux, lumens, foot candles to compare for repeatable results. But you wouldn't want to either, cfls just plain suck.

a 400 watt mh/hps can easily be air cooled if need be.

Don't think that 400 watts cfl is going to be cool.

- Jiji

Edit - Sorry missed a post about the op adding cfls to HPS.....

New advice, just ditch the cfls, until you can cool a larger hps

Yeah I ended up getting a 1000w hps air cool hood 6" and upgraded my exhaust fan to a 440cfm and now I'm using the 190 cfm as intake. Realized it be better and also got rid of the cfls. Not I have the cfls in a seprate grow tent were I'm using to clone.

OnePrays said:

Yeah I ended up getting a 1000w hps air cool hood 6" and upgraded my exhaust fan to a 440cfm and now I'm using the 190 cfm as intake. Realized it be better and also got rid of the cfls. Not I have the cfls in a seprate grow tent were I'm using to clone.

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up grade your fans, other then that, what you did has been the best move you have made, might need to get a portable ac or a small window and duct it into the tent. but 1k way to go and clones are the only place CFLs

If you run CFL, you will immediately thereafter, be disappointed and wish you had ran a HPS.

Yeah ever since I upgraded go hps I noticed plants loved it. And as far as te fans they seem to working fine for the tent I'm using I'm using a 4x2x6.5ft tent. As the fans are keeping the humidity stable at mid 50s and temps at 78-82 82 on hot days since I'm here in California in the Bay Area. So it can get pretty warm.

OnePrays said:

Yeah ever since I upgraded go hps I noticed plants loved it. And as far as te fans they seem to working fine for the tent I'm using I'm using a 4x2x6.5ft tent. As the fans are keeping the humidity stable at mid 50s and temps at 78-82 82 on hot days since I'm here in California in the Bay Area. So it can get pretty warm.

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Have you tried running the horticulture lights at night? This would help you avoid high daytime temperatures since the plants would be in their night cycle and no lights would be on during most of the day.

If you haven't been running at night before you will notice a large difference in some cases.

AlecTheGardener said:

Have you tried running the horticulture lights at night? This would help you avoid high daytime temperatures since the plants would be in their night cycle and no lights would be on during most of the day.

If you haven't been running at night before you will notice a large difference in some cases.

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Yeah they run at night I have them on a 18/6 and light turn on when sun stars to go down at 6. It's already cool by then and are thru out the whole night. I somewhat realized that last month after taking a bowl.

If your worried about heat go with leds. A good setup using 300 actual watts will out perform a 400hps every single time. My 250w led outperformed the 400hps