PL-L Help: Mother/Clone Chamber Wattage

[AsbestosToast]

Hey everybody,
I have seen a lot of people using PL-Ls in their mother chambers and micro grows, and I really like the small profile. I have six 36W PL-L bulbs, and I am wondering how much wattage you guys think I will need to sustain 1-4 mothers, and a handful of clones? I bought a Fullham ballast for the 6 bulbs, but now I am wondering if 3 for mothers and 3 for clones, 108w each is overkill, as I've read it isn't good to have TOO much light on clones. Or maybe 4 on the mothers and 2 on the clones?

Anybody out there with some help in this regard would be greatly appreciated.
Also the box is 14.25" x 18" x 24.5"
I am planning on just putting a shelf in to separate the space.

Anybody that doesn't know about that stuff but wants to share their mother/clone chamber pics, inspiration would be great too!

 

[SmilinBob]

depending on how big your mothers will be and how many clones (handful.. 5?) You vegging the clones there too? If so until how big?

3 for moms and 1 for clones, unless you want to use them all for some reason. If so, 4 and 2.

The spread and intensity of Pl-l type lamps are great.

 

[Tilt]

I have (4x24wpll) 96 watts over my 4 bonsai mothers 15 veggin clones & 12 spot jiffy cloner

 

[alexonfire]

Nice, I just picked up 6 x 36w pl-l's and a Fulham Workhorse 8 Ballast.
However I will not using them for mothers or clones so I cannot help unfortunately. But I would say 4 and 2, depends how hot it gets in there.

 

[AsbestosToast]

depending on how big your mothers will be and how many clones (handful.. 5?) You vegging the clones there too? If so until how big?

3 for moms and 1 for clones, unless you want to use them all for some reason. If so, 4 and 2.

The spread and intensity of Pl-l type lamps are great.

I am not sure exactly how many clones I will be needing, because I haven't started a perpetual system yet, I am just trying to plan in advance. I imagine I will be vegging for a couple weeks, again not 100% sure. I do want to use all 6 because I bought the Workhorse 8 and I believe it is designed to power 6 lamps.

It sounds like 4 and 2 will be the ticket, I am going to be exhausting with a 120mm pc fan, if temps get too hot I have a second 120 mil I can throw in. How hot do your guys' PL-Ls get?

Thanks for the responses.

 

[420ish]

they can run 6 bulbs but i never have.i think 3 woud be enough for moms and 1 for clones

 

[SmilinBob]

If your ballast is remote to the outside of the box they run pretty cool.

 

[AsbestosToast]

they can run 6 bulbs but i never have.i think 3 woud be enough for moms and 1 for clones

Does this mean that I can run less than 6 bulbs through the Workhorse 8? I was under the impression that they were designed to be powering a certain amount of bulbs. The ballast says 'Approved for lamp combinations of 220 max watts of circline, linear t5, etc. when used per fulham's wiring diagram.

Which is slightly confusing, because it says 220 max, but the wiring diagram is for 6 linear t5's on the website.

 

[SmilinBob]

You don't have to run all the lamps. Just as long as you don't use more than 220 watts or 1.8amps.

 

[AsbestosToast]

Thanks for the help everyone, I'm putting in some work on the box today so I'll put a link up when I get some pics up.

 

[alexonfire]

Do you have a picture of how you are wiring the 2g11 sockets to the ballast?