Feelings on CFLs?

[staff11]

i dont believe there cooler or if so its just about 5-10 percent tops, but they do work great just dont get your hopes up for a cool room with hundreds of watts of cfls, they pump plenty of heat.

Exactly, I used to run almost 400 watts of CFL's and they were obviously just as hot or even hotter then my 400 watt HPS. I have the HPS ballast in a different area and that cuts down the heat considerably.

I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes here and as I have said they do work.

HID just works better.

 

[justanotherbozo]

no offense man but you're wrong on a couple key issues.

first, CFL's do NOT have a better spectrum, it's only because
you have multiple bulbs you, as the grower, can create
whatever spectrum you want.

which makes you right, in a sense, but not really.

also, reflectors for CFL's have extremely limited value,
if any at all. CFL's loose useful intensity within about 6 - 8
inch's, so with a reflector, the light has to travel up to the
reflector and then back down again whereby it looses most,
if not all of it's useful intensity.

i grew with nothing but CFL's for nearly a year and never
used a reflector and my results where just fine.

in fact, when i was doing DWC i was pulling nearly a QP
from each of my 7 gallon bins with 8 clones flipped together
within 2 weeks of rooting under 8x 23watt twisty CFL's
and no reflector at all.

here's a pic of my little CFL closet where you can see the
lights i used and my DWC bins as well.



as a side note, when i first started using CFL's i hunted
everywhere for the highest wattage bulbs i could find locally.

over time i found that the smaller bulbs were better, certainly
cheaper as you can find the 23's and 26's in 3 and 4 packs
for under $10.00 and the 42's cost $10.00 each!

i also liked that, with smaller bulbs, i had more points of
light spread more evenly over my canopy.
(which also spread the HEAT more evenly making it easier
to deal with)

cfl's have a better spectrum than hps....fact. for a small time grower with skill, they make more sense than hid. 200 watts or less.
a pll with good reflector can do as good as a smaller hid. light penetration is about 10 inches, which is adequate.
a lot of the low yields and lousy results with cfl is due to them not having a good reflector on light and putting the lights too far from plant. the cfl needs to be sideways to the plant as well.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

The sun is better than HID's and CFL's.

 

[justanotherbozo]

The sun is better than HID's and CFL's.

how does that help the discussion?

 

[funkymonkey]

CFLs are okay, but add too much heat in micro spaces and they are a lot less efficient than a T5 of PL-L tube. I much prefer to place my T5 ballasts outside the bod and just have the tubes inside, this keeps temps down. Also, spiral CFLs should be avoided as they are much less efficient due to uneven phosphor coating and the thicker glass.

 

[justanotherbozo]

did you read the rest of this thread?

CFLs are okay, but add too much heat in micro spaces and they are a lot less efficient than a T5 of PL-L tube. I much prefer to place my T5 ballasts outside the bod and just have the tubes inside, this keeps temps down. Also, spiral CFLs should be avoided as they are much less efficient due to uneven phosphor coating and the thicker glass.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

I was just pointing out facts... that's what we're all here for

 

[funkymonkey]

did you read the rest of this thread?

What's your point?

 

[Too old to care]

Even though I'm only on my first grow, I like the versatility of the CFLs. I vegged 4 plants from bagseed under 2 fixtures with 3 23 watters for 30 days. Transplanted into 5 gal buckets and added 5 more 23 watters on cords between the plants just below the canopy. I flipped them 2 days ago and they seem to be lovin life.

 

[IwannatokeNbone]

no offense man but you're wrong on a couple key issues.

first, CFL's do NOT have a better spectrum, it's only because
you have multiple bulbs you, as the grower, can create
whatever spectrum you want.

which makes you right, in a sense, but not really.

also, reflectors for CFL's have extremely limited value,
if any at all. CFL's loose useful intensity within about 6 - 8
inch's, so with a reflector, the light has to travel up to the
reflector and then back down again whereby it looses most,
if not all of it's useful intensity.

i grew with nothing but CFL's for nearly a year and never
used a reflector and my results where just fine.

in fact, when i was doing DWC i was pulling nearly a QP
from each of my 7 gallon bins with 8 clones flipped together
within 2 weeks of rooting under 8x 23watt twisty CFL's
and no reflector at all.

here's a pic of my little CFL closet where you can see the
lights i used and my DWC bins as well.



as a side note, when i first started using CFL's i hunted
everywhere for the highest wattage bulbs i could find locally.

over time i found that the smaller bulbs were better, certainly
cheaper as you can find the 23's and 26's in 3 and 4 packs
for under $10.00 and the 42's cost $10.00 each!

i also liked that, with smaller bulbs, i had more points of
light spread more evenly over my canopy.
(which also spread the HEAT more evenly making it easier
to deal with)

without reflectors u loose alot of light on the already moronish design of cfls to begin with, but nice grow, its all good and your yield was great.