400 watts cfl, or 400 watts hps

Bartfark

Active Member
what would be more effective, 400 watts cfl , or a 400 watt hps?, every one is saying great things about cfls now, but how do they compare?
 

kindprincess

Well-Known Member
400w of cfl would be about 16,000 lumens.

a 400w hps is about 40,000 lumens....

hps and you'll never flower with cfl's again.

kp
 

bwinn27

Well-Known Member
yes i needed one to a good old laugh. the more lumens the better just make shore its the right lumens lol
 

jeremy

Well-Known Member
Having one 400 hps going shouldn't hurt the electric bill all that much either. One 400 watt here on 24/7 only raised my bill $20 or so, maybe 25 at the most. :)
 

Lacy

New Member
Absolutely. I have only used cfl's for my indoor grow and know first hand that they are a total pain in the butt. The ONLY reason why i used them was because I didn't know any better. Right now I am using cfl's but haver a MH coming this week. I am also planning on getting an hps in the next month or so. :blsmoke::peace:

lol, 400w is 400w. if you're going to use it, use it well.

kp
 

nickfury510

Well-Known Member
Not really, a 400w CFL uses approx 80w of electricity.

The '400w' is just the equivalent in incandescent bulb output, not the 'actual' wattage of the light.

.
:confused: yes really......400w is 400w.....thats it no ifs ands or buts.....a 400w cfl doesnt use 80w...a 400w cfl uses 400w...an 80w cfl uses 80w:joint:
 

regrets

Well-Known Member
hps is the way to go, there's no question that hid lights put out more lumens per watt than cfl's. And you won't find a 400w cfl so you will be getting an even further decrease in lumens when you are just using several 43 or even 150w cfls. Lumens don't add if you have 2 750 lumen bulbs you do not have 1500 lumens, you have 750 lumens that you can spread out over a larger area.
 

jordisgarden

Well-Known Member
Cfls are for trying out a grow. When you wanna spend some money on some real seads. Get your self an hps lamp.....100 watt hps at home depot:99$ 1 extention cord:10$ wirenuts and elctrical tape:10$ big fat dense sticky nuggets:pricesless...........cfl:thin small fluffy nugs: Useless oh buying three or so 100 watt hps lamps and running em 24 hours has not affected my bill at all. Just make sure all the lights in the house arent left on . We waste a lot of energy. And just turning off the porch lights and bathroom lights at night made up the diff for me.
 

fat sam

Well-Known Member
hps all the way, there is no comparison between the two, only use cfl's if you have severe height limitations, and by the way watt for watt cfl's put out more heat than an hps, its just that its spread out over a larger area thats why you can put the bulbs closer to the plants, this seems to be a theory i see countless times throughout the pot sites that cfl's run cooler, i mean its bunk, a hps puts around 55% of the energy used in to light and the rest is heat, a cfl puts around 30% of the power in to light and guess where the remaining 70% of energy goes?????thats right heat!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

jordisgarden

Well-Known Member
it cost me 8 - 20 dollars a month to run a 400 hps and a 600 hps. 40 extra a month at the very most. even less now that im in 12 12 in the 600 spot. its not expensive and the ballast companies are getting better and better as far as saving electricity. i have a 600 watt hps that puts out 91,000 lumens and a 400 hps that puts out 50,000 lumens.

sun supply 10 = 600 watts hps = 91,000 lumens
sun supply 2 400 watts hps= 50,000 lumens.
the 400 is in a 3by 3 and the 600 is in a 6 by 6 , and its been more than enough light for each spot.
 

Attachments

randk21

Well-Known Member
why do ppl even use cfl's I do not understand the true benefit aside from a lot less energy use. But all in all if your gonna do something, you want it done right no? So as I saw above the hps blew away with lumen's. isn't that what its all about or am i missing something??
 
Top