Question About CFL's

Hey there,

I'm planning on starting my own grow soon and im speculating about something which hopefully someone here on RIU can answer for me seeing as your sucha great bunch

Basically;

Q : Would it be better to buy lots of small 40W (example) CFL's instead of one big 300W CFL?

Some people say that the bigger ones aren't worth it and the smallers are more efficient?

I was thinking of putting in one 300W (eq) CFL and 2x 150W CFL's for the vegging stage and then one 300W cfl, 1 x 150 blue spec and 1x 150 red spec cfl for the flowering stage

(p.s. Veg im gonna do full blue spec, and then 450W red and 150W blue for flowering)

Any input would be much appreciated, +rep if useful

its probly more efficient to buy lower ones and alot of these so you can have more lighting coming at different angles, rather than one big light up top, because the sun doesnt stay up in the middle of the sky all day

That combination of lights should do great as long as you keep them as close to your plants as possible. Also try to put them in a very small area where the light will be fully focused on them. You dont want light seeping out because these cfls are only so strong. Good luck!

What is was thinking was basically, one 300W CFL in the centre attached to a reflector and then 2 150W cfls over each side, so they'll basically hang over each side as close to the plants as possible.

The only problem i can think of about using lots of small ones is for me to get the 300W of the big CFL i'd need 7.5 ( small bulbs, and then i'd have to plug them all in and wire them all... Or i cud just get one big one and job done?

But what do you think of the layout there? I recon it'll give quite an even light distribution but HECK, i could be wrong

Cheers for the replies, +Rep given.

This grow was done using three 68 watt cfls in two rubbermaids stacked on top of eachother.

Thats not bad at all mate! What was the final yield?

I'm hoping from seeing your pictures I should be able to yield a decent amount then seeing as my vegging wattage will be 600W as will the flowering. What sort of yield do you think i'll achieve? Fully organic grow mind yu, along with Bio Vegga nuts and an organic bio mix.

I harvested about 50 grams from the nine plants. What style of growing will you use? How many plants, how big, etc.

Either way you go with your lights, chances are that you'll get excellent results. What you want to do is maximize your wattage to get the most from your plants. The best way to do that would be to use multiple 40 watt bulbs. I say 40 watters because they give you the most lumens per watt used, so you'll get the most out of your electical bill. Also you would be able to spread the lights around more to get better canopy coverage, so you might be able to get better light to some places that didn't get good light before.

But, I suppose it also depends on what kind of grow you are doing. If you are doings LST or SCROG, then using 2-3 big bulbs might be the better way to go. But if you plan on growing them normally, I'd recommend several 40 watters.

Edit: Or just get an HPS and be done with it.