CFL VS. HID showdown/throwdown

Has anyone ever tried a side by side comparative grow using the same wattage of CFLs vs. HID lights? Every other factor would be the same. Same veg, same nutes, same strain, same everything. The only difference would be that let's say your using a 400w HPS for flower, you would then try 400w of soft white CFL side by side. That would be the only variable. If this has already been tried can some-one pls post a link to that thread. Otherwise someone should totally give it a try. I would do it if I had the loot, but I don't. I'm really curious as to what the results would be. I would chance a guess that with the same wattage the CFLs would @ least hold their own, and even though you'd need a bunch of them, I think it would be cheaper.

You can buy CFL HID replacements. they do make 150w and higher CFL bulbs.

As it stands, watt for watt, second for second, an HID will yield more. The intensity of light from an HID is just that much more than a CFL, so that's more energy given to the plant for growth.

You're not going to beat the lumens you can get from a deal like the econolight $20 150w hps's with cfl's, the hps will clearly win in every category. Dollar wise, lumen per watt wise, and growth wise but it would be a fun comparison.

Even any other normal priced hps will win on everything except maybe initial cost, but long term the lumens per watt of hps and faster growth makes hps the clear winner whenever it's possible to use them.

CFL's can grow some good buds, don't get me wrong, but they aren't the best and nobody needs a comparison to know that really.

So your saying the bottom line is an HID just puts out more raw lumens than the same wattage of CFLs. Makes sense I guess. I'd still like to see a real world Bobby Flay throwdown. What would the ratio be to achieve the same results from CFL? 2:1 maybe? I.E. 400w CFL=200w HPS. Also how do I rep or whatever? Wht "scale" am I supposed to click?

Well the 150w hps puts out 15k lumens and burns around 185w total max with ballast losses accounted for. The 42watt actual (120w equivalent) cfl's I have for veg are listed at 2600 lumens.

15k divided by 2600

That would mean almost 6 of those cfl's for one hps, 6 times 42 is 252 watts for similar lumens in cfl. And these are pretty efficient cfl's, about as good as it gets. They cost over $8 ea, times 6 again is $48.

Now if you compared to a 400 hps or worse yet 600 which are a lot more effiecient than the 150hps then cfl's would fare even worse.

The key to this the the fact that LUMENS DON"T ADD. If you have 10 - 1600 Lumen CFLs you are putting 1600 Lumens on the plants in 10 different locations NOT putting down 16,000 lumens. For example - If you hold 2 flashlights together you get a wider area or effect but the buls do not get any brighter. CFLs are jesters. HID is king

If your lights are spread far apart yea they won't add but shoved together in a small area they sure do. See the sticky called "Lumens, lux, and adding it all up" it makes it very clear that they do in fact add.

A four bulb (23w a piece) power strip fixture cost under 20 dollars to make and eats up 92w. Each bulb puts out 1600 lumens meaning 2 of these babies put out 12800 lumens and eat up 184 watts. So when it comes to 150w hps I think it's comparable when you take into account the fact you can have CFL's all but touching the plant. As you said, once you get into higher wattages efficiency goes up, but for a smaller operation I would still like to see the results.

Build your box right so it is reflective with plenty of light saturation and 2600 lumens is all you need to grow descent bud(based on lumens dont add) because 42 cfls grow nice bud

RockStrongo said:

A four bulb (23w a piece) power strip fixture cost under 20 dollars to make and eats up 92w. Each bulb puts out 1600 lumens meaning 2 of these babies put out 12800 lumens and eat up 184 watts. So when it comes to 150w hps I think it's comparable when you take into account the fact you can have CFL's all but touching the plant. As you said, once you get into higher wattages efficiency goes up, but for a smaller operation I would still like to see the results.

Click to expand...

Huh, can't argue with your math, it does appear to work out with the 23w lights.

Ok, who's going to do it? I could cause I'll have all the stuff, but I can't because of the legal limit I'm stuck to of six plants.

It would also be interesting to see a 23w cfl grow vs a 42w grow.

If nobody has tried it by the middle of January when my friend has the moolah to get his 250w HPS He's totally gonna try it. 23 vs. 42w would be interesting too, even though I've heard the 23's are more efficient.