CFLs...

S

shizzipoof

Active Member
I was checking out the lumen with CFLs to HPS. To reach about the same lumen of a HPS will require about the same amount of watts, and hps is a much better light to use. Where is the logic in this if you want a cheaper electric bill? I can see maybe heat could be lowered a bit but with that many lights + watts there's still going to be heat or am i wrong¿

-peace
 
TheConstantGardner

TheConstantGardner

Well-Known Member
Not sure if I understand the question completely, but my logic is this.
Electrical energy is being converted into two other forms of energy: light and heat. If you're using the same (total) wattage of electricity to produce less lumens, the rest of the energy is wasted with heat.

Is this an accurate assumption?
 
Hermes

Hermes

Well-Known Member
i think what your trying to ask is... to get the same amount of Watts out of CFLs is going to use the same amount of electricty and produce the same amount of heat as a HPS of the same wattage.

if that is the question, its something ive wondered previously and came up with the following conclusion...

if you had 600w of CFLs - you would probably be using similar electricty as a 600w HPS. the heat would be slightly less, however the amount of CFLs you would need to get to 600w would be a lot, and if you could cram em into a space the same size as a HPS would take up, they would probably produce similar heat.

my learnings have drawn the conclusion that you get more Lumens (light) per watt out of a HPS then you do a CFL. which in the end is beneficial. this is one of those age old arguments though... which is better CFL or HPS... but its all personal in my eyes.
 
Hermes

Hermes

Well-Known Member
OhioGrown said:
hps is better no matter how you look at it.
Click to expand...

this is a false statement...
in YOUR opinion nothing measures up to HPS, which is true.

in MANY OTHERS opinions CFLs are perfectly fine, and more feesable to their situations (say a 2'x2' plastic grow box that sits in the bottom of your closet)

im for HPS benefiting your grow, but in no way could i ever tell anyone what is better, because i can only see through my eyes not theres
 
S

shizzipoof

Active Member
Hermes said:
i think what your trying to ask is... to get the same amount of Watts out of CFLs is going to use the same amount of electricty and produce the same amount of heat as a HPS of the same wattage.

if that is the question, its something ive wondered previously and came up with the following conclusion...

if you had 600w of CFLs - you would probably be using similar electricty as a 600w HPS. the heat would be slightly less, however the amount of CFLs you would need to get to 600w would be a lot, and if you could cram em into a space the same size as a HPS would take up, they would probably produce similar heat.

my learnings have drawn the conclusion that you get more Lumens (light) per watt out of a HPS then you do a CFL. which in the end is beneficial. this is one of those age old arguments though... which is better CFL or HPS... but its all personal in my eyes.
Click to expand...
That was my question that i forgot to address LOL. Sorry for not explaining my self better. I'm just looking to save on my electric bill. In theory you'll still end up using about the same electricity and about the same heat dissipation. I'll most likely end up using most likely 150 - 250w HPS. The only difference that I found 100% is the price of both lights. Using a bunch of CFLs to equal about the same lumens as a HPS cost a tad cheaper. But, a few dollars isn't worth sulking about.

Thanks for all your inputs!

-PEACE
 
OhioGrown

OhioGrown

Well-Known Member
Hermes said:
this is a false statement...
in YOUR opinion nothing measures up to HPS, which is true.

in MANY OTHERS opinions CFLs are perfectly fine, and more feesable to their situations (say a 2'x2' plastic grow box that sits in the bottom of your closet)

im for HPS benefiting your grow, but in no way could i ever tell anyone what is better, because i can only see through my eyes not theres
Click to expand...

your crazy bro.
i never said cfls wolnt work fine.
all i said is that HPS is better than a cfl, and im right, if your looking for quality bud....an hps is going to give you waay better results than cfl lights would.

over all, a HPS is BETTER than cfl light bulbs.
the only thing cfl lights are really good for is for vegging.
 
videoman40

videoman40

Well-Known Member
An HID is actually more efficient then a fluroescent in Lux output.
The way to look at this is to compare the amount of (PAR) Photosynthetically Active Radiation you get from your CFL bulbs to the amount you get from your HPS bulbs.

The CFL is a bit more efficient at producing PAR light per lumen. However, the HPS is far more efficient at producing lumens.

A typical CFL puts out 60 lumens/watt. Because it’s about 10% more effective at producing PAR light than an HPS, we turn that into 66 lumens/watt when comparing to the 400 watt HPS.

A 400 watt HPS puts out 125 lumens/watt.
So, a CFL puts out 47% less PAR light per watt than the 400 watt HPS. By making the switch to CFL, you’ve become 47% less efficient at producing bud, and 47% less green to the planet.
Peace
 
S

shizzipoof

Active Member
videoman40 said:
An HID is actually more efficient then a fluroescent in Lux output.
The way to look at this is to compare the amount of (PAR) Photosynthetically Active Radiation you get from your CFL bulbs to the amount you get from your HPS bulbs.

The CFL is a bit more efficient at producing PAR light per lumen. However, the HPS is far more efficient at producing lumens.

A typical CFL puts out 60 lumens/watt. Because it’s about 10% more effective at producing PAR light than an HPS, we turn that into 66 lumens/watt when comparing to the 400 watt HPS.

A 400 watt HPS puts out 125 lumens/watt.
So, a CFL puts out 47% less PAR light per watt than the 400 watt HPS. By making the switch to CFL, you’ve become 47% less efficient at producing bud, and 47% less green to the planet.
Peace
Click to expand...
I appreciate the technically information! So, now I decided on using a HPS since it makes more sense.

-PEACE
 
D

DoobsDay

Well-Known Member
"The CFL is a bit more efficient at producing PAR light per lumen. However, the HPS is far more efficient at producing lumens."

typo here, you mean for vegging cfls have better par light lumen. hps tops all for flowering idc what cfls you are using
 
hearmenow

hearmenow

Well-Known Member
From all I've read, HPS is the way to go but like a previous poster said, for some of us, it's just not feasible to have one, for a variety of reasons. I like CFLs because they meet my space requirements and I can adjust them where I want to shine them on.
 
daydrops

daydrops

Well-Known Member
i have 150 watts of CFL on my 1 sq. ft. grow space. It produces 9100 lumens for that 1 sq. foot. (4 LST plants)

a 150 watt HPS would produce about 15,800 lumens (and with better canopy penatration.) ...a little overkill for my 1 sq. ft.

where are the extra energy going? CFL's actually produce more heat then HPS, watt for watt. but it's dispersed over more area.
 
entropic

entropic

Well-Known Member
600w of CFL will produce more heat than a 600w hps, the main distinction is that the heat from the CFLs is dissipated over a very large area whereas the hps puts it all out right in front of the bulb. Most CFLs operate at around or a bit above 100F, the arc-tube of an HPS operates at around 2000F you make up for this with greater distance or air cooling.

A 400w hps running 24 hours a day for a full month would cost you somewhere around $28 a month. A combination of CFLs and a small HPS would probably work well to keep the power bill low and increase plant light coverage.
 
midgradeindasouth

midgradeindasouth

Well-Known Member
I think Cfl's are great for the beginer.
For someone who wants to dabble or begin a hobby the cfl's work well.
I deffinatley agree that the hps would be better.
I think everyone has to start somewhere.
 
Roseman

Roseman

Elite Rolling Society
HID, HPS are better in the majority of situations for sure. But for a small STEALTH grower like me, useing the small end of a closet, wanting to NOT run up an electric bill, NOT create a lot of heat and to be able to easily move them around to "just the right spot" leads me to prefer CFLs. look at my pics in GROW ROOM, I POSTED SOME NEW ONES TODAY. i GOT ONE UP TO 4 FT, 4 INCHES TALL, ABOUT 4 WEEKS OF BLOOMING.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top