I created a new thread to discuss this as I was not going to post in the previous thread with over 400 posts.
CFL's are wonderful for a last resort grow. Mixing the color temps and moving light around is eaiser. Other than that there is no advantage of CFL's over HID. None,zero,kaput.
First off yes one say 26w CFL is not very hot running.Still hot enough though that handling the bulb is a little hot on the hands but in no way close to a HID bulb.However.Thats just one bulb. Lastfrontier in his post claims to use over 12 bulbs. The heat generated from 12 bulbs+ballasts is greater than one 250w HID. Your radiating heat from 12+ locations not just one.Think of a house or camp. A 40,000btu woodstove can heat the place but takes a long time to warm up. It's working very hard to supply heat to the whole building from one spot.Now the same house you take out the one 40,000btu woodstove and install 2 20,000btu woodstoves. Your generating the same amount of heat from 2 locations. The home warms faster and uses less wood to sustain the temp.
With CFL's all your doing is spreading the heat out.
Next point deciding to use cfl's over HID for electric bill reasons is also a silly thought.400w of cfl or 400w hid it is still 400w.Unless your adding the equivelent wattage output of the cfl.Then your short changing yourself. As equivelent is a bunch of BS.A 100w incandescent bulb brightens twice the area a 26w 100w equivelent cfl does.
All in all can good grows be achieved with cfl's? Absolutely. Is it recomended? Not in my opinion unless it is a last resort. Hell good results can be achieved under just about any light. Even incandescent though it is not recomended.
I recently began using cfl's for starting seeds and very early veg.Once 12 days old I move under my HID. CFL's are very gentle to young potential ladies and also seem to encourage stronger root growth.
Lastfrontiers post is full of holes and a lot of BS. First he claims to be pulling 80k lumes out of 12-14 CFL's. WRONG! My 400hps only generates 42,000.
A single 26w brite effects cool white bulb generates 1700 lumes. Multiply 1700 by 14 bulbs does not equal 80,000 lumes. It equals 23,800 lumes. He would have to be pulling 5714 lumes per bulb to get 80,000 lumes out of 14 bulbs.Or he would need to be using 47 bulbs.
Ofcourse he does not give wattage exacts he uses. So I am guessing and going with the most common CFL wattage size people use.
CFL's are great seed starters and early veg. they should only be chosen to full grow in a last resort.
Also lastfrontier it does not cost $150-$200 to replace a HID ballast. You can buy a 400w ballast kit for under $70(probably close to the money spent on all those cfl's)
If your only growing a plant or 2 at a time sure by all means CFL's are fine.Anymore than 4 plants and your wasting time,money, and electricity.
CFL's are wonderful for a last resort grow. Mixing the color temps and moving light around is eaiser. Other than that there is no advantage of CFL's over HID. None,zero,kaput.
First off yes one say 26w CFL is not very hot running.Still hot enough though that handling the bulb is a little hot on the hands but in no way close to a HID bulb.However.Thats just one bulb. Lastfrontier in his post claims to use over 12 bulbs. The heat generated from 12 bulbs+ballasts is greater than one 250w HID. Your radiating heat from 12+ locations not just one.Think of a house or camp. A 40,000btu woodstove can heat the place but takes a long time to warm up. It's working very hard to supply heat to the whole building from one spot.Now the same house you take out the one 40,000btu woodstove and install 2 20,000btu woodstoves. Your generating the same amount of heat from 2 locations. The home warms faster and uses less wood to sustain the temp.
With CFL's all your doing is spreading the heat out.
Next point deciding to use cfl's over HID for electric bill reasons is also a silly thought.400w of cfl or 400w hid it is still 400w.Unless your adding the equivelent wattage output of the cfl.Then your short changing yourself. As equivelent is a bunch of BS.A 100w incandescent bulb brightens twice the area a 26w 100w equivelent cfl does.
All in all can good grows be achieved with cfl's? Absolutely. Is it recomended? Not in my opinion unless it is a last resort. Hell good results can be achieved under just about any light. Even incandescent though it is not recomended.
I recently began using cfl's for starting seeds and very early veg.Once 12 days old I move under my HID. CFL's are very gentle to young potential ladies and also seem to encourage stronger root growth.
Lastfrontiers post is full of holes and a lot of BS. First he claims to be pulling 80k lumes out of 12-14 CFL's. WRONG! My 400hps only generates 42,000.
A single 26w brite effects cool white bulb generates 1700 lumes. Multiply 1700 by 14 bulbs does not equal 80,000 lumes. It equals 23,800 lumes. He would have to be pulling 5714 lumes per bulb to get 80,000 lumes out of 14 bulbs.Or he would need to be using 47 bulbs.
Ofcourse he does not give wattage exacts he uses. So I am guessing and going with the most common CFL wattage size people use.
CFL's are great seed starters and early veg. they should only be chosen to full grow in a last resort.
Also lastfrontier it does not cost $150-$200 to replace a HID ballast. You can buy a 400w ballast kit for under $70(probably close to the money spent on all those cfl's)
If your only growing a plant or 2 at a time sure by all means CFL's are fine.Anymore than 4 plants and your wasting time,money, and electricity.