TeaTreeOil
Well-Known Member
See this is the argument that I've also seen, but I've seen charts supposedly proving that light is "additive" meaning that if you were to put together 4 250w CFL's you would be able to produce 80,000 lumens and the fact that you could get them so close would offset the loss of 12,000 lumens. It seems to me like the real answer is that light IS NOT additive and just doesn't work that way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-candleLight is to some extent additive, but it doesn't seem to work in the practical application of CFL's. The intensity still diminishes far too quickly outside of the optimal distance.
If it were "truely" additive, this wouldn't be the case. The light would become "brighter" and therefore the degredation would be similar to an HID.
Maybe the answer lies in the right kind of reflector that can house multiple CFL's in a certain type of pattern. I don't really know, but I know that what we've got now doesn't work and doesn't appeart to be "additive" in the sense of growing marijuana with them.
So why do we use foot candles? Where 1 lumen/sq ft = 1 foot candle.
When two identical, in phase waves, interfere, they double in amplitude.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interference