CFL Light Tutorial

Has anyone ever tried the big round bulbs that are shaped like a heat lamp??? It said on the box that it was made for flowers and plants... Ive had it on 2 little ones and they are growin fast.. Let me know what you guys think of these kind of lights....
 
giantsfan24 said:
I read that definition but that doesn't quite explain it so easily. Reason being is that the plant doesn't have human eyes and therefore, with this definition in place, isn't relevant to the growing application. Light spectrum is the important value in plant growth.

Unless "power" means "brightness" in this definition that is. That must be it. Lumen = brightness in this case. (or any case?)

I guess it really doesn't matter. The results with enough lights/lumen is awesome.
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Actually Giant, I think you are suppose to be confused. You are actually right. Lumens has to do with what humans see, not what light is best for the plant. That opens up a huge high level botany discussion (which would leave me out, way over my head). We do know that plants want blueish light for veg, and reddish light for flower. We know this as a typical plant need. The exact frequencies and power, for cannabis I don't believe has been found. So we try to match what other plants need.

There is a much better way to say all that, but it is morning and i just cleared a bowl. <s>

Prairie
 
I see a lot of folks asking about light and a lot of folks testifying about their light setups. I recently picked up a light meter. It's a cheap one that measures foot candles. A light meter is the only definitive measure of the light level on your plants. I very useful tool. I'd like to explain that and try to answer a few of the recent questions on the thread.
Watts
(Total Watts from all the lights * hours lit ) /1000 = kilowatt hours
A watt is a watt here. The wattage listed on each bulb is a direct measure of its power consumption. Some CFL bulbs are sold with a wattage equivalent in incandescent lighting. This number means nothing to us. If you are replacing incandescent lights (old style light bulbs) then this number would have meaning but it is not a measure of the light or power consumption of the bulb. Every bulb should have its real wattage listed on the bulb. One watt burns one kilowatt hour of power every hour. Kilowatt_hour
I you have 5 200w CFL bulbs they burn power 1000kwh like a single 1000w HPS light. High levels of power consumption generates heat in the wiring which lowers the conductivity of the wiring and will cause a larger power draw. Using high grade wiring (rated in amps) and spreading out the load you can approach the listed power consumption. This is why folks like the 240 power as it can handle the load with less heat and provides a much larger capacity per circuit. Conversely, if you hook up a whole bunch of CFL lights to a cheap extension cord it will heat and increase the power usage.
Lumens and Foot Candles/Lux
Lumens are a measure of the amount of light that will shine off a bulb. This is number is represents all the light that comes off the entire bulb. Lumens is not a measure of the light hitting your plants. Light is going to shine off a bulb in an area more or less the same shape as the bulb. The thing to remember here is that lumens alone do not determine the light reaching the plants. You need lumens AND coverage area to calculate the light that is shining on a given point in the canopy.
Lux and Foot Candles are a measure of how much light is shining on a given point. I have a light meter that measures in foot candles the high end meters measure Lux. (1 ft candle = 10.74 Lux)Foot-candle (Lumens / sq ft) = Lux, (Lux/10.74 = ft candles) As the light moves away from the source it defuses exponentially in 360 degrees. The coverage area increases and the light levels drop. The decay looks like this based on the listed lumens from each bulb:
CFLoutput.jpg
HPSoutput.jpg

What is really important here is the shape of the curves. You will see this same shape from all bulbs and the sun. I have used my light meter to verify the shape of these curves on CFLs, HPS and LED lights. When I make readings there's always ambient and reflective light. I'm measuring to adjust for hot or cold spots. For example my 600w HPS gives me 4570 ft candles at the top of the plants 12 inches from the reflector. My 125w CFL gives 3740 at the top of the plants 2 inches from the bulb. The 600w light is at 3700 ft cn at 17 inches. The 125w CFL drops below 1000ft candles at 8 inches, the 600w HPS drops that low at 33 inches. 600w has a 21 inch grow zone where the CFL has only 6 inches.
Color Spectrum
I can't measure spectrum nor can I calculate it from the information at hand. Each of my bulbs are rated for Color Temperature.
A measurement, represented in degrees Kelvin, which indicates whether a lamp has a warm or cool color appearance. Warm light sources (2000-3000K) appear more yellow while cool light sources (4000K or higher) feature more light in the blue spectrum. — 1000bulbs.com
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I have plenty of testimonials, many on this site, on low red color temperatures being better for flower and high blue better for veg. The absorbed spectrum is central to the ad pitch for LED lights.
action%2520spectrum%2520en.jpg
This shows that plants absorb the red and blue light and not so much the green. I can't measure the absorption or the spectrum of the light. I did measure an LED light at a local store this weekend with my light meter. It was a 300w array made from 6watt and 5watt bulbs. It gave off 3740 ft candles at 2 inches and 1740 at 4 inches. As I expected the light levels drop fast from the array of small bulbs as the early "spike" in light curve is so short, so short that the bulbs at one end can't really shine all the way to the far end of the panel. I'd guess that it would take a 100% better absorption rate to match the effective grow area a 600w HPS (at half the watts). This exceeds their claims of 80% better which I find unreasonable to begin with. I believe their lights have the spectrum but the the HPS/CFL lights we use are more efficient then the LED vendors claim. I also, conclude that LEDs would be the right choice for some grows. While the coverage area is not as deep, its is flat (the shape of the panel) and the low heat output can save grow space.
My advice, Get a light meter. Power is expensive and its the only way to get real measurements of bulb output, ambient and reflected light in your grow. To get full effect of your lights you need to find the hot and cold spots and adjust the lights and groom the plants to maximize coverage. My meter cost $80 and I think the adjustments I've made using it are already worth the cost.
 
hey guys any advice would be great im new to the growing scene and a little lost tbh on a very tight budget and going for a cfl grow looking at about 10 automatic lowriders please advise on how many lights to have and what mixed spectrums to have on both veg and flowering stage also what nutes to get

many thanks in advance
 
so i've been to both home dePOT and Lowes and neither of them sell cfl's over 26 watts, so i baught a couple of them and i put'em on the plants and they are droopy as shit. Does anybody know a website or another place that i can find some stronger bulbs?? Right now i got grow lights on them. but they are too big to put more then one on a plant. Can someone help me out.
 
SuKaFr33 said:
so i've been to both home dePOT and Lowes and neither of them sell cfl's over 26 watts, so i baught a couple of them and i put'em on the plants and they are droopy as shit. Does anybody know a website or another place that i can find some stronger bulbs?? Right now i got grow lights on them. but they are too big to put more then one on a plant. Can someone help me out.
Click to expand...

1000 bulbs is where I've ordered before...good prices but make sure you know what you're ordering before you do it. They have a restocking fee if you screw up.

Cost me $60 bucks cause I ordered the wrong thing, too much wattage, and had to send them back. Good deals though.

I'm going for 30watters on my next order. Great lumens for watts ratio.

:peace:
 
ok so first off im goin to be using a stereo cabinet which is about 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide. Im gonna take mylar and do the whole inside of it and put 2 fans in it, one at the bottom one at the top. What do you guys think would be the best wattage lights to go with?? As soon as i get the mylar and things i'll start takin pics. This is gonna be my first inside grow and im gonna need some of your guys' expertise on this. So if you guys could help i would HIGHly appreciate it.
 
SuKaFr33 said:
ok so first off im goin to be using a stereo cabinet which is about 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide. Im gonna take mylar and do the whole inside of it and put 2 fans in it, one at the bottom one at the top. What do you guys think would be the best wattage lights to go with?? As soon as i get the mylar and things i'll start takin pics. This is gonna be my first inside grow and im gonna need some of your guys' expertise on this. So if you guys could help i would HIGHly appreciate it.
Click to expand...

I'm running 250w HID in my 3x2x4 stealth cab. If I were to do it again, I'd probably go with cfl's for veg and a the same light.

You want something in the neighborhood of 4000k to 5000k lumens per square foot. CFL's will put out less heat for the same wattage as HID's. HID is supposed to be the best way to go..not sure about that in a small grow environment. CFL's may be best for small space grows as HID heat is difficult to displace in a small grow environment.

CFL fixtures are easy to make...there are tons of them here. Study up bro! ;)

Fans: I'm not sure what fans you're considering...I use computer fans. The thing I've run into with computer fans is that they don't like any resistance to exchange the cfm rating they tout. If you're going to put a carbon filter on one end of a computer fan, double your cfm at least.

If you're not using a computer fan...I wouldn't know what advice to give other than inline fans but not sure about your setup.

Hope that helps some..

:peace:
 
People on this site have had awesome grows with Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil. Many times it will not be available in your area so go with a secure online source. If this is your first grow, quality soil will provide a buffer and protect the plants against any mistakes you will make.
 
well i went to my local garden store and baught some soil thats made to grow cactus'. She said it had plaint potting soil, perlite, and alittle bit of sand. It looks like its gonna do a good job. And i also baught some tiger bloom for later on. But she also had some other shit, some kinda plant for or somethin, i jus remember it sayin fish something on it with some numbers, and the other bottle was fish and seaweed something. Does anybody know what im talkin about?? and should i get it and whats it for??
 
It could be fish emulsification, which stinks real bad but delivers the nitrogen on demand and is organic. Or it could be seaweed extract which is used for a foliar spray and reduces stress when training and will help make some monster buds, check out some other grows using it.
 
I just want to make sure i am understanding this correctly. The wattage your going by to determine what you need for square footage is what the actual wattage is not the "compared to" wattage correct? So my 300-watt CFL's have a actual wattage of 68watts, so only really good for about 1.5sq ft. Correct? Thanks
 
Wattage is a measurement of how much electrical power you are using. If you think of you wire as a garden hose, wattage could be said to be the volume of water that was moved. There is an element of time as well, as in watt hours. That is how you are billed. Watt hours is a product of voltage x amperage x time and using the garden hose analogy pressure x flow rate x time.
Now the numbers on the package that say equal to xxxx watts is a comparison to incandescent light output of the same xxxx wattage. Incandescent lights are the originals that the new fluorescent lights are compared to.

If you want to stay square just use the lumen on the package. Once you get to know lumens you will not need to worry about comparing watts. Lumen is the quantum of light that is produced, not how much power that is being used. The reason lumen would be better is that not all lights are as efficient as the other.
 

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