using cfl - how do you make a set up with these?

000420 said:

It's as simple as twisting on two wire nuts, 1 on the lamp cord and light nuetrals(white wire in light and rough side of lamp cord) and 1 on the lamp cord and light hots(black wire in light and smooth side of lamp cord), takes 5 seconds very easy, I built the whole thing and hung it in less than 10 minutes.....

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thanks!

fdd2blk said:

are you clowning my board????????? j/k.
i have a light meter and CFL's put out the most intense light directly out the top of the bulbs. i think the side lighting from them is as much but it's more spread out.

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nope not knocking it, just suggesting an inprovement on it.

also wanted to respond to the light guage test. I tested my setup and foung that that lumen output at equal distances was the same from the top of the bulbs as from the sides.

originally i was thinking that if the bulbs were sideways, you would get more surface area covered in your box. and this would still hold true, since the side length of the bulb is more than the length of the top.

there is a slight problem with the Y splitters i found in my test. if you use them then the bulb points at at 45 degree angle. this would create a spot where the lights were more powerful at the tips, closer to the plants, than at the base of the bulb, near the ballast. rotating planters is a minor resolution for this.

next grow i will use the bathroom light board, but instead of facing down, i would mount them so they can be in a horizontal position, maxamizing lightage.

just a conclusion on my experiment, if anyone else has any other exp. with this let me know.

I use the clamp lights and attach them to a bar, this way I have the tilting available from the clamp fixture. Will post pic this afternoon when back home.

I use these clamp lights:




With one of these splitters for each one:



The 8'' clamp lights at Lowes were about $8, the splitter was $2. So, $10 for a lamp that will hold 2 CFLs.
FYI, it is a tight fit to get 2 bulbs in there, it is easiest if you screw the bulbs into the splitter first, then into the lamp.
I just hang the lamps using slip-knots so the height is easy to adjust.
I use 40 watt CFLs, and I have 4 lamps, totaling 8 bulbs.


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firsttime, how many plants you have going, and are those cfls the equivalent of 40w incandescents, or actual 40w cfls.

killertomatoes said:

firsttime, how many plants you have going, and are those cfls the equivalent of 40w incandescents, or actual 40w cfls.

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I have 4 plants going strong.

Those are 40w CFLs, 150w incandescent equivalent. Total of about 22,000 lumens. It's a small box, about 8-10 square feet, completely covered with mylar.
I will probably get a couple more for side lighting when I come across some more cash.

This is just my first grow, so I don't mind if it isn't the best setup. I will be doing another larger grow this summer with a much more professional setup and lots of lighting.

I will try to get some pics up later.


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this is my cfl setup i made using a bathroom vanity light setup and some of those splitters. most of the bulbs are 42w, equal to about 150w incandescent each. made a cheap reflector from foil bake pans, i need to redo lol. as you can see my garden is doing ok the 4 flowering are kinda leggy but they have been so stressed due to moving and no regular light schedule, but the babies are doing good about 4 weeks old in that pic on 24/7 light.